CAA vs FAA Mayday

Those three words, the prefix to an emergency radio call, are often practised both in the USA and the UK. Despite the fact that the ICAO language is English this is based on a French phrase (“Me” “aidez” – contracted to M’aidez – help me) and even though Britain and the USA share a common language root, and both are signatories to the ICAO, they have differences in the standards used for their Mayday calls. These are sufficiently different that you could easily fail an FAA flight test by following the UK standard phraseology!

I was taught to remember the Mayday call with the acronym “RIP Louis Hoy”. I’m not sure who Louis Hoy was (I think he was the son of the narrator of the audio tape (yes tape) that I listened to on the way to the airfield during my training).

R – Reason
I – Intention
P – Position
L – Level
H – Heading

Naturally you prefix all this with the the station being called, your call sign and Mayday Mayday Mayday. An optional item is the level of experience of the pilot. I was always told to use tyro, which means in-experienced, which I certainly was at the time. So a typical UK mayday call could go something like:

“Mayday mayday mayday. Farnborough radar, golf golf hotel echo lima, Cessna 172, engine rough running. Intend forced landing, four miles south of Woodley, 2,300 feet descending, heading 160 degrees. Two POB. Tyro”.

Other optional items include endurance. In the USA the mandatory include weather and fuel remaining in minutes! A typical FAA mayday call would therefore be:

“Mayday mayday mayday. Kissimee tower, Cessna six eight zero zero, 172. Engine rough running, 10km visibility. Intend forced landing, four miles south of Epcot, 2,300 feet descending, 180 minutes fuel remaining, heading 160 degrees, 2 POB.”

Optional items include: ELT status (sqwawking; off; damaged, Visible landmarks (e.g Micky Mouse’s ears), aircraft colour (or color) and emergency equipment on board.

You see the similarities but as usual there are those nagging differences as well. So remember to keep track of the minutes of fuel in the USA and the colour of your aircraft. In the UK remember what tyro means and above all that in a real emergency you only need “mayday, mayday, mayday” and everybody will jump to help you!