You SURVIVED a plane crash! You won't believe what happens next! 

Hi Folks I am 'James'. When Terry and I discussed doing this video I hoped it would be useful to our community. Your comments are humbling. Still waiting on some parts for OY so this season is written off. Gladly though she wasn't. I bought a Eurostar that will tide me over and made my first trip back to Bute a few weeks ago. There was some mental blocks to overcome but now been there 3 or 4 times since.

What a thoroughly decent man the pilot is - he gives a great lesson in openness and honesty - inspiring well beyond the flying community.

The personal/mental recovery is almost the hardest part of an accident/incident. I hope James sees these wonderful comments from everyone, wishing him and the aircraft a speedy return the skies. We all make mistakes, sharing them helps everyone else.

Not a pilot or anything, just a bystander and fan of aviation, but I think the willingness to share stories like this, the transparency with investigators, and the no blame culture in aviation is both a key part of its relative safety and admirable in its own right. I think more things need to have that learning focused approach. Thanks to James for being willing to share his story.

What a genuine person James is. Absolutely the right decision to be open and honest. Helps everyone in the long run.

This man is so refreshing in his openess , may he never have to go through this again.

I’d fly with that pilot anytime. Why? Because he is the kind of pilot that learns from mistakes.

You walked away from it which is always good. You knew what caused it. And you shared your story with us on RU-vid. Thank you for a really interesting and honest video.

James, thank you for your transparency and honesty, if we had more people like you - world would be a better place (aviation and otherwise). Thanks for sharing, and speedy recovery of your lovely Sport Cruiser!

I don't know James, but I've been in his aircraft a number of times via a mutual friend who borrowed it for a while when it had its old engine. Just wanted to send my best wishes for the repairs and wishing her a speedy recovery back into the sky. All the best James and thanks for sharing your story. It's important to learn from others and you may save someone's life with your experience.

This is the best thing in aviation. We are able to learn from other peoples issues without feeling like an idiot. Thanks for sharing this and helping us learn

I've been told by many other pilots and instructors that the 400hr mark is right around where many pilots have some sort of accident or incident. I remember when I reached the 400hr mark in my logbook and recall reflecting on how I may have become complacent in my flying abilities and made a conscious effort to be extra mindful of flying "by the numbers" and using checklists and weather briefings etc. It seems the 400hr mark is the "Knows just enough to be dangerous" point in many private pilot's lives. Thanks for sharing, hopefully someone will learn from this ordeal!

Best bit to do with this crash was you walked away uninjured and can get back to flying when the time is right, thank you for your honesty and transparency it helps us all to learn and stay safe.

You were absolutely correct in you statement and including the details. I don't know why people try and omit things. The AAIB are not there to witch hunt. The details you provide will help other pilots. I was involved in a similar incident about 20 years ago. I left the runway and ran into an electric fence. Although mine was a partial brake failure my landing speed was a bit high and the grass was wet. If my landing speed was correct I would not have needed the brakes and I wouldn't have left the runway. Just from this upload others will learn from your mistake.

-- _Integrity reigns. Confession cleans the soul._ *_Thank you, Short Field_*

Excellent airmanship! Share your errors and allow others to learn

19:11 This is why i love the aviation community. its very supportive as we all get humbled at some point.

So much respect for this pilot!!! Telling it like it is, removed all kinds of guilt of deception, and helps AAIB inform instructors and other pilots about the types of situation that cause mishaps. Well done!!

Great video I’m an armchair pilot (flight simulator). Flown powered once and about 40 gliding lessons many years ago. Always wondered ‘what happens’. I had a similar experience when I wrecked a caravan. The help from the insurance and repair company was incredible. So much better than standard domestic incidents Being honest about the cause, both in any reports and in the inevitable self examination afterwards is important to getting both that aircraft and your own mental distress sorted.

Great to see an open and honest appraisal with some useful lessons we can all learn from. 👍

Like lots of pilots, I watch videos like this in hopes of learning things that make me a better pilot. Thank you for sharing your detailed description of the accident. We can all learn from videos like this and make the aviation community better and safer.

