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Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 125, 30 May 1938, Page 11

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AERO CLUB PILOT.

OCCUPANTS NOT HURT. PETROL SUPPLY GIVES OUT. (From Our Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday. Fairly serious da.nage was done to a Canterbury Aero Club Miles Whitney Straight monoplane when the pilot, Mr. Norman Alexander Suttie, was compelled to make a forced landing on reclaimed land near Naval Point, Lyttelton, yesterday afternoon. The port leg of the undercarriage of the machine was broken and forced up through the wing, which was badly smashed near the base. Neither the pilot nor his passenger, Mr. Geoffery Brandstatcr, was injured. The aeroplane, which had made several flights during the day, left the aerodrome after 4 p.m. in gusty northeast weather. It was seen to approach the harbour over Quail Island, fljing fairly low and circle the inner harbour. When the petrol supply gave out and the engine stopped, the pilot had no chance of making back over the hill to flat land on the Plains, and chose the reclaimed area as being the best place for putting the aeroplane down with the least injury. While he was still some distance off the ground the machine struck an air pocket, causing it to drop suddenly and "pancake" on to the ground. Mr. Suttie had stopped the engine before landing, thus saving the propeller from damage.