The 82-year-old passenger chartered the 50-minute flight from Bankstown to Cowra. 

Just before 3pm, the 23-year-old pilot, James Chandler, radioed in to say: “My passenger’s trying to take over ...  woah, woah.”

He put out a distress signal that was picked up by the crew of a Royal Australian Navy helicopter on a training exercise nearby and relayed to an emergency centre in Melbourne.

Still struggling to maintain control of both the aircraft and the allegedly irrational passenger, the pilot made a  bookperfect emergency landing in a paddock on the “Bloomfield” property on Titania Road at Edith.

The navy helicopter crew landed nearby to assist and to broadcast co-ordinates for emergency services who converged on the scene.

A tense struggle is alleged to have ensued in the small cockpit of the 1978 Beechcraft Duchess. Last week police charged the elderly man with prejudice the safe operation of an aircraft.

He was granted bail and will appear in Parramatta Local Court on September 29. 

Central West Flying pilot and instructor David Carroll praised Mr Chandler’s actions.

“The mid-air emergency is something you hope will never happen,” Mr Carroll said.

“You could hear the fear in his voice in the recording.

“We get taught if someone’s going to take over the plane you use whatever force is necessary ... an elbow to the face usually works.

“It’s whatever you can do to keep yourself safe ... it’s your life as well.”

Mr Carroll said the cockpit of the four-seater fixed-wing aircraft is small and commended the pilot’s efforts to regain control of the plane.

“He would have had to stop it [the plane] from diving or spinning or rotating ... you could turn the aircraft too steep ... it could turn into a spin and you could lose control of the aircraft.

“He did a very good job ... I’ve been in an emergency landing myself when an engine failed over Oberon Dam and it’s hard enough to land without all that happening.”

The owners of the twinengined Beechcraft aircraft have the dilemma of how to get the plane out of the paddock.

A resident of Edith said he believes the company is going to fly the plane out of the paddock. 

The resident said the paddock will be rolled to make it smoother and the owners will wait for the paddock to dry out and the right weather conditions before attempting to fly the plane out.