Circumstances:

The pilot reported that just prior to touchdown he experienced a huge crosswind gust that blew him to the side of the strip. He attempted to regain directional control with rudder as the aircraft was then on the ground, but he could not prevent the aircraft running into a sand windrow at the edge of the strip. On striking the windrow and then bushes, the left main gear leg was torn off followed by the other gear legs. The engine was also reportedly detached from the nose of the aircraft.

During a practice circuit, the pilot noticed an intermittent vibration through the aircraft. He elected to discontinue the exercise and carried out a normal landing. As the mixture control was placed in the idle/cut-off position, one of the main rotor blades struck the tail boom. The vibration noticed by the pilot probably resulted from spark plug fouling. Strong, gusty wind conditions prevalent at the time of the accident, were ideal for exaggerated main rotor flapping known as "blade sailing".

Circumstances:

The pilot had completed a superphosphate spreading operation, from an agricultural strip, and was about to take off on a ferry flight to Albury. As the aircraft commenced the take off the pilot was distracted when a drink bottle fell from his seat and began to roll between the rudder pedals. As he retrieved the bottle, the aircraft became airborne and drifted to the left. When the pilot looked up, a loader vehicle was immediately ahead, on the left side of the strip, and a collision was unavoidable. The aircraft sustained serious damage when it hit a structure on the vehicle. About 18 centimetres of one propeller blade was removed, the nose gear leg was displaced rearwards and the right mainwheel separated from the aircraft. The pilot contacted the loader driver to ascertain the extent of the damage. He then decided to continue the flight to Albury where emergency services were alerted for his arrival. The aircraft was landed on the grass strip beside the sealed runway but overturned as it neared the end of the landing roll.

Circumstances:

The pilot reported he had completed five touch-and-go landings, and two glide approach landings on runway 16 during a session of circuits, the latter requiring very close approaches. The wind was from the south-west at 10-15 knots, resulting in a gusting, right crosswind. The accident occurred while the pilot was carrying out a third glide approach. He advised that he would normally extend the undercarriage on downwind leg as the first of the vital pre landing actions, and on final approach do a last "three greens" verification check. On this occasion he did neither check, being busy with the wind gusts and the very brief base and final legs. The aircraft touched down smoothly and slid for about 70 metres, coming to rest on the centreline. It was then that the pilot heard the undercarriage warning horn and saw the undercarriage control in the gear up position. He turned off all switches and evacuated the aircraft. The pilot said that he had been suffering the after-effects of a head cold and this, together with over an hour of crosswind circuits, may have reduced his sharpness to the stage where vital actions were forgotten.

While cruising at 6000 feet on a night VMC flight the pilot encountered a heavy rain shower. During an attempted 180 degree turn the aircraft entered a spiral dive and in the recovery from this dive the aircraft was evidently overstressed. After diverting to Parkes the pilot flew to his planned destination on the following day. The damage sustained by the wings was not detected until a subsequent daily inspection.

Circumstances:

The aircraft was on a ferry flight prior to the commencement of spraying operations. The pilot reported that the take-off proceeded normally until immediately after lift off. At that point, the engine lost power and the aircraft was landed about 50 metres beyond the end of the runway. The aircraft passed through a wire fence and then collided with an earth bank which separated the tailplane from the fuselage with the remainder of the aircraft wreckage coming to a halt about 50 metres beyond the bank. Examination of the engine revealed low compression in two cylinders. One as a result of a cracked cylinder head the other from the alignment of the piston ring gaps. Neither defect was assessed as capable of causing a substantial loss of power during take-off. The reason for the substantial power loss was not determined.

Circumstances:

The aircraft was making its third landing on the airstrip for the day with a reported crosswind of 7 to 14 knots from the right. After touchdown as the aircraft slowed to about 30 knots the aircraft was struck by a large wind gust lifting the tail. The propeller struck the ground and the aircraft overturned.

Throughout the afternoon the pilot had flown the aircraft on a number of sorties in the area. During the subject flight the pilot reported abeam a point on Hook Island, enroute to pick up some passengers he had dropped off earlier. No further communications were received from the aircraft. An extensive search failed to find any trace of the aircraft. A thorough investigation has found no reason for the disappearance of the aircraft.

Circumstances:

It was reported the balloon was being flown with a southerly drift in excellent weather conditions. After a flight of about 75 minutes, the pilot landed the balloon in a suitable paddock. Following a normal touch down, the balloon basket was dragged about 70 metres. Some days later a passenger was found to have suffered small fractures in the lower part of one leg, the injury apparently resulting from the landing slide.

The pilot had not landed at the strip before, and made four inspection runs prior to approaching to land uphill. There was a gusting crosswind from the left. He stated that as he flared to land, the aircraft suddenly veered to the right, and he applied full power to go around. The aircraft could not outclimb the rising terrain, and touched down in an adjacent field. It ran through a fence and struck an earth bank. The nosegear was torn off and the aircraft overturned. The strip selected by the pilot for landing had an upslope of 6 percent, which is in excess of the maximum allowable for the aircraft. The aircraft was unable to outclimb the terrain during the attempted go around because the slope of the terrain exceeded the climb performance capacity of the aircraft.