Duck Tales

Here's a story of one man, his aeroplane, a field and 2 farmyard animals.

When Nik set off on this epic journey with Danielle he was unaware of his fate that sunny afternoon. Everything was going swimmingly in the lesson on Precautionary Landings which basically entails picking a field to land in if the weather gets bad.

So, there he was, our hero, bumbling along when Danielle says the weather has deteriorated and Nik, being a fantastic pilot, knew exactly what to do...

HASELLL checks, 75 knots 1 stage of flap etc etc etc zzzzz....

The next thing to do is find a field. Now, in New Zealand there are lots and lots of them. The main problem is that finding a flat one can be a bit tricky. Anyway, Nik sees one that looks ideal except for the dark specs dotted around it.

'What could they be Nik?' Says Danielle.

The reply from our intrepid aviator was not the expected one.

'Ducks' he says, confident that they would fly away when he approached.

Now we would like to know what was going through Danielle's mind at this point, bearing in mind that she could see what they actually were and also that it's difficult to see a person from that height, never mind a flock of water fowl. We assume she thought that he was joking as she decided to allow the descent to continue.

Down to 500ft and Nik gets a bit of a shock. What had seemed like harmless ducks from 900ft had miraculously turned into New Zealand's largest herd of 'Brown Swiss' cows.

We would like to point out that one of these cows probably weighs more than a Katana, our trusty steed and would have made a bit of a mess had Nik actually needed to land there.

For future reference we have decided to post two pictures here just in case Nik ever finds himself in a similar situation and there is no confusion.

COW

DUCK

Comments

[Nik]

Thanks for clarifying that one, Monkey. I have printed off a copy of the photos and will stick them onto my cockpit panel for future reference.

BTW it was one cow ok, not a herd!

[cp13]

which proves the old aviation tale - push the stick forward, the cows get bigger....