long story short..
departed under IFR flight plan, climbed to 1000, made initial callup to ATC.. after initial contact, engine sputters and sounds like it is ready to quit on me... i start to inform ATC of problem since i am deviating from my clearance and try to make it back to airport... person #2 in the A/C switches freq in middle of radio call siting that the FAA and NTSB will be waiting on our arrival and that wouldnt be good... on arrival, i switched back to the clearance del. freq and told them we were on the ground and that we were ok.. at that point i got berated by ATC because they had us at 1000 feet heading 320 and next second we were heading 180 at 400' with no radio comms... understandign that that was wrong, but im still confused at why i shouldnt say anything
my question is this.. how is it bad to notify ATC of the problem since we have engine issues and need to land?? who cares that the field was 2 miles away and we were at 1000' and will make the airport.. in the event something DID go wrong, it would have been nice to tell someone.. i much rather the FAA be at the airport and see me land and taxi on whatever power i had left than to say nothing and be in the trees.
any thoughts?