VH-UPY  de Havilland D.H.60X Moth                     (c/n  550)

                                

                                  This Moth was one of the machines owned by the Civil Aviation Branch of the Dept. of Defence and
                                  loaned to the nucleus aero clubs in the early 1930s.  In the case of -UPY it went to the Lismore District
                                  Aero Club, in Lismore, NSW in June of 1931.  This locale is probably where the above shot, courtesy
                                  of the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, was taken     -UPY was an ex-RAAF aircraft,
                                  having previously been A7-31.    In 1934 it went to the Aero Club of NSW and remained with them until
                                  1938 when it was sold to R.G. Ross, trading as Downs Air Service of Chinchilla, Queensland.  The photo
                                  below, from the Frank Walters collection, shows it when with the (now chartered) Royal Aero Club of
                                  NSW, circa 1937.  When I took shots of RACNSW Tigers back in the 1940s and 50s, I was always
                                  trying to make the black rego on dark bl;ue background more contrasty.  I see this problem existed even
                                  before the war!   VH-UPY crashed at Roma, Queensland on 10 May 1939 unfortunately killing the pilot.