Farmers rush to crashed pilot
Toodyay farmer Frank Panizza had one thought for the pilot when he saw an upturned motorised glider in a paddock: "He's buggered".
But to his relief and that of other locals who rushed to search for the remote crash scene yesterday morning, the pilot was conscious, although clearly in a lot of pain.
Pilot David Evans, 48, had managed to call triple-0 from his mobile phone after crashing about 7.30am on a flight near his property east of Perth.
He had provided some directions to emergency service crews but they quickly phoned local farmers to ask if they knew exactly where he was.
"He wasn't visible from any of the roads so it took a while to find him," Mr Panizza said.
Farmer Ric Twine, whose field the glider crashed into, and his farm worker Gabriel Fouche were about to head to Perth when they received a call.
Mr Twine had not seen the glider come down but knew they would be quicker searching his 728ha property than the fire crews.
Within minutes Mr Fouche found the stricken man still in the glider, the smell of petrol heavy in the air.
He did not try to move him but told him help was on its way and went to alert paramedics and fire crews waiting on a nearby road.
As he left the paddock, Mr Twine and a neighbour reached the injured man.
"It was not a nice feeling walking up to it . . . but it was good when he could talk to us and hopefully he'll make a good recovery," Mr Twine said. "I just stayed with him. He was lucid and could understand what I was saying.
"I think he was glad to hear somebody was coming soon."
The pilot was trapped for almost two hours.
In recent weeks, Mr Evans' wife Roisin had posted several videos and photographs of her husband's morning flights around their hobby farm on her Facebook page.
"Not sure how my little pilot will go going back to work," she posted last Monday. "He is loving his flying."
She even told friends that she planned to go up with him as soon as he had flown enough hours to be allowed to take a passenger.
Mr Evans was in a stable condition in Royal Perth Hospital yesterday, his wife by his bedside.
The farmers who saw the wreck spoke of how lucky he was to survive the landing.
"The aircraft just looked like it had gone straight nose-down into the ground," Mr Panizza said.
