EKR – We had some adventures together

This February is the thirty-fourth anniversary of a pretty memorable day. In 1984 I was the Managing Director of the animal by-products trading company, Colyer Watsons. We traded in sheep skins, cattle hides, tallow, meat and bone meal and casings. The company had offices and factories in nine New Zealand towns and sales offices in Australia and Japan.

To get around our New Zealand locations I flew myself in a Piper Arrow, EKR. It was a lovely little airplane, fully IFR, fast and easy to fly. It could also land in minor airports such as Taumaranui, Stratford, Bridge Pa and Levin. In five years we flew a little over 500 hours together.

On 3 February I spent the morning in our Auckland office and was due to fly back to Wellington in order to attend a meeting with the management of the Stratford tannery. It was a lovely day. I filed a visual flight rules flight plan, completed the pre-flight inspection and called Auckland tower for permission to taxi. I was soon lined up on runway 23 and received clearance to take-off.

Flying has many enjoyable moments but the one that thrills me most is the instant that the airplane leaves the ground. Done well and the airplane seems to want to fly itself. Very little control input is required as the airplane searches for the freedom to fly. As I climbed up over Manukau Harbour and turned south I called Auckland air traffic control and requested clearance to climb to 9000 feet. I was aware there was a lot of low cloud in the centre of the North Island. At 9000 feet I would be above the cloud which seemed a much better option than dodging around below the cloud.

Auckland control approved my plan and soon I was comfortably settled in at 9000 feet, with the auto-pilot set to take me to the Ohura Beacon outside of Wanganui. It is a wonderful feeling, cruising along at a comfortable 140 knots, sitting above the clouds, clear blue sky all around; just you alone with your lovely little airplane.

An hour or so latter I crossed the Ohura Beacon and called Ohakea air traffic control to tell them where I was and when I expected to be in Wellington. That done I relaxed before planning my descent towards Wellington Airport.

But then I noticed something strange. The front window was all murky like we were flying through cloud and yet the side windows were nothing but clear blue sky. I checked the instruments. They were all fine. Why then was the windscreen clouding over?

I peered through the gloom and finally saw the problem. Oozing out of the constant speed unit that drives the propeller was a thick stream of oil. I looked back at the oil pressure gauge and sure enough, as I watched, the pressure steadily fell to zero. I pulled the power back in the hope of saving the engine and began a descent towards Wanganui Airport. I called Ohakea to explain the problem and my change of plan. I avoided using the emergency call, “Mayday, mayday, mayday.” That would only serve to scare me. Besides which the Scottish accent at Ohakea Control seemed to be well aware that things were not going to plan.

I must have been descending toward the top of the clouds for only a minute or so before there was a loud bang and then silence; no engine, no comfortably turning propeller; EKR had become a glider. The real problem was I was still above the cloud and had no idea where the bottom of the cloud would end and the top of the hills would begin. Not much point in worrying about that. There was no option but to glide down through the clouds and hope I would still have enough height to find somewhere to land.

That part of the country, north of Wanganui, is called the Paraparas and is notoriously hilly. Even if I had plenty of height, finding a field big enough to land was going to take a lot of luck. The glide through the cloud took forever but finally we were in the clear with 3000 feet to find a place to put this thing down.

I turned the airplane gently to better inspect the ground. And there right below me was a flat field that looked big enough to get a Piper Arrow into. I told the Scottish accent that I had found a field and was going to attempt to land. The voice replied, “Roger echo kilo romeo, please call finals.” Please call finals, I thought! I’m landing in a field with no engine, not Auckland International Airport. It was only later that I appreciated the “normal” procedures he was insisting were followed.

As the field got closer I came in higher than a normal landing. The last thing I wanted was to hit the trees, the power lines or the fence around my paddock. I selected the landing gear down and was relieved to see three green lights. At least we had wheels. Everything looked good. Just stay alive, I thought; just stay alive. Speed was good at 65 knots, height was good, this might just work. “Echo kilo romeo, on finals,” I told the Scottish accent.

“Roger echo kilo romeo,” came the reply, “Good luck.” Ah, there was a heart there after all.

A minute later we were safely down. It was actually one of my better landings. Mind you I was trying pretty hard at that moment. The field was planted in ripe barley that helped stop the airplane without needing to use the brakes.

It is almost impossible to describe the feeling of peace in those first few moments sitting in the barley field. “Made it” doesn’t really get close to describing the feeling of quiet, personal, relief. All those hours of forced landing practice had worked. The satisfaction was huge.

Some of the barley that got into my shoes as I walked away from the airplane.

 Three hours later the owner of the barley field had driven me to Wanganui Airport and Associated Aviation had picked me up and flown me to Wellington. I arrived in my office fifteen minutes late for the Stratford meeting. One of my colleagues said, “What’s your excuse for being late, David?”

With some justification I said, “Arthur, if I told you, you’d never believe me.”

Oh, and after the barley was cut, the Piper Arrow was fitted with a new engine and was flown out of the paddock. Evidently an oil pipe, that takes oil from the engine to the propeller constant speed unit, had fractured. A month later echo kilo romeo and I were again wandering around New Zealand. Happy anniversary.