So what did you do on Saturday?  I like all of you cannot remember how many times I’ve have heard that question in my life. Well on 05 March 2005 I indeed had a very interesting Saturday.

 For those of you who do not know me, I own and operate a flying school Air Australia International P/L) at Jandakot Airport, Western Australia (Perth’s GA airport). I normally take Saturdays off but this particular Saturday I went in to fly a test flight on our aerobatic Robin 2160.  My wife said as I was going out the door, “Let someone else do the flight and stay home.”  Well faced with mowing the lawn and a multitude of “honey dos…” the decision was made to do the test flight of course. Plus as an old squadron skipper once beat into me, “Don’t ask your people to do flights you don’t want to do.”  Besides it gave me an excuse to go flying and that is fun in my books.

Preparation was a bit more detailed since a new engine had just been installed and the wings and tail had been removed for a periodic inspection. But after crawling over and under the little Robin, checking everything twice I jumped in started the engine and headed off for 2+30 hours of no telephones, no stress and no worries – right? Not so fast Chuck!

The day was perfect, high clouds, cool, unlimited visibility. Everything was to plan. The controls were spot on, the engine did not miss a beat.  A perfect flight except  I was starting to regret that last cup of very bad coffee I had just before the flight. Passing a neighboring airfield I did considered landing.  Nahh!, only 30 or so minutes to go. Descended to 1500 feet headed through the Shipyard (an initial entry point), “Jandakot Tower OXY Shipyards with ATIS 1500” ( I’m thinking this has been a Great Flight, I might even take the wife out to lunch.”).  All landing checks done. Started checking for  traffic in the pattern. One spotted but will be no problem. Adventure World (the last entry point before entering the pattern)  “Jandakot Tower OXY Adventure World.” (  Should I request a request Low Fly Past to get the Tower boys excited? Nahh! That last cup of coffee …).  “OXY, enter downwind 06 behind the Cessna turning final.”

“OXY”.  (Hey, what are those poor people on the ground doing right now.”)         

Started descent from 1500 feet to the 1000 foot  everything checks good. (Wait a minute why is the prop slowing down? Fuel gauge says there is fuel. Electric fuel pump is on, RPM is at the bottem of the Green Arc. Got problems!) Tower, OXY has problems, am proceeding direct to the field. I’ll  take any runway I can make. (Set Glide Speed. Might not make the field, how far is the freeway? F…! High Tension Powerlines! Full Power! Nothing! Pull up! Don’t Stall! Clear! Where now! Nothing but houses! Pick a street with no one on it! Got it!)

MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!  (Stay lined up on the street, I’ll be fast, need to get rid of some speed! Stall warning starting to sound. Will land hard and will have to stand on the brakes! Street still clear! So much for lunch.  What  the f…! I’m somersaulting and upside down! IMPACT!!! Damn that was hard!  Release harness, catch yourself so you don’t land on your head. Wish I’d have listened to the wife. Going left, blocked! Who is that guy outside the aircraft  yelling? Going right, Going through the canopy plastic! Clear! Why is that guy telling me to sit down? Blood, damn! Poor ol’ OXY is really busted up. Think I’ll sit down now.)

Well folks, my Saturday was quite a day. The poor folks on the ground I wondered about only a few minutes ago were busting their tails to take care of me. Great Aussie Battlers! And now they are securing the aircraft, calling the Ambulance, Police and Fire Department.  These folks let me use their phones to call my company to start the processes with ATSB, aircraft recover.

At the writing of this ATSB, CASA and the Insurance investigations are winding up. The cause of the engine stopping is still to be determined.

Lessons learned:

1. Listen to your wife.

2. You will never believe it can happen to you and when it does you will not be ready. But when” the stuff does hit the fan”, don’t panic. Just get down to it and rely on your training.

3. Be ready to change your plan, BUT,  always FLY THE AIRCRAFT!

4. Time will pass very fast!

5. Don’t worry about what will happen after the flight.

So now when someone asks me what I did on Saturday, I now can offer the following remarks:

1. I did my 501^st arrested landing. Unfortunately there was no aircraft carrier.

2. I did a  wheels up landing in a fixed gear aircraft. Luckily I’m “hard headed”.

3. Any landing you can walk away from is a “good landing”.

4. I made my aircraft an unreuseable container.