Some pilots are cool dudes - fazed by nothing

I'm amazed by this one - circa 1987/88

"TC" he said on the phone; "The engine started running rough, probably due to a fouled spark plug, so I found a clearing, hovered above it at tree top level and shut the throttle to autorotate into it. Can you send up a maintenance engineer to have a look at the skid gear as it looks like its got a bend in it."

Wow - what a cool dude!

No mention of what the engineer eventually found - the passenger with a compressed spine because the landing was so hard that he went down vertically through the seat and hit the underbelly skin.

No mention of the engine resting on the ground because of the completely collapsed skid gear rear cross tube.

No mention of the big crack between the seats and instrument panel where the machine had split in half.

No mention of the buckled airframe on the left hand side above the orange stripe.

No mention of the bubble popping out.

No mention of the big gap in front of the main transmission fairing where it had been buckled out of shape by impacting on the cabin roof/firewall.

I still shake my head in wonder when I recall this one - wondering how he missed telling me about all the extra broken bits when he phoned in.

True Story

TC (Tony Carmody)