A minimum change from
VH-GAS
(for Porta-Gas), VH-UAS was registered in March 1966.
By 1970 it was
based at Fogarty’s Field, near Melbourne. It came to grief
taking off from a
strip near Gunbower
on November 22, 1970, to return to base It never reached a
safe flying
speed and
came down in a swamp. It was not removed from the register
until September 1976,
when it was withdrawn from use. It is not known if this was due
to the 1970 accident or not.
Anyway,
–UAS returned to register in December 1981 and was photographed by
David
Carter at
Essendon on February 23, 1983. On May 5, 1990, the
Musketeer suffered yet
another accident when an
attempted go-around at Bendigo went wrong and it tore off an
undercarriage leg.
It recovered again but on December 17, 1991 it crashed into the sea off
Port
Addis, Victoria killing all on board. The plane was flying from
King Island to Moorabbin.