Help - Gordon crash into Baffins at Woodbourne

[Dave Homewood]

Does anyone have any information on an incident when a Fairey Gordon was landing at RNZAF Station Woodbourne sometime between Sept 39 and March 1940, and the pilot by the name of Orchard brought the aircraft in too fast for the riggers to catch it? Apparently it slew into a line-up of Wellington (General Reconnaissance) Squadron Baffins.

I cannot find any record of this accident on the National Archives site that lists RNZAF accident reports, nor on adf.serials (though that site has very limited info on non-write off accidents).

Does anyone know which unit Orchard flew with? Was it No. 1 FTS Wigram?

[Peter Lewis]

Arthur Orchard was a Union Airways pilot, famous as the fellow who landed Electra ZK-AFD on Flagstaff Hill, Dunedin, 5th February 1943 a few minutes after taking off from Taieri.
There is a Rolls Royce car in the Southward museum once owned by A T Orchard of Nelson.

(Sorry Dave, hijacked your thread!).

[Dave Homewood]

No need to apologise at all. That's a great story and now I know his first name too.

Why did he land on the hill?? Please elaborate.

[tbf25o4]

As I understand from conversations with my uncle who was also a Union Airways pilot during the war years, Arthur Orchard was not instrument qualified and on take-off from Taieri decided to fly through or under cloud that formed over the hills to the north. Fortunately he was flying reasonably slowly and the angle of the electra almost matched the slope of the hill he hit.
All crew and passengers escaped unhurt!

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, that is quite a story. Was the aeroplane damaged?