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. Probably the result of
delayed shock.
True Story
TC (Tony
C