VH-UGJ de Havilland D.H.60X Moth
(c/n 3)
This Moth was assembled by de Havilland
Aircraft Pty Ltd in South Melbourne in 1927. As such
it
has a "local" c/n. Apparently Stag Lane did not allocate
UK serial numbers to the kits sent out.
It went to the Australian Aero Club (NSW
Section) at Mascot, and wound up as part of the Royal
Aero Club of NSW fleet.. Presumably it took a trip to
Queensland when the above photo, courtesy
of the John
Oxley Library. State Library of Queensland collection, was taken,
although the date and
venue are unknown. The two illustrations immediately below are
from the Faiurfax newspaper archive
collection (via the NLA) and were taken at an Aerial Pageant at Mascot
in March 1928. G-AUGJ
evidently
participated in an air race along with G-AUAH and G-AUFV, and the
second shot shows
them
practicing for the event.
VH-UGJ was
written off in a crash
landing on 8 October 1940.
At the bottom of the page
is a
photo from the Howard Morris collection (via Geoff Goodall) of -UGJ
following
said
accident. The machine had hit a
windsock pole while
landing, and Howard Morris
was the
pilot/ instructor At this time the club
was training RAAF cadets prior to the EFTS schools
being
established across
Australia, hence the presence of RAAF personnel. This
finished the career
of this
early Moth import which had been flown exclusively by the aero club
since its Australian
CofA
was first
issued on 19
September 1927. Note the club wings and fleet
number 5 on the rudder.