G-AUJK de Havilland D.H.60G Gipsy Moth
(c/n 984)
G-AUJK is seen above as one of several
machines which stopped over at Coffs Harbour sometime
in 1929 en route from the Ballina Carnival. This shot is from
the archives of the Coffs Harbour Library.
In the Sam Hood photograph below (via the State
Library of NSW collection) it had been repainted and
re-registered VH-. The caption for this latter image states
that
it depicts "Frank
Annabel arriving at
Hargrave Park
for an Air Pageant" which would date the photo to1930 or
thereabouts.. The rough
image at the foot of the page was taken from a newspaper photo from
the Sydney
Morning Herald dated
26 Octoiber
1929. The caption read: :
"CAUGHT IN AIR POCKET,
AEROPLANE CRASHES AT MASCOT.
Max
Mitchell, the pilot, was injured yesterday, when this Gipsy Moth
side-
slipped out oí an
air
pocket and crashed twenty feet to the ground. The
wings
were
telescoped and the propeller broken off".
Originally first
registered on 21
March 1929 to R. Annabel and it was then sold to I. D. Master of
Wellington,
NSW in September
1931. It was then brokered through de Havillands at
Mascot in 1936 who refurbished
it and resold
it
to the Whyalla Aero Club. This outfit
changed
its name to Spencer Gulf Aero Club in 1938.
VH-UJK was evidently not impressed during the
war and was finally
withdrawn from use in August 1945 and
broken up for
spares.
