On 19 Jun., 10:33, Ian wrote:
On 12 Jun, 15:56, 5Z wrote:

Pilot is soaring over remote Utah with some reasonably safe looking
dry lakes, pastures, whatever below. *Runs out of lift and decides
it's time to start the engine while within easy range of one of these
landing options. *The engine fails to start, the location is extremely
remote, so pilot makes a MAYDAY call while still in the landing
pattern to ensure someone will come get him if problems arise.

That would be a gross misuse - an abuse - of the MAYDAY call. You are
NOT supposed to use it on the off chance that something might go wrong
later.

Ian

On the discussion Pan-Pan vs. Mayday:
As I learned it (and is content of German PPL exams), Mayday means
declaring an emergency for your OWN plane, whereas Pan-Pan means you
noticed an emergency on someone else.

An engine failure on your plane would in this sense be a Mayday, an
observed car crash or a broken glider on the ground would be a Pan-
Pan.

Somehow I get confused because Wikipedia states it different:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-pan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday_(distress_signal)
They refer to the lower/higher order of the emergency situation.
Can anyone clarify that?