I’m glad he was ok but I really appreciate his honesty. Not many people are that honest. Wonderful person

I admire Jame's honesty and matter-of-factness - very informative and helpful to the rest of us. Another great video, Terry!

A really helpful and humbling story. Thank you to James for being candid and sharing.

I used to work with the AAIB inspectors and they were all very reasonable and genuine guys, I would have no fears about them using their report for any other reason than to make sure the community was as safe as it practically could be.

What a lovely well balanced gentleman James is. A pleasure to hear his open reflections on his unfortunate mishap. So many people will be able to learn and take away all the positives from this and it is so refreshing to see his honest and relaxed approach, to what is at the end of the day, similar to pranging your car. (which I did recently in a supermarket carpark and the shopping trolley barrier! Glad his insurers seem more competent than Aviva!!) and it had similar connected features to this. It is great that no one was hurt and all will be ok again. Delighted his aircraft will fly again and I wish him all the very best. There have been good reasons in the past, for pilots to clam up and say little about the more minor incidents, but it is an unhelpful culture which causes fear and suspicion. It is so much better to examine what went wrong, get over it and grow as a result. It can only make for better pilots and a safer environment for all involved. This was an excellent choice for your film. Safe flying all.

Wisdom is experience remembered. He’s a good man

Once again, very well presented, Terry. James deserves all the very best moving forward... what a pleasant, genuine guy, and a great advert for our community. I hope the CAA also acknowledges that his honesty is there for us all to learn from, rather than criticise and takes care of and encourages him to keep flying 👍👏👏👏

Absolutely brilliant video. This is a typical example of the no blame culture by which we as pilots can all learn from each other. Well done!

Staying current in short field practice is essential. Nil wind will cause a longer landing roll, wet grass is slippery and coming in too fast is fatal, all 3 is a recipe for going into the fence. Very good to analyses what went wrong to learn from it and hopefully the aircraft can be repaired ok.

James it's always easy to see the "should have dones" after the event. This kind of openness about the event is proof of the old saying learn from the mistakes of others because you won't live long enough to make them all yourself. Your words about the helpfulness of the farmer brings to mind my experience of Scottish people.

Very interesting story and glad to hear you were OK James

This man isn't hiding from egotistical mis-conjectures and is facing truths and is self-confirming that he errored and is determining the factors despite the natural human ego. Sir you are a great man, I'll fly with you any day! It's the ones that taint the story even to themselves and can't accept truths that are the dangerous ones. I reiterate, I would fly with you at a moment's notice.

I'm glad to hear you are okay and thank you so much for sharing what must have been a fairly traumatic experience. This is so helpful to me as a student pilot, and I agree that it's always good to hear the more experienced pilots stories about making mistakes because at the end of the day, we all make mistakes. So James, I'm glad you're well and that your aircraft has been/will be mended and I hope to see you one day. And Terry, thank you so much for sharing his story, and I hope to catch up with you one day soon. Fly safe everyone :)

Glad you re okay and keep flying.

Greetings from North Carolina! As a pilot flying from a grass strip subject to torrential rains and maintained by volunteers , this cautionary tale will forever remain in the back of my head during flight planning. Thank you and come visit!

Another great video Terry! Fingers crossed we won’t ever find ourselves in that situation, but we are all human & all make mistakes. Hearing about James’ experience is invaluable & hopefully we can either avoid making a similar error or (if we do) we now know what to expect & how best to handle the aftermath. Nicely done sir! 😊👍🏼

Great respect to James for telling us this, it takes a lot of courage to admit you made some errors, but this will hopefully make someone think twice when they are in a similar situation. The "no blame" ethos in aviation is there so people can learn from others mistakes. Thank you.

Amazing video, lots to take away from this

Live and Learn!! Glad you are OK and that your plane is fixed. Glad insurance company treated you well and I admire your honesty!!! Blessings to you from Texas!

100% respect James, We all make some errors of judgment from time to time, but most of us get away with them without damage. Great to hear your aircraft will take to the skies again - Informative video

Brilliant video for all private pilots - so thankyou and a special thankyou to the pilot. That is precisely how aviation must work. Transparency, honesty and a no blame culture.

