Hermannsburg 1954 dragon-rapide crash

[Bruce Tuncks]

I have tried for years to get a copy of a picture I saw as a kid in Alice Springs. Just lately, I have found that a dragon-rapide VH-BKM crashed on take-off at hermannsburg but no date was given. I don't think anybody was killed. The pilot may have been Sam Calder of Alice Springs. The plane belonged to Connellan Airways.

I sure would appreciate any help finding out more. The picture I remember shows a broken but unburned dragon at Hermannsburg.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Bruce Tuncks

[onetrack]

Bruce, VH-BKM crashed and burned in 1948. Do you have the 1954 crash date correct?

 

https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh89-dragon-rapide-daly-waters

[onetrack]

Here's the crash you're looking for - it was VH-AXL, piloted by Sam Calder, and it was simply a failed takeoff due to a lack of power, and not actually a crash. It occurred on 17/09/1946. Just hit CTRL and F, and search for "Hermannsburg".

 

Eddie Connellan was blisteringly scathing about the DH.84's lack of power, and when the DCA advised him he was not allowed to import Beech 18's, and had to use ex-RAAF DH.84's, he told the DCA, the "best thing that they could do with the enormous fleet of Air Force Dragons, was to put them all in a heap, and burn them!".

 

The reason for the ban on the importation of Beech 18's, was because the Govt of the day was desperate to avoid running up any debts in US dollars - economic regulation rigidity was the order of the day, back then.

We were already paying the Americans for all the War Surplus, and that US debt was possibly of great concern to the Govt. By 1950, however, the Govt had earned enormous profits from the War Surplus auctions and tenders sales.

 

https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/dh84-pt2/dh84-dragon-pt2.htm

[facthunter]

The Dragon IS underpowered. It only has 2 Tiger moth engines of 130Hp each. Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Thanks guys....  no I don't know the date....  it was when I had my first job ever, folding up the centralian advocate newspaper.

I would have been too young in 1948 , so that was the basis for my guess.

And yes, the Dragon-Rapide was grossly underpowered, especially for the hot and high airfields we had then.

It was nice of you onetrack to say how it was a rational decision to insist on pommy planes at that time.

I reckoned it was because Robert Menzies was an Anglophile  and he got rewarded by all the imperial honours you could imagine.

BUT
 i knew this guy who told me that the DH dragon-Rapide was the best plane he had ever flown, and he had flown spitfires.

I wish everything was easier sometimes.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I remember the Calder name, I reckon there was a girl in school with that name. All the rest agrees with what I remember, and the "crash" might well have been an old one.

These days, the airfield at Hermannsburg is disused, I last saw it with shrubs growing in the gravel. The place is only about 45km from Alice Springs,most of it on bitumen, and a car is a better transport option these days.

Eddie Connellan could have ignored the government but they were paying for his operation with their mail contracts.

.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Well guys you did so well that I have another picture to trace.... this one is taken just south of Heavitree gap, and it shows a mounted policeman and about 8 shackled aborigines on foot. The date would have been about 1900 but this is just another guess. The policeman might have been sgt stott, but I don't know.

In the background, there is the old police station which guarded the gap. The caption for the pic read " Cattle thieves being taken to court" which was in Port Augusta at the time.

I reckon it was impossible for that lot to reach Port Augusta, so I would love to see the pic again and hear the full story.

On this picture, I contacted the NT archives but they were unable to help.

[facthunter]

The DH 84 is not a Rapide. Different plane altogether. Plywood fuselage and tapered wings and bigger engines. Qantas at Charlieville had a licence to build DH planes in Australia.   Nev

[old man emu]

I had a look at this https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/dh84-pt2/dh84-dragon-pt2.htm

 

What I got from it was that the Gypsy engine was not the most reliable thing ever built. But one could say that about any engine - aircraft, motor vehicle or boat - from that time. Although I'm sure that the manufacturers could quite easily meet the design tolerances of the engine parts, the problem probably stemmed from the metallurgy involved. 

