VH-ULH de Havilland D.H.60X
Moth (c/n
Genairco 7)
This aircraft was a Genairco rebuild of the
D.H.60X G-AUHA (c/n 426) following its crash
at
Marulan, NSW on 11 February
1929. Following a series of owners, crashes and lapses of
Cs of A in NSW in the early
1930s, it was sold to Holyman's Airways of Launceston, Tasmania
in July 1936 who used it as
a company hack and also for pilot training. When Australia
National
Airways was formed on 1
November of that year, the Moth passed to their asset
register. It is
seen above in this
photo from the Geoff Goodall collection wearing the ANA flag on the
rudder.
The Genairco factory shot (below) just after the
completion of its rebuild in July 1929.
The fitting
of the Gipsy I engine from
VH-UIA on 29 January 1937 turned
it into a D.H.60G.
Shortly after-
ward, on 9 June 1937 the
aircraft was being flown by Jack
Macalister who was attempting a night
landing
at Essendon Airport, Melbourne. Due to heavy fog he flew over
the city looking for an
alternate landing
ground. Attempting to land at the Malvern Oval
he struck the spire of St. George's
Anglican church and
crashed. Fortunately neither Jack nor
his passenger were seriously
injured,
but the damage to -ULH was
such that it was written off.
At the foot of the page is an image from
the State Library of New
South Wales collection of "Jim Broadbent in his DH Gipsy Moth,
shakes
hands with his
mechanic.......circa 1934" Well, if in fact, the Gipsy had been
fitted by then, the date
would have been
1937. Additionally, the official register makes no note of
a Mr. Broadbent ever
owning this Moth.
Must be a story there somewhere.