Thanks for sharing this story. We need more people like this in the world

Great video as always Terry and full respect to James for a totally honest and up-front account of what happened that day. We all learn from these personal stories.

Many thanks to both of you, but especially James, for sharing this story. I always hope fellow pilots will take the opportunity to learn from others mistakes, so that they don't have to make the same one too!

Glad you're ok James. Shame about the plane, but that can be repaired. Excellent video and well done for being so open and honest, after all thats what aviation is all about. By following this open culture, we learn from others mistakes and hopefully never repeat them. It's what makes aviation the safest form of transport there is.

What an honest guy James is. Landing long has its pros and cons as does landing short. Really useful information there.

Thanks Terry and James for sharing this story, absolutely the right thing to be open and honest to the AAIB and insurance company; as a flying community we only learn from personal or shared experience

And another thought James I'd like to share that I expect you are aware of about how after a crash, it's common for pilots to feel comfortable until in the air and suddenly become overwhelmed. I just recall I shared my experience crash experience with Terry a few months ago, where my first flight after a near fatal crash without an instructor left me overwhelmed for a few mins I'll re-post it here in case you or someone else might be interested: Thanks for sharing Terry! A lovely place to fly indeed. It reminds me very much of when I was a kid in the northwest of America, when we had many more private strips you enjoy and flying was much more a do as you like, free spirit adventure. Also, thank you very much for speaking about confidence after a close call. In over 50 years of flying I've had more than a few close calls, most didn't affect what I would call confidence... However, the one that unexpectedly left me unsettled what's a violent crash, and near death drowning experience in a seaplane. For several days after the crash whenever I would start to go to sleep I would see and hear the water crashing through the windshield, in the gurgling underwater sounds as I set upside down drowning underwater, unable to open the hatch and escape, the fellow pilot I crashed with, a former Vietnam helicopter pilot who was shot down a couple of times, and crashed about half a dozen other times in agricultural aircraft and helicopters also experienced the same nightmares and flashbacks he never experienced in combat or his other crashes. Being an aircraft dealer, 3 days after the crash had a customer finish a sale on an Cessna P337, and he asked if I could deliver it to him at his home airport about 45mis away. As I pre-flighted the aircraft I experienced a slight bit of apprehension and uneasiness increased during taxi and during pre-takeoff checks, that anxiety sort of subsided, but as I pulled onto the runway and accelerated and retracted the landing gear and and at about 300 feet, a sudden, overwhelming rush of what I couldn't really describe is fear, but more a rush of adrenaline and over-focused thoughts left me for at least a minute or two unaware of what the aircraft was doing, and questioning if I was really in control. And at that moment, something in my subconscious took control of my emotions and thoughts, and I felt that if aI did not regain control of my thoughts and emotions, I might end up nearly incapacitated for a bit longer, so I engaged the auto pilot for the climb, and in a few mins of relaxing and setting quietly, those subconscious feelings and emotions mostly subsided. I made a couple of landings at an enroute airport, to make sure those feelings wouldn't come back, and then proceeded to meet the new owner. When I landed and taxied up to his hanger, he and his new wife and infant child, greeted me and he asked if I could take him, his wife and child for a demonstration ride, as he did not have a multi engine rating. For a moment that overwhelming feeling of anxiety returned combined with feelings and thoughts of guilt that I had just crashed, nearly died, and now this trusting father and his wife asked to place their lives in my hands? I explained what had just happened and said if my customer, a CFI was comfortable double checking me and taking over if I was not comfortable. He and his wife were both comfortable with that and we had an uneventful, and enjoyable ride. His wife turned out to be mental health counselor who dealt a lot with trauma and anxiety, she explained some things about fear and the subconscious and how after a traumatic event, when the subconscious mind recognizes a pattern similar to previous traumatic events, the subconscious mind Will try to override the conscious mind's thanking and control subconscious, and she said that it's probably not a good idea to fly alone after a traumatic experience, whether it be from flying or not. I later went to work for one of the pioneers in hypnotherapy, spent decades helping people with issues involving fear, anxiety and self-doubt. When I related my variance after the crash, he concurred with what my passenger/ psychologist explained, and said it was probably a transient, subconscious manifestation, but that loss of confidence, if something it's almost always an indication of unseen insecurities and fears established in childhood, is more common and severe people who were shamed or degraded, only in childhood but also later in life, and even as adults. And some of many counseling seminars I observed and recorded for him, he often mention to people who were struggling from prolong loss of confidence that: "if you had real in the first place, you would not now have to regain it in the second place". He went on to explain how in his belief, traumatic, near death experiences can combine with old repressed guilt and shame can combine with that later traumatic, life-threatening event to induce hypnotic loops of fear and thought, it's typically referred to as a 'loss of confidence'. When I was learning to fly from a former a U.S. Air Force 'washout' instructor' form the Air Force Academy, he said that as part of the pilot screening process for advanced pilots such as test pilots, he exposed those pilots to repetitive, stressful training scenarios and looked for deep-seated fears and anxieties he called "The Wrong Stuff". I don't know how much flying time you have Terry, but my impression is that you are an exceptionally intuitive and humble person and pilot, and I suspect your 'loss of confidence' was likely a a transient subconscious event. However, if you're still experiencing apprehension that affects your performance and confidence as a pilot, often it's more a matter of not struggling, or fighting trying to overcome subconscious feelings, but excepting them, letting them play out without struggling with them, at which point common to catch glimpses of your subconscious thoughts and emotions interacting. For aware, analytical people, such as pilots that's often enough, however there are meditative techniques and clinical approaches that can also help to alleviate matters of anxiety in confidence. I've spent about 16 of the last years working in support of military, veterans and first responders who have dealt with the effects of combat stress and anxiety and if you or anyone would like to chat about such matters my YT channel's about page has my info. I'm looking forward to flying screen seat with you more, Cheers mate!

