Water Crash Of Well-Known Backcountry Flyer

In the video, you can see the big-tire bush plane approaching to land on a sandbar and practicing what is a very common technique among these pilots, who are at the top of their game, it should be stated (so do NOT try this at home), when things went really wrong. Cory is just fine, thank goodness, and absolutely remarkably so is his taildragger, which by the end of the crash sequence is doing the opposite of dragging its tail.

In what we think is an incredibly impressive display of taking responsibility for mistakes, Robin starts off his video with the simple statement, "I screwed up."

We're not so sure. Here's what he says happened. Having installed a new ferry tank for a long cross country, and following a successful landing on a different sandbar, he selected the ferry tank, and once it was empty, fuel starvation occurred, the engine "choked," but the engine quits, even after Robin switched tanks. It was apparently too late by then. He then initiated a turn away from the sandbar, where some other pilots were filming.

The water, luckily, was only a foot to a foot-a-and-a-half deep, Robin said.

He was uninjured. The video is terrific, and Robin's description of what happens is riveting. Thanks to Cory for sharing this with us all.

Oh, and what happened to his airplane? That's an amazing story in itself. Watch the video to hear about that.