VH-UMA  de Havilland D.H.60G Gipsy Moth               (c/n  1088)

                                   

                                        These two images of -UMA are from the John Hopton collection.  Above is another Charlie
                                        Pratt photograph showing the Moth at Belmont Common late in 1930 when it was with the
                                        Pratt brothers' Geelong Flying School.  Below it is seen under rebuild in the Genairco work-
                                        shop at at Mascot in January of that same year.  The Moth was owned at the time by Mac-
                                        Robertson Miller Aviation Co of Parafield, SA.  It had crashed at Ardrossan,  SA on 9 Oct
                                        1929.   It was rebuilt and its CofA was re-issued on 12 February 1930, and it was eventually
                                        sold to the Geelong Flying School in November 1930.   It then had several subsequent owners
                                        in Victoria, and was finally written off in a crash at Cowes, Victoria on 10 December 1935.
                                        Like most Moths in the 1930s, VH-UMA had its share of minor mishaps.  In May 1930 it
                                        collided with a sheep at Meningie, SA as reported in the Adelaide Register News-Pictorial for
                                        27 May 1930 (see the publication's photo reproduction at foot of the page).  The report went
                                        on to say that the sheep was totalled (it didn't really couch it in those terms, but you get the idea)
                                        and the pilot and passenger received minor injuries.  VH-UMA was repaired at Meningie and
                                        flown back to Parafield.