The aviation sector IS and MUST BE a Just Culture. Massive kudos to James for his honest and detailed account of the events which will go on help the AAIB/CAA/Flight Schools to better inform current and future pilots of the hazards of GA/Flying. S*** happens 🤷‍♂️, we all make mistakes. As my FI (a 15,000+hr 78 Captain) said to me: “there are 2 types of pilots, those who have had a crash and those who will have one”

I happened to speak to James a month back about buying his euro star, he was a super nice guy and hope his plane is repaired soon. It’s very helpful for us all to be able to learn from his incident.

A brilliantly honest appraisal of something that can happen, lots of useful lessons to learn for all, thank you

When I learned to fly, quite a long time ago, my aged grizzly instructor impressed on me his rule of three when landing. If you have more than 2 issues whilst approaching to land, go around and do it again. In this case, firstly the squall, then lack on runway visibility would have been enough to say 'bugger this for a game of soldiers', I'm going around and doing it again. It is good advice, it has no doubt saved me - so far.

Thank you for sharing James. Sorry for the costly lesson mate, but noting some metal, paint, and parts won't remedy, and the important bit is that you don''t require any repairs and you're now a wiser and more proficient pilot, and by sharing you've helped everyone be a bit better pilot and you may well save someone from making a similar mistake.

Honesty is always the best policy.👍

You are a very impressive gentleman, Sir, and pity the world is not run by people like you.

Thanks for sharing James and a big thumbs up for sharing the real events. So pleased you were able to walk away and be able to share with the GA community your story and experience. Good luck with teh rebuild and hope you are back flying very soon.

This man walked away He is a good pilot.

This incident is why pilots are advised to keep up to date with airstrip information. Chosing to land late on an airstrip just because that is how positioning was done before the airstrip approach was improved is just not professional. Having said that, reporting on the incident is professional.

Thanks for telling this story! Especially thanks to James for sharing it with everyone - there's so much to learn from this!

James seems like a very nice fellow, I like him and I'm sorry for his mishap. When he was relaying his story he said after the plane came to a stop" I got out of it and noticed there were some gofers coming toward me". And then I realized he was saying "golfers". My best wishes to him.

