Aircraft Type - Swearingen Metro Location - Wellington, NZ. MAYDAY!... MAYDAY!... MAYDAY!... WELLINGTON CONTROL, METROLINER LIFEFLIGHT ZERO TWO, RIGHT ENGINE FIRE INDICATION, REQUEST PRIORITY DESCENT TO WELLINGTON..." Our flight originated from Auckland International on a medical mission to Wellington to collect a patient experiencing difficulties during pregnancy, from memory. The callout was generated on a Saturday evening just after ... Read More

The Karamea Valley. Aircraft Type - Cessna 206 Location - Karamea, NZ One cool morning following an overnight in Karamea (on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island) I obtained a weather forecast and found it was good for our flight with a warm front expected to hit the West Coast after 5pm local time. It was ... Read More

Back in Kalgoorlie. Aircraft Type – Cessna 210 Location – Kalgoorlie, Western Australia Kalgoorlie – even the name sounds dry and dusty. Situated smack-bang in the heart of the West Australian goldfields, Kal (as the locals call it) is a rough and ready gold town. It’s got the reputation of being the richest square mile of dirt on ... Read More

Aircraft Type - R22 Location - Qld, Australia Maybe I should retitle this story HARD LESSONS in wind shear! As a pilot I was well aware of the dangers of windshear, however being a rotary-wing pilot with a small amount of fixed wing time my experiences had taught me that windshear was much less of an issue ... Read More