Prior to making this flight, the pilot had not flown the
aircraft type since February 1969. The aircraft was refuelled
before departure and adequate fuel was available for the flight. In
the vicinity of Warragamba at 2500 feet the pilot changed the fuel
selection from the right tank on which he had'been operating and
after a few seconds the engine ceased to give power. He checked the
engine controls and changed the position of the fuel selector
several times. Apart from a brief period of surges of power his
efforts to restart the engine were of no avail and he chose a field
on which to carry out a forced landing. He was unable to position
the aircraft for a successful approach to the selected field and,
when this became apparent over the final few hundred feet of
descent, he continued on a straight course until the aircraft
struck a tree and crashed to the ground among trees in the vicinity
of out-buildings attached to a farm property. The aircraft was
fitted with two fuel tanks and the fuel selector provided for
selection of left or right tank or 'off. The selector also had
detent positions for two auxiliary tanks which are not fitted to
this particular aircraft and, to prevent selection of these
positions at which the fuel is not available, the selector
incorporated a small strip of aluminium with the ends bent to form
stops. When the aircraft was examined it was found that the
starboard stop was overridden and the selector was set to
approximately the port auxiliary tank selection.