A very interesting video Terry. James went into great detail and it was good to hear what he had to say. One way or another we have all been there. Thankfully he was not hurt and nice to think that the aircraft can be repaired.

You are right! You have to share the lessons learnt to give others the chance taking them to the own arsenal.

Thanks to you, and James, for sharing this. There are so many aviation channels that only show when things go perfectly. In my opinion, this type of story is immensely important to help inform people what to look out for.

This is just a brilliant chat in the park, listening to it at work. Great story, glad the pilot is ok. Interesting to hear! All the best

Good honest assessment. Even for a competent and experienced pilot, misfortune is only an instant away.

Thank you for this. It seems to me that James did everything right but was caught out by some unusual circumstances. It's easy to beat yourself up in hindsight, but he really shouldn't. We have insurance for these very circumstances. Good luck for your future flying, James.

Well told story Terry and lots to learn from the experience. It’s always pleasing to hear a fellow aviator and his passengers make it out of any similar incident. Glad the Sport Cruiser will fly again but more so that we have another bold pilot; who with us shall grow old.

Well done. Your decisions to speak about your errors will hopefully prevent others from making the same mistakes.

Indicative of the police attitude in the UK today, guilt is automatically assumed prior to any evidence being collected or investigations being done. It’s a subtle change that started in the early 2000’s when I was with L+B police. When the term ‘road accident’ was changed to ‘collision’, because no blame can be apportioned if it’s an accident, but if it’s classed as a collision someone has to be blamed. So basically we’re all now presumed guilty until found innocent. This incident is a perfect example of that.

Thanks James and Terry. Invaluable lesson to all of us. 👍🏻

Being sparse on details shows your smart, telling the whole story shows you have integrity. Hats off to you old chap!

Honesty, how RARE these days, ANY Landing you walk away from is a Good one. Best wishes to Pilot (and Aircraft!) for future Flights.

Hey Terry great informative content. Enjoy watching your channel as you learn quite a fair chunk of situations.. Andy 😊

I had a very similar experience on wet grass that I'm not a huge fan of talking about. Takes bravery to be so open and has made me feel better! Thanks for sharing.

This gentleman is an inspiration and role model in terms of thoughtful, calm, logical, rational, and professional approaches to problems that I think we can all learn from.

As a non-pilot, I'm impressed by the community spirit shown in the face of adversity. We need more of this spirit throughout the whole if society. Thanks for sharing James's experience. Safe flying.

Clearly some very silly mistakes made at the time, which you will kick yourself for for years to come. But, by far, by a mile, THE more important aspect is that you have told your story, openly and frankly. And with luck, others will learn from it. Nicely done and hats off to you Sir. Swiss cheese doesn't just taste good - when it bites, it hurts!

Good post. Good story. I'm going to remember the "Swiss cheese" part for my planned days aloft. Wish you many happy landings.

I recognise the little park that the interview with James was filmed, as a aspiring pilot myself its pretty cool to see someone i watch has recorded an interview in the same place i crossed through on a night out with friends Greetings from Czechia

Fantastic , video Terry.. rich in life lessons, thank you to James.. clearly a good pilot as he is always learning and sharing. JG

Hi James. Highly impressed that you were able to be do frank and honest. By sharing your experience I'm sure others will benefit. I recognise that some times little things not going to plan can knock you off your stride and play on your mind. I've certainly tried to overcome this by being hard nosed and determined that the loss of focus won't stop me flying. And its caught me out. But there again, as a balloon pilot, we always plan to have a controlled crash. But some are light as a feather. Others..!!? Happy flying and thanks for sharing

A fantastically put together video as always. I am learning a lot as a new content creator from watching your content. Your animations are excellent and add real value and perspective to your storey telling. So far in my relatively short time as an NPPL holder, I have been lucky enough to not have not had any accidents and I hope it remains that way. It was very interesting though to see from a pilot's eye perspective what happens following a reportable accident. It also confirmed what I already know, that the microlight community are a tight knit bunch. Thanks James for sharing your experience.

