Circumstances:

The pilot selected the landing gear up; following the take-off from Home Valley strip, and it failed to retract. After checking that the circuit breaker was set, the pilot selected the gear up and down several times, but it still remained down. The green light which normally indicates that the landing gear is down and locked, was not illuminated. The aircraft was flown to Kununurra and a normal circuit and landing carried out. During the landing roll the right hand gear leg folded up and the aircraft skidded off the runway. Information provided indicates that the aircraft's right hand landing gear had struck a tree, and was damaged, during a forced landing approach at Home Valley. The landing gear was not checked fully before the aircraft departed for Kununurra. The landing gear malfunction encountered by the pilot resulted from by damage to the down lock hook on the right hand landing gear which allowed the hook to jam the gear in a partly retracted position.

Before landing the pilot reported that brake pressure was available on both brakes. He stated that the aircraft touched down 400 metres after the threshold of the 1000 metre strip and when the brakes were applied no pedal pressure could be obtained. The aircraft overran the strip and collided with a ditch. A small hole had developed in the left brake line due to chaffing action against loosely clamped mounting bracket. No defect could be found with the right hand brake system. By the time the pilot realised that a problem existed with the braking system, he considered that there was insufficient strip remaining to carry out a go around.

The aircraft touched down about 160 metres past the threshold of the 650 metre strip and bounced. The pilot applied power to go around and progressively raised the flap, but the aircraft then began to sink and he was unable to prevent the left wing striking the ground. The aircraft cartwheeled and rapidly came to a halt. During the bounce the aircraft had drifted towards a tree on the right side of the strip. The pilot had commenced the left turn to avoid the tree and had not straightened the flight path for the go around. Flap retraction had been too rapid, considering the speed and attitude during the turn and the aircraft was probably in a stalled condition when contact with the ground occurred.

Following a period of dual instruction, the student was authorised to conduct a series of solo circuits and landings. On the first approach he lowered 30 degrees of flap and the aircraft touched down normally. After travelling about 50 metres, the aircraft veered sharply to the left, ran off the side of the strip, and came to rest in a shallow ditch just outside the boundary of the strip. The approach and landing had been conducted in light crosswind conditions. While compensating for these conditions, the pilot had probably inadvertently applied excessive forward pressure to the control column and a "wheel-barrow" situation developed. The elevator trim was found to be in the take-off position, which would have compounded the nose-down tendency during the landing roll.

During the take-off run the left wheel locked. The aircraft groundlooped to the left, the right gear leg collapsed and the nose section and right wing struck the ground. During prior maintenance of the left wheel hub the inboard bearing had not been correctly reinstalled and it subsequently collapsed into the centre of the wheel assembly during the take-off run.

Circumstances:

The pilot reported that he had been to Calowie Yard on a number of previous occasions and this time he carried out a circuit and an approach into the sun. As the pilot rotated the aircraft for landing it collided with a fence. The landing was completed without further incident. The pilot had mistaken a graded fence line for the airstrip and the glare from the sun had prevented him from sighting the fence prior to the collision.

Circumstances:

The pilot reported he was unable to extend the flaps during his prelanding checks, despite several attempts. Turning onto base, the pilot noticed a commuter aircraft about to taxi to the active runway and decided to carry out a flapless landing. As power was reduced, during the turn onto final approach, an aural warning sounded. Thinking it was the stall warning, he increased power and the warning ceased. The approach was continued until power reduction at the flare when the warning again sounded as the aircraft settled onto the runway with the landing gear still retracted. The pilot stated that he failed to complete his prelanding checks and extend the landing gear after the flap failure. He also incorrectly identified the landing gear warning as the stall warning.

Circumstances:

The pilot reported losing thermal activity during the return leg of a cross-country task. On descending to 2000 feet above ground level, she elected to carry out an outlanding and selected a field. The pilot reported experiencing difficulty on maintaining wings level on final approach. The glider apparently struck the ground with the left wingtip during the attempted landing and spun through 180 degrees, sustaining substantial damage. A site inspection of the ground marks and wreckage trail by the club Chief Flying Instructor indicated that the landing had apparently been carried out downwind.

The pilot reported that while cattle-spotting at about 200 feet above ground level the engine lost power. He commenced a forced landing into a large clearing when, at about 30 feet, the engine regained power. He reported that he attempted to fly away but the aircraft sank, nose-down and left wing low, to the ground. Examination of the engine found no explanation for the reported loss of power. The left wingtip had scraped the ground for a distance of 28 metres, with the aircraft banked at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. The aircraft had then yawed left and cartwheeled for 65 metres before coming to rest. Damage to the propeller was consistent with the engine producing high power.

On the evening preceding the accident the pilot indicated his intention to commence mustering early the next morning. The pilot arose at about 0530 hours and it is believed that the aircraft took off at about 0600. The aircraft was seen at about 0620 by the stockmen. It was flying at about 100 ft agl and when the engine noise ceased and the aircraft was not seen again one stockman rode to a nearby bore and found the inverted aircraft wreckage. The aircraft had impacted the ground in a near vertical attitude. No contributory fault could be found with the aircraft or the associated systems. The pilot did not hold a mustering approval and no evidence of him having undergone such training could be found. It is probable that the aircraft stalled at low level and that the pilot was unable to regain control before ground impact.