"MAYDAY, mayday ... I'm going down." These were the last words Greg Mitchell, of Clarence Point, heard from friend and fellow gyroplane pilot Allan Wardill before Mr Wardill and his machine plunged 100m into the Tamar River yesterday morning. Apart from saying he was "bloody cold", Mr Wardill survived the crash uninjured. The pair were returning from a reconnaissance flight for a proposed Three Peaks Race flyover when Mr Wardill, 59, lost control of his Monarch gyroplane. Mr Wardill, of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, is Australian Sport Rotorcraft Association operations manager and said he had considered a reconnaissance flight appropriate to establish the route and check for possible forced landing areas. They had taken off separately from a landing strip at Clarence Point and were returning about 10am when Mr Wardill experienced problems. "We were just over-flying Mitch's house when I felt and heard a clunk," Mr Wardill said. "I thought I'd return to the landing strip to check it out ... but then I noticed the nose pitch down. "I tried corrective action with the stick, but nothing happened - there was no reaction and the stick itself seemed light in my hands. "Increasing and decreasing power also caused no reaction and by this time I was pointed downwards, probably at a 45-degree angle, I'd say. "I couldn't really bend over to kiss my arse goodbye, but the thought crossed my mind." Acting Insp. Jason Elmer, of George Town police, said it appeared the gyroplane had entered the water upside down. "I'd say I was extremely lucky," said Mr Wardill, a Qantas pilot whose 30 years' experience includes 26,000 hours in 747s. "I'm not sure if I went in (to the river) vertically or even upside down," he said. "I didn't lose consciousness to the best of my knowledge, but I became very aware of my circumstances when the cold water rushed around my ears. "I thought `Oh ..., it looks as if I've got away with this and now I'm going to drown.' "I released my harness and, I think, looked up or blew a breath of air and saw the bubbles going up. "I remember consciously thinking `The bubbles are going up, that's where the top is."' Mr Wardill said that he was between 3m and 4m below the surface by the time he released his harness and headed for air. "I popped out on the surface and looked to see how far it was to land," he said. "It didn't look that far, but as I started to swim towards the shore the current started taking me out to the sea, so I swam across the current alternating between breaststroke and paddling on my back. "You read a lot of accident reports in this business and get a feel for what you should do and what you shouldn't do so I knew I shouldn't swim like hell. "I think the gear I was wearing was saturated with air and that helped my buoyancy - I don't think it was until towards the end that my feet started to get really heavy as water saturated my boots. "I attracted the attention of some people on the bank who started to launch a dinghy, but by that time another boat had come past and took me to shore." Police said Mr Wardill was picked up by a recreational fisherman in the area. His gyroplane was not recovered yesterday.