We are up at 6am and the weather n Weyburn is looking good. We have a quick breakfast and at 6:30 are airborne enroute to Assiniboia. It is good to finally be moving. Tom arrives just as we depart and wishes us a good flight. About 2 and 1/2 hours later we arrive in Assiniboia. We call the town for fuel and are off to Shaunavon by about 10:15. The country is a flat yet very interesting plate of rivers, beautiful farmyards, and small communities. Soon we are landing in Shaunavon. It's 12:40 and we are finally loosing the wind. We make a decsion to head for Roy's place north of Irvine. Our flight path will take us over the north edge of the Cypress Hills and also over Maple Creek.
As we near Maple Creek Lawrence's batteries give out on his radio and we decide to land in Maple Creek. I make the calls as we approach and soon we are down on runway 23. It's 2:30 and I sit in the plane as Lawrence changes batteries. We depart 7 minutes later on 05 as the sock is now suggesting and fly around the east end of Maple Creek and turn to head west toward Roy's.
As we are slowly climbing to 4500 ft Lawrence is in trouble. We are in contact as he starts descending. His plane is on one cylinder and he is looking for a place to land. I turn east to watch as he has also turn into the wind. He has found a spot that looks like a good choice and is descending. As he is about to touch down I see a small cloud of dust, a second and then a third as I see him come to a stop. By now I am dropping altitude and I see him out of the plane, he is OK and I am very glad to see him walking around. He says "Do not land here" "I,m Ok, but the planes a wreck". We decide that I should return to the AP and try find a ride and pick him up.
Back at the AP I introduce myself to George Brackenbury, who happens to have just seen us depart and is now at the AP hoping that we were a local flight. George quickly volunteers to drive to the landing sight after I explain what happened. As we arrive Lawrence is walking back toward town. We pick him up an drive to the plane to pick up his things as we know we will be there for the night. Lawrence is OK and as we look at the plane I looked at Lawrence and gave a hug. I told him the plane is just a thing but he isn't and it did what is designed to do, getting him to the ground safely. As we look at the alfalfa field it is surface irragated with raised strips of soil about 30 feet apart. Lawrence landed 90 degrees to these and the result is that the landing gear has been destroyed. Another 50 feet to the north would have made all the difference but there are no significant visual clues from the air to see anything other then what looks like a good land spot.
We collect his things and George drives us back to the AP. We arrange for help and the planed is for Larry to bring a trailer in the morning. George volunteers to pick us up about 5:30 and we go out for supper. Meeting George is a blessing and we quickly find that friendly personally of a fellow pilot who just happened to be right where he was needed at the time.
After a good supper he drives us back to the AP and Roy has flown in from Irvine. We visit and discuss the plans for the morning. George will oick us up for breakfast at 8am, we turn in soon, enough adventures for today.
Marty / Lawrence
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