G-AUHF
de Havilland D.H.60X Moth
(c/n 406)
Another "better than nothing" image gleaned from the pages
of the Adelaide Advertiser for 14 July
1928 following its crash at Alexandria,
NSW on the 9th of that month. As Graeme Parsons, who
researched it states "odd
that the accident appeared not to have been written up in the Sydney
Morning
Herald" Anyway, G-AUHF was first registered to de
Havilland Aircraft Pty Ltd of
South Melbourne on 19
April 1928. It was then sold to E.F. Rule of Sydney on 13 June
1928
only to see it prang a
scant five weeks later! The caption with the
newspaper image above
indicates that "This Moth
airoplane (sic) stalled at 1000 ft and nose dived at about 400 ft and
crashed into a
paddock near Sydney. The pilot, Mr. John Ruckeridge and the
passenger Mr.
Walter Gaddum, a New
Zealand farmer, who was having his 1st flight, were severely injured".
The wreck was sold to
J.E. O'Connor of Homebush, NSW who rebuilt it and secured a new
CofA for it on 28 August
1929. Clearly this bird was jinxed, for it crashed again at
Gerringong,
NSW on 16 November 1929,
and this time was written off.
.