In the poo at Lake Eyre
 

Seven News had a piece about a bloke who got caught short in a big way near Lake Eyre, landed on the salt and promptly got bogged. (No pun intended) Not clear whether he didn't have an epirb, but he walked out overnight and was found the next day, seriously dehydrated. Couple of lessons to be learnt there methinks.

Just saw a photo on FB of aircraft - have no way of uploading it though. It's RAA sports aircraft. Pilot is at YWMC.

DF.

P.S. Someone is now saying it's a 4 seat diamond DA40 GA aircraft.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watc...r-crash/#page1

Here is the news report, looks like a Diamond from the video.

From what I can tell it's definitely a DA40. I downloaded the photo & enlarged it but I can only make out the VH & not the rest.

DF.

DA40. apparently pilot felt sick, had to land immediately, then walked 70Km. over 18 hrs.. hmmm

Unbelievable - yet another idiot that reckons lack of mobile phone coverage didn't help him in his situation. WTF does he expect? It's the middle of the b****y outback ffs! Take a satphone & an epirb with you next time you clown! :ugh:

DF.

And 100 litres of water. What an idiot.

Where is the Comm antenna located on the Diamond?

If it wasn't sheared off in the mud, I would think he could have haled another aircraft, possibly an airliner, on guard frequency.

Or do I underestimate the remoteness of the Outback.

Knowing the area there should have been scenic aircraft about, depending on the time of day. And if not, there's usually some big stuff around somewhere. Did he even think to let someone know where he was going & when to expect him back? Would seem not.

DF.

apparently departed William creek at 5 pm.

Most composite aircraft have the antenna glued into the structure. It is just a thin strip of metal that you cut, adjustment using a vswr meter. If it does have a traditional antenna comms then its normally on top.

As for ELT he could have removed it and set off manually . Either he doesn't know how it works or intentionally didn't activate it.

That was going to be my next question.

I wouldn't rely on one of these, I borrowed one for a couple of holidays in remote locations (Scotland, Bahamas) and struggled to make it work at all usefully.

Both are whip antennae mounted on the fuselage just aft of the cabin. Com 1 is dorsal and com 2 ventral. And all DA40s I've seen have integral ELTs too.

"apparently departed William creek at 5 pm."


The logical thing for this guy to have done is simply this: Refuel his aircraft at the self serve YCBP bowser and then land at YWMC for the night. (Trevor has some great new self contained, very comfortable single dongas for only $120 per night.)


Next morning, he could have had a picturesque flight over Lake Eyre.


I've visited William Creek on only six occasions. (The latest at the end of January, this year.) But the place is rather attractive due to the lack of mobile phone access...


A 406 MHz PLB is very cheap to buy and may save your life. Don't forget to register it with AMSA.

A survival kit, including water and energy bars, might not have been a bad idea either.

At least that way, he could have remained with his downed aircraft until help arrived.

I might have missed something but, apart from any other considerations, I'm still wondering why he had to put it down just there and then.

I mean, aside from an in-flight fire, something like the imminent risk of soiling one's own pants is not a good enough reason to proceed to put yourself in deeper sh1t.

Like others, I suspect there's a bit more to this "saga" than's being told, right now.
The whole thing just doesn't add up. I smell a rat.
.

Each of us handle situations differently. He believed he was gravely ill.

We're talking about a high paid professional here, a man with likely multilple degrees and specialist training. Perhaps his only "let down" in terms of pilots is that he is a kidney specialist trained as a pilot, not a trailed pilot trained to be a doctor.

Under the assumption he flies for work, I would personally be admiring him for operating an aircraft and servicing patients in outback locations rather than a big city CBD.

A motive to do this on purpose? Seriously doubt it without a shred of evidence.

All the more reason to have an epirb.

Some satphones are better than others. The Iridium ones are the best, satellite voice, data and GPS enabled. Also tracking capable.

DF.