VH-UAL de Havilland D.H.60 Moth
(c/n 246)
This early Moth is displaying Royal Victorian
Aero Club stripes in the above shot from the John
Hopton
collection. Originally registered (as G-AUAL) to the Civil
Aviation Branch, Dept of
Defence in August 1926 it
was one of many machines loaned to various branches of the Australian
Aero Club, this one going to the Victorian
Section at Essendon. It had a Cirrus II engine installed
in 1927. It had several prangs, some of them serious enough
to result in fatal injuries to the pilot.
One such
occured near Bendigo on 3 July 1929, as seen in the photo at the foot
of the page from
the Richard
Penna collection, showing it as G-AUAL. Incredibly it was
rebuilt by the following
January and
re-issued with a new C of A. By 1936 it was on the strength
of the embryo RVAC,
but on 23
December of that year it crashed again, this time on the Northern Golf
Links,
some 3
miles
east of Essendon Airport. It was not officially struck off the
register until 15 March 1937.
No doubt the RVAC
were debating having it repaired, but, in the event, decided againt this
course and its C of A was finally allowed to
lapse. It appears in a newspaper
clipping seen below
from the
Melbourne Argus of 19 December 1936 with
the caption
'Officials flagging away the first
machines to leave
Essendon yesterday for the final stage
of the
Brisbane to Adelaide air race'.
The latest accident referred to
above
possibly occurred as the aircraft was returning to Essendon
from
having competed in the air race.
