For the pilots on here, 1) how many times have you had to declare a pan or a mayday 2) how long have you been flying, 3) if you did, what was the reason for it?

Turned everything off, descended through the clouds on the handheld GPS and the vacuum instruments, turned the battery on every now and then to talk to ATC. Landed uneventfully.

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Le_Mooron@reddit

38 years. Nearly pulled the ejection handle once tho. No time for pan/mayday.

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Tl:Dr version. Rescue mission for a jet with Air Data Computer issues. Replaced ADC but knew I couldn't abort past about 80 kts for runway length and no wires. Severe compressor stalls at 100 kts. Rotated at the end of runway but couldn't get out of ground effect in full afterburner. Told mechanic in backseat to prepare to eject...stood up the throttles and reached for the ejection handle. Standing up the throttles somehow calmed the compressor stall. Flew home. A miracle.

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Hairy-Ad-4018@reddit

A tad hairy. Did the mechanic fly agdin ?

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Le_Mooron@reddit

He left for Pcola the next week for a tour with the Blues. Great kid. Smart and hardworking. I'm sure he did well.

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Coopics@reddit

Been flying for 5 years, had a few close calls flying a King Air in the Arctic, FCU surging power on the right engine on short final, landed very quickly and firmly before shutting the engine off and taxiing back single engine. Only “real” emergencies I’ve had to deal with was a stuck mic and a com 1 and 2 power failure, both flying VFR while in the time building phase. Called the ATC tower on my cell phone to establish communication, worked like a charm.

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FHI29@reddit

Four times in 39 years. One engine failure, one with multiple bird strikes, one with smoke in the cabin and flap failure. None were Maydays.

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spacecadet2399@reddit

At the airline level, twice in two years.

Prior to that flying GA, about once every couple years.

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the1stAviator@reddit

57 years and never.

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TrainingReward4308@reddit

One time, major electrical failure of primary and redundant system, did an air return to LAX. Landed safely and had to be towed off the runway. Been flying commercially for 14 years. I’ve also had a smoke in the cockpit event, but that was in a small turboprop with no people on board.

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flyingforfun3@reddit

Twice, 15 years, First was smoke in the cockpit on climb out while on a training flight with a student.

Second, was a battery overheat on a CJ. 50 minutes into the flight. Ding battery overheat. Temp was no joke 75*C. Thankfully landed very expeditiously with out a battery on fire.

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chuckop@reddit

Twice within a couple of years.

First was loss of electrical power during a night flight over the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest.

The other was a partial power failure departing Paine Field in Everett, Washington; also at night.

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sardoodledom_autism@reddit

My dad was a pilot for 24 years military and commercial

1 emergency due to an engine fire and vowed to never do it again due to the amount of paperwork required

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N878AC@reddit

0, 19 years, and no reason because I’ve never needed to call an Emergency.

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blurrfish78@reddit

Once, a pan call. 17 years since my first solo. Slats Drive EICAS message, flying into an airport where English wasn't the first language - it was easier to call a pan and do what we needed instead of trying to explain it to them in plain English. We basically needed to land about 30kts faster than what we would consider normal.

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babyp6969@reddit

10 years of mil (~2k hrs), probably 15 emergencies (we wouldn’t say mayday unless we were ocf or similar). Hydraulic issues, engine failures, and some precautionary stuff (bad indications)

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lurking-constantly@reddit

Twice, 6 years, electrical fire leading to electrical failure in VMC and a partial electrical failure in a glass cockpit in IMC.

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creativeNZ@reddit (OP)

That sounds bad, was everyone okay, how was the landing?

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lurking-constantly@reddit

First one was amusingly on a training flight where I was supposed to be teaching simulated emergencies. Took a few seconds to convince my student that I wasn’t joking about the smoke in the cockpit. It stopped once we turned all power off. We turned on one radio to declare and get cleared through the Miramar bravo. On landing we found the alternator switch had caught fire and melted. Lesson learned here was to study how electrical systems in older airplanes with lots of avionics work are set up, since they can have surprises and gremlins from all the different hands and equipment over the decades.

Second was my first ever solo flight in IMC after getting instrument rated. I was in a G1000 and had a partial electrical failure that took out everything on avionics bus 2, which meant losing the autopilot, MFD, and COM/Nav/GPS2. I still had a working PFD and primary flight instruments, so it wasn’t too much of a problem to continue climbing until I broke out a few thousand feet later. Declared so I could get priority and out of IMC and then get better service on the approach and avoid any surprises. Big lesson learned here was to use Com1/Nav1 for flight critical stuff since it has more electrical redundancy in the G1000 than Com2.

Both times everyone was ok, no bent metal.

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creativeNZ@reddit (OP)

I'd also like to hear from people who have never had to declare an emergency, I asked this because I was talking to 4 pilots recently (2 captains and 2 FOs) They all said they never had to declare an emergency! That made me feel safer knowing that it is rare!

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urykk@reddit

Every nine months. 16 years. Instructor is a dick.

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BPnon-duck@reddit

This is the answer