VH-UAU de Havilland D.H.60X Moth
(c/n 414)
VH-UAU was built as a seaplane and was one of
20 Cirrus Moths delivered to an early RAAF
contract.
It was assigned the serial A7-13 and operated by the Seaplane
Flight at No 1 FTS,
Point Cook. In September 1932 it was released from the
service and was taken over by the
Civil Aviation Board, Dept of Defence and loaned to the Australian Aero
Club (Tasmanian Section)
at
Western Junction Airport, Launceston. In 1937 it was
absorbed into the Tasmanian Aero Club.
The
photo immediately below, from the Lawrence Roche collection shows it at
Hamilton, Vic in Dec
1938 still with Tasmania
Aero Club tail strips although by then it had been solid off by the
aero club.
It
had several
other owners in Victoria and NSW finally winding up in 1943
with H.C.Mark of
Deniliquin, NSW,
following an earlier crash at
Barellan, NSW. (Turns out
Mark flew -UAU on
several
occasions in the late 1940s without the
machine having a full CofA).
It was eventually
stricken from the register and languished in a shed
at Deniliquin where John Hopton took photo # 3
below, circa 1960. In 1964 it was acquired by
the
Powerhouse Museum in Sydney
where it is
currently displayed in Tasmanian Aero Club markings. The
illustrations above and at
the foot of the
page are from the Museum and show the Moth in its
originals form. Today it is suspended from the
ceiling. .
