James Salerno, Ringers Western co Founder tells of a harrowing narrow escape four thousand feet in the air with six thousand wild cattle to find and muster.
I’m in for stock camp supplies; out again very shortly.
Matteo and I were up in the R22 chopper. Four thousand feet in the air scouring the rugged Kimberley landscape for rogue, wild cattle.
Suddenly smoke starts to pour out of the R22 instrument panel.
Matteo and I see it at the same time. I looked over at him, what is this? In my ear phones I heard a few swear words.
Calmly, he says. “We are going to have to land this thing before it takes us down”
I hear him call for help as he tried to look for a safe place down there to land.
“Bravo Sierra, this is November Sierra Tango”. “Gonna have to put her down – the instrument panel is full of smoke”.
He was calling his uncle on the ground. He responds. “November Sierra Tango. Bravo Sierra, read you. I have a visual on you – will get to you as soon as possible.
“Good luck”
Now we both focus our attention, he on manouvering the chopper down and I to find a clearing where the R22 could land.
Tall grass, large trees, big rocks, small saplings. Not the perfect area to land a chopper!! Where are those small clearings? None in sight yet.
Matteo somehow navigates a slow descent. I hear him swear again. The smoke has changed colours now but not our main concern anymore
He manoeuvres closer to earth. The tree tops are right there. The branches are blowing violently as he tries to squeeze into a small gap getting closer to the ground
Now the grass was blowing like a rough wave in the ocean.
Suddenly, a light thud. Matteo had landed somehow between the trees; in the tall grass and some very very large rocks.
But it wasn’t over yet. Matteo looking for the origin of the smoke and quickly all instruments were turned to OFF.
For some reason the smoke started to abate.
Now another problem. The radio was silent. We could not transmit.
“Dead in the water” as they say. This time with the earphones off I heard Matteo swear again. Much louder this time. I knew why.
Suddenly there was a voice in the wilderness. What the hell?
We looked around. It was Uncle Ben. Where did he come from? Now we remembered Matteo had radioed him when we first spotted the smoke.
He had ridden his quad bike as far as he could then he started to run towards where he had seen the R22 go down.
It took only hours to find the cause of the smoke. Soon enough the problem was diagnosed and solved. In the air again. Six thousand wild cattle to find and muster.
Must go now – all is ready.