I thought it was just going to be another fairly routine flying day on my way to the field. It didn't turn out that way at all.

The first suprise was that both tires were flat, so I spent the next few hours getting them fixed. Once I got that done I was ready to fly. A couple of fast taxi runs up and down the grass strip to make sure the tires were OK and I was ready for take-off. Full power applied and off I go. I do 3 or 4 touch and go's for my landing practice, then it's time to play a little bit, a wingover, a stall, tight turns, etc.

Then I decide it's time for a tailspin, so I climb up to where I am ready. I pull the power back and get into my spin. After about 3 full turns, I straighten out and begin to pull out of the dive for recovery. All at once I notice my left wing isn't flying where it should be, the whole plane feels tilted to the left. I glance over and see that the dacron material has ripped away in 2 of the 5 sections of the left wing.

Time for some fast thinking, I'm only at 500 feet, and losing altitude fast! Apply for right aileron to try to hold the wing up. No, that didn't help much. OK, I can land in this field right below me. Let's try right rudder. Yeah, that helps. I notice my movement relative to the ground shows that I am in a hard slip configuration. If I land like this, I could seriously damage the landing gear. Just as I get to the ground, and pull back to flare for landing I relax all the rudder control to neutral as the wheels are just setting down. A good landing!

Now it's a matter of getting the plane back to the field. I find a way to taxi it there via dirt roads. Hmmmmmm, an interesting day of flying, and a whole lot more emergency landing practice than I had counted on!