Agreed, more info is better, if the pilot isn't fully under the control of their limbic system at that point. But even just "I have a vacuum failure and I'm declaring an emergency" makes it clear to the controller that the pilot needs priority handling.
BTDT and wouldn't fly it again without a mechanic confirming what what wrong.
Had that happen to a client. Not much of a run around though. We satisfied them pretty quickly.
Speaking from experience, i'd say i'd lost a few IQ points, too. Once i pushed the mixture to full, and the problem repeated itself. What i didn't think about was to pull the carb heat. It didn't seem logical that i'd have icing since i'd not lowered my RPMS to descend from 5500 to 4000.
When i asked the AP how to check if the vent was working, he suggested i take off the fuel cap on the left wing, and the blow into the vent tube under the left wing. I did and air flowed freely.
Just out of curiosity, what do you think the down side is of declaring in a situation like that? You can always end an emergency in the air if the problem goes away (I think there's even official international terminology for that, "mayday fini," though I'm sure something like "situation resolved; end emergency" would be perfectly adequate and maybe less confusing to North American controllers).
Maybe call that a lesson rather than a criticism. It's hard to think clearly when you're under stress, so you get tunnel vision on the problem and revert to the minimum baseline of your training for everything else.
Whether or not something is an emergency isn't absolute — it depends on your experience and qualifications.
Thats a great story. Thanks for sharing. I got my PPL at KCCR through PSA in the late 60s.
From all the reading i've done since coming back to flying six years ago (I took 40 years off for life.), i learned that it's always best to declare if you need it and that there's rarely paperwork afterwards. That i had ATC's attention and help, even if briefly, was reassuring.
I can't dispute this. Only afterwards did i notice that in ForeFlight's checklist section are several nifty Emergency checklists for occasions like mine. Yes, i could have been better prepared in my plane's emergency procedures.
But "sounds like" is a dangerous attitude when things start to go wrong. If the problem does not resolve itself in the first 10-30 seconds of running an emergency flow, you have a real emergency, regardless of if you can eventually figure it out or not.Sounds like run-of-the-mill roughness from forgetting to richen things in the descent to me. Have done that a couple of times, just corrected the mixture and continued with the flight. Never thought to declare an emergency
In my experience, "mountain of paperwork" is a myth worthy of dying one day. I've declared emergency way more than 50 times in 22 years of flying fighters in the military and almost never (one instance) had to do more than tell my side of the story over a phone call. I will NEVER delay saying the E word just because I think it might cause some paperwork. And whenever I did say the E word, I got nothing but the best help from ATC.You did a fine job!
Now, later in the week don't forget to tell us about the infamous "mountain of paperwork" you faced as a result
Your experience is the same as others who have declared emergencies. Too bad myths don't die easily.