Oh well, I've crashed let's sell the engine in the pub!
Some rather quaint reporting of an Australian crash gleaned from a NZ newspaper archive - with no mention of the aircraft type . . . any ideas what the 'Old pioneer' was
LAST YEAR'S CRASH.
LANDING !N THE BUSH.
ILL-LUCK OF ANDERSON.
Among the notable disasters which befell Lieutenant Anderson was that of September last, when, with Mr. Hitchcock, ho set out from Sydney in an endeavour to fly to London in 14 days. The attempt ended suddenly near Pine Creek, when the machine crashed. Mr. Anderson was endeavouring to make the last 200 miles to Darwin, when, about 30 miles from Katherine North, the radiator suddenly boiled and it was a case of landing almost immediately or getting a seized engine. The crash was well described as follows in his own message at tho time:—"l decided to try lo save the engine, as we were in for a crash in any case and where we were at that moment was about the most inviting place to crash, from the point of view of avoiding personal injury. I therefore 'pancaked* tho Old Pioneer—the engine was named the Old Pioneer—into some trees just short of a little cleared ground about 50 yards long. In 'pancaking' the wings hit the trees and broke our speed a bit. We then fell pretty heavily to the ground and, through striking another tree, were swung round until we faced the opposite direction from our approach." Hitchcock received a deep cut on his bottom lip and a strained right shoulder, but Anderson was unhurt. The machine was very badly damaged, but the engine appeared not to have suffered. He sold the engine to a publican at Katherine and then returned to Sydney.