Crash pilot Michael Reymond rebounds up club stairs

Moments after taking off from his brother’s property near Lancelin, Geraldton identity Michael Reymond knew he was in trouble.

“I was trying to get the engine to pump more power out,” the former city councillor said.

“I was concentrating on trying to get that throttle to work properly and meanwhile I didn’t focus on the most important thing which is air speed.”

Mr Reymond said he had no time for emotion while trying to control the Gemini Thruster ultralight during the fateful December 30 flight.

“It all happened very quickly,” he said.

I was turning back to land in the paddock, an emergency landing and found myself I wasn’t concentrating on air speed and spun in.

“I was very disappointed with my airmanship because I have landed aeroplanes many times without engines.”

Six weeks later after the crash at his brother’s mango farm in Karakin, 20km from Lancelin, Mr Reymond walked out of Fiona Stanley Hospital with his partially severed leg reattached and shattered wrist repaired.

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Last Friday he fulfilled a promise to walk up the front stairs of The Geraldton Club.

“It’s not as hard as I thought it would be but it did remind me that we do need to get a lift in here,” he said.

“It’s something I’ve advocated for the club anyway but I guess it’s a money issue. Given the demographics of the club I think it’s long overdue.”

Mr Reymond and his wife Diana enjoyed a convivial drink and catch-up with club members and guests..

This was one of the goals he reported to The Geraldton Guardian from his hospital bed, along with his planned return to the sport of cycling.

Although best known to many readers as a member of the last City of Greater Geraldton council, Mr Reymond was a former air force engineer and keen glider pilot.

Mayor Shane Van Styn’s description of the 72-year-old grandfather as a “man of steel” raised a chuckle as Mr Reymond left hospital with his reattached left foot held in place with external metal pegs.

“The mayor’s reference to me as a ‘man of steel’ is poetically correct,” he said at the time.

Mr Reymond previously described his body as “all sewn-up patchwork” and talked about undergoing rehabilitation to learn how to walk again.

“I was very close to having a prosthesis,” he said in February.

“When I looked at my leg (after the crash) it wasn’t there — it was hanging, still in my sock.”