Very pleased to here this pilot is ok. We can all learn from what happened here. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for sharing this quite informative and prudent experience. I wish safe flights to you all.

Having seen this video I jumped onto Microsoft flight simulator 2020 and did a similar flight in an RV10 but from Glasgow.I found bute ok and because the satellite data goes back to 1992,the trees were still there.I chickened out of dialling in rain and just used live weather.I landed ok but the trees do force a longer landing and there is a slight downhill slope which in wet conditions doesn't help.Good luck with the rebuild and hope you get flying ASAP to keep the rust away.............................

Great Video. Its heart breaking to see the aircraft in that condition but wonderful to see James walk away from the incident and handle the situation in a truly professional and honest open manner. It is only in this way will lessons be learnt. We are all human and hindsight is good to bring clarity to the actions on the day. I wonder how many times we have set off for a flight or done things and in hindsight we have though we were lucky this time. I am not speaking only in aviation situations but driving, work tasks, etc. I wish James well and I hope he is soon back in his beautiful plane.

This is brilliant. Thanks so much for sharing. So many take aways. Glad everything was ok in the end.

Im not a pilot (would love to be one) but what a bloody brilliant little insight into the sort of accidents that one is more likely to have in their flying journey. Great to hear James and the Plane will be all good and flying again. This was some really great content!

Excellent film Short Field

Really great video and interview. A very humble video too.

Great video and fascinating analysis. A few years ago I lost tail rotor authority in my helicopter and was forced to make a hard landing in a remote field (Texas, not Scotland) but from that point forward the story line is almost comically identical! From the fire department and police not being able to find me, to the remarkable help rendered by the ranch owner, it is the same. In the end the aviation authorities and the flying community worked together and I too learned a great deal about what I did right…and wrong.

Amazing description of the incident and factual. We need more of this type of response to help aviators. Thank you for the video.

A 'prang', however minor, really can leave a mark in the mind. I've only had one and it was way back in 2015, but it still makes me a bit wary in certain situations. I suppose the most important thing is to make sure the experience results in learning which changes habits for the better. Hope James is back in the sky and loving his Sportcruiser again. Kudos to him for sharing the story and thanks to you, Terry, for making the video. 👍

This video is excellent. I think his approach to talking about this incident makes me confident in his abilities as a pilot not less. To properly reflect on the human factor dimensions and own the errors is huge. I also learnt that there's a airfield at Bute!! May even go there myself!

I'm not a pilot, I'm not even interested in flying. I haven't been in a plane since 1981 (commercial) - but this was interesting. I'm glad it was recommended. I have to commend you on the audio and visual quality.

I tell you, it’s bloody inconvenient when people with private aircraft are inconvenienced by the authorities who have crashed them! What a nuisance 😂

I'm not a pilot just an oap new to the love of aviation and one year in. I was fascinated by your explanation and of course I love Scotland and the Hebrides so this came up on my fb feed. I guess there is no tower, no a&e vehicles and left to local population to cut the runway and policemen who like me had no idea how to deal with a downed aircraft and thank god you didn't have a fuel leak! I'm so glad you survived and your lovely little prop plane was repairable. Do you call it 'OY! You!' ? Lol At first when the notification came up on my fb page thought it was going to be Stornoway airport on Harris, or Barra's beach landing strip. I never even knew there was a strip on Bute! So we all live and learn. So glad it didn't put you off going back in the air. Bit like me when I rode horses falling off you just have to get over an incident and garner your courage to get back on! Im still fighting my fear of flying as a passenger. So glad you did the same. Plus I've liked and subscribed by the way! 😉🙂 xx

Great video and this is the one that finally convinced me to hit the subscribe. It's really important that we share the times that go wrong not just the good times so we can all learn from them. Nothing to be embarrassed about when it could happen to anyone of us that fly into small strips.

Very interesting, not to mention illuminating. I'm not glad it happened to James, but I AM glad it didn't happen to you :) And in my usual vein, I have to observe: you BOTH have decent voices. Thanks!