VH-UYI  Beech C17B                                   (c/n  129)

                                     

                                          The above image is from the South Australian Aviation Museum archives and shows the big
                                          Beech when it was a visitor to Parafield in 1938.  VH-UYI was first registered in June 1937
                                          to J.F. Jackson of St. George, Queensland.     It appears to have been a new aircraft.  In Oct
                                          1940 it was sold to F/Lt. J.F.W. Collins of Beaudesert, Queensland.  It crashed at Archerfield
                                          on 21 May 1941 and was destroyed by fire.   A newspaper report from the next day's Courier
                                          Mail gives no reason for the crash other than that it apparently crashed shortly after take off. 
                                          It was being flown by owner F/Lt Collins, a well known sporting private pilot.   His passenger
                                          was S/Ldr Roy C. Phillips, M.C., D.F.C., who was C.O. of the Archerfield Elementary Flying
                                          Training School at the time.  Both officers were killed instantly.   I have lost the provenance of
                                          my shot (below) taken at Archerfield before the war.