Two 1930's incidents - any details please?

[Dave Homewood]

I have an excellent article that Keith Trillo kindly sent me some time back which was written by Edgar "Ted" Harvie about his flying experiences in the 1930's, largely in his lovely Avian ZK-ACM.

In the article he mentions two intriguing events, and i wonder if anyone here has more details plase?

The first involves DH60 Moth ZK-ADF which Ted delivered to Te Aroha. That town was just forming its own aeroclub and they were to have a pageant to raise funds or the new club. The plan was for Ted to bring down his Avian ACM and do a dogfight demo with the Moth, to be flown by C.C. Waite who'd just moved to Te Aroha from Wellington.

But Ted couldn't go at the last minute and so they brought in Stan Blackmore in his de Soutter ZK-ACJ to stand in. The high wing de Soutter was chased all around the sky and was very popular, but near the end of the display Waite dived the Moth right through the tail of Blackmore's aicraft, cutting it off.

Waite spun into the ground and was killed. Blackmore crashed into a paddock but walked away with just a broken nose.

Does anyone know more about this? Was the de Soutter a write off or was it rebuilt? I know it was one of the most famous aircraft in NZ at the time, and in 1941 it was claimed that plane had carried more passengers than any other in the 1930's anywhere.

The second event I'll leave in Ted's own words:

"One Sunday afternoon at mangere a Club pilot was doing some mild aerobatics in a Moth for the benefit of his admiring relatives and voluntarily put his aircraft into a spin right over the top of the aerodrome where everybody could watch him to full advantage. But he didn't come out of the spin.

With a crack like the dawn of the Armageddon he hit the earth almost plumb in the centre of the concrete landing circle. Then there was an awful silence, broken by the thin twittering of a startled lark, which was so ludicrous that people wanted to laugh. Instead, everyone gasped. From the middle of the completely flattened wreck a figure slowly rose, shook itself off like a tired and dusty old rosster, and then blinking self-consciously, made its way back into the arms of its petrified family. And not a single scar did the sorry chap sport."

Does anyone know the date, the aircraft and better still who the pilot was in this incident?

Thanks.

[Peter Lewis]

Well the first one is fairly straightforward.
The Moth ZK-ADF was a DH60M c/n 1399 which was sold new into Australia as VH-UMR in November 1929. It had owners there in Melbourne, Sydney and Barradine before being exported to NZ (I seem to recollect being told that it flew for a while in NZ as UMR, but this is unconfirmed).
The Moth was registered as ADF on 18th August 1934 to Martin A Scott of Auckland (probably the same Scott who had previous involvment with Hamilton Airways and Rotorua Airways).
As you say, it crashed at Waihou, nr Te Aroha, 28Nov34 after mid-air collision with 'ACJ. Pilot Clarence C Waite killed. The remains were sold to the Auckland AC but never rebuilt.
The Dessoutter, at that time owned by the Waikato Aviation Co.Ltd. was of course rebuilt after this incident and flew for many more years until it was damaged beyond repair in a forced landing after engine failure when it hit a tree nr Whakatane River, Taneatua, 8Nov50. Remains burnt at Rotorua.
There is some coverage of the incident in Leo White's Wingspread book.
As an aside, it would have to be an optimist who would try to establish an aero club in a tiny place like Te Aroha in the middle of the 1930s depression.

The second question is a bit more difficult, as no indication of date is given.
The following Moths came to grief at Mangere:
ZK-AAK Damaged in heavy landing at Mangere 17May37
ZK-AAS Cr Mangere 18Nov30, rebuilt
ZK-AAT Stalled & spun in on landing approach at Mangere 12Mar38, pilot Frank Fearnley
ZK-ADG Cr Mangere 30Dec36, rebuilt
ZK-ADG Stalled from turn & cr Mangere 28Feb39.
There may have been others that were rebuilt back to airworthy.
(there was also AAE, but I know the circumstances of that one, and it certainly doesn't fit).

So all I can say is that we need more info before settling on the correct aircraft!

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Peter. Was Frank Fearnley an AAC staff pilot I wonder?

[Peter Lewis]

Never seen a pic of the Moth as ADF.
However have just found this one of it as VH-UMR

[stu]

Is this page any help?
www.dehavilland.ukf.net/_DH%20full%20prodn%20list.txt

Found it while looking up the background of ZK-ACK.


Cheers,
Stu.

[fletcherfu24]

One of my in-laws was attending Waihou school at the time and saw the crash,he told me about it several times.The airstrip(paddock) was near the village at Waihou,on the main road between Te Aroha and Morrinsville.Te Aroha in those days was a bustling spa town where people from Auckland came down to take the mineral waters.Probably the Queenstown of its day,the trip from Auckland involved a boat trip or a car trip through the undeveloped swamps,so an air service would have made good sense at the time.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks for that info Fletcher. I agree that air transport would have been a boon for the town in the 1930's. Here in Cambridge which was and is on the main road north-south, up till the 1940's the roads were rubbish. Apparently the roads inside the Borough were good, nicely sealed and well looked after. As soon as you got to the greenbelt the road turned to metal and pot-holed rough tracks. Apparently the trip from here to Hamilton (now about 15 minutes drive) could take over an hour depending on your car. People instead would ride the steam boat from Cambridge wharf to Hamilton ferry wharf (steamboat and wharfs now all gone ) or take the train (railway now gone ) or if they were in a hurry and had the money they could call Hamilton Airways (now defunct) and Mac Macgregor (long dead) would fly over and land at Cambridge Aerodrome (long gone) and pick you up and land you at the Claudelands raceway (the only thing in all this still left!). Those were the days eh.

[Dave Homewood]

You can now read the whole article on Edgar Harvie's page on my website here
www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Edgar%20Harvie.htm

And here it is

[Peter Lewis]

There have been no Dessoutters in NZ since ACJ's demise.
When I was in Tasmania early last year, I was able to get close up and personal with the Desoutter VH-UEE in the Launceston museum. This was the first aircraft to operate a scheduled service between Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands in 1932. Quite a time capsule. Gives you a whole new respect for Stan Blackmore and others of that time.

[Dave Homewood]

I think there's still one flying in the UK, isn't there?

[Peter Lewis]

Shuttleworth's G-AAPZ