Pilot Lesleigh Griffin celebrates after smooth landing despite gear malfunction
It was her second emergency landing in four years but experienced pilot and former flying instructor took it all in her stride. Read what happened.
North West Coast
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A Tasmanian pilot celebrated with a glass of red wine on Friday night after an emergency at Wynyard Airport due to a problem with her plane’s landing gear.
Lesleigh Griffin, 71, planned a local flight west of Wynyard on Friday morning in the two seater Pioneer 300 plane she owns and flies with her twin sister Billie Hicks.
It was the second time in four years that an aircraft she was flying had an emergency landing.
“It was pretty much after take off and I went to put the landing gear up, as you do, and it only went up halfway,” she said.
“It wouldn’t go down either, because it’s done on an electrical system, but fortunately, all aircraft that are retractable have a manual system to wind the gear down.
“You always prepare for the worst.
“I returned to Wynyard and I declared not a full emergency, but a semi emergency, so that all the services on the ground were notified, so if the gear failed on landing well, then the fire services are there.”
Ms Griffin, who has been flying since 1976, circled for more than an hour while emergency services arrived at the airport and devised a plan.
“In that time, I had an opportunity to ring my engineer who does all the maintenance on the aircraft and he agreed with me that that the gear should be down and locked when it’s on manual extension.
“That was quite comforting to have, not just my opinion, but his as well.”
Ms Griffin said she was 99 per cent confident she would not have to do a “dead stick landing” which would have meant “turning everything off”.
In 2021 she encountered a more serious problem with the plane’s nose wheel.
“That was my first accident ever, and again, it was an aircraft mechanical issue,” Ms Griffin said.
“To lose a nose wheel, that’s sort of the extreme, but we are trained to do as best you can and stay calm.
“As part of your training, when you’re learning to fly you can be going on nicely, everything’s going wonderfully well and then you’ll do something, and you’ve got to do an emergency landing.
“I felt very important, because they closed the aerodrome and I was the only one in the circuit for a change.”
Ms Griffin, a former accountant who was a flying instructor in Essendon, plans to be back flying in her “sophisticated little aircraft” once the plan had been checked out.
“It hasn’t in any way adversely affected me,” she said.
“I suppose the only thing is that I will probably have a glass of wine tonight. I don’t normally drink much.”
Gary MCarthur, who was flying nearby said Ms Griffin was a “very experienced pilot” and that “the plane looks perfect”.
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