1 hour ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

I reckoned it was because Robert Menzies was an Anglophile

That's one I don't think you can lay at Pig-Iron Bob's feet. In 1946 it was Chifley who was PM then. Chifley, who tried to nationalise air transport by forming TAA and created a Constitutional storm in the process.  Chifley who stifled even the purchase of the most modern British aircraft of the time. There's a lot of aviation political history that has been forgotten.

[turboplanner]

10 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Well guys you did so well that I have another picture to trace.... this one is taken just south of Heavitree gap, and it shows a mounted policeman and about 8 shackled aborigines on foot. The date would have been about 1900 but this is just another guess. The policeman might have been sgt stott, but I don't know.

In the background, there is the old police station which guarded the gap. The caption for the pic read " Cattle thieves being taken to court" which was in Port Augusta at the time.

I reckon it was impossible for that lot to reach Port Augusta, so I would love to see the pic again and hear the full story.

On this picture, I contacted the NT archives but they were unable to help.

Relatives?
I found one report on 7 but they weren't tried and were taken back to their own people for some reason.

[turboplanner]

I didn't find any more. Tha above was the 1906 trial for killing cattle.

Right now the Aborindustry is tellin stories for financial gain about massacres (definition the killing of more that three people by whites; killin by blacks not in the stats), and other atrocities by the "colonisers". The reality was that the British were sending people to the colonies for stealing a loaf of bread and if you killed someone you were strung up very smartly, so every death was investigated and a handing usually followed, so a casual black shoot really wasnt a Sunday proposition. Instead the biggest issue was Aborigines dying from diseases like the common cold, and the British almost from European settlement appointed Protectors of Aborigines to try to stop the deaths and avoid any white exploitation of the Natives. Interestingly in this 1906 Trial of the 7 for cattle killing the local Protector of Aborigines went to the station where the cattle had allegedly been killed and didn't find any carcasses, and he gave evidence at the trial, hence the not guilty result and some better treatment for the 7.

[facthunter]

May I point out that WE are seriously off topic and that we do have  a "section" for that purpose..   Nev

[facthunter]

The Gipsy 1-c was a very reliable motor at that time and anytime but lately experts change things and some of the reliability goes down the drain. The cylinder heads were of aluminium bronze for heat conductivity and give no trouble unless you run leaded fuel when the exhaust valve seats erode. It was also  difficult to insert them until the later type inserts (welltite) became available  It's easy to dismiss old stuff as being carp  but I can't recall a 1-c blowing up ever till modern times when people put severe oil control rings in and use plastic for the (Gravity) oil return pipe as only an idiot  would.   I'd regard it as the bulletproof engine of the period ..   Nev

[old man emu]

Butler Ait Transport lost a DH82A in the Warrumbungles on May 23, 1952 at 1730 LT. 

 

The official record of the incident reads: While approaching Tooraweenah from the north, the pilot encountered poor weather conditions with heavy rain falls. He elected to make an emergency landing when the aircraft crashed in flames in a dense wooded area located in the Warrumbungle Mountain Range, about 18 km north of Tooraweenah. The airplane was destroyed by fire and all five occupants, among them pilot Keith Brown were injured.

 

The local history is that the weather was crappy, and last light on that day was about the time of the crash. Knowing that the plane was due to arrive from Baradine, it is probable that the ground staff had set out the kerosene lamps to mark the runway. 

Unknown to everybody was that a farmer had been clearing trees and had pushed them into piles, in lines. The farmer chose that day to set the timber of fire.  According to a passenger on the Rapide, "We took off in a clear sky but in a few minutes you could hardly see anything for the mist. Most of us dozed. When I opened my eyes I thought we were at Tooraweenah Aerodrome. Down below I could see what looked like flares. The pilot too seemed to think this." The crash did not seem to put the passengers off flying with Butler Air Transport. After being checked over by a doctor in Gilgandra, they were back at Tooraweenah the next morning to join the DC-3 flight to Sydney 

 

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/112850228/11510351

 

VH-UUO, Construction No. 6259 was built in the English summer of 1934 and registered as ZK-ACO  and named Tainui (the first Maori war canoe to reach NZ) for entry in the Melbourne Centenary Air Race, where it carried race number 60 and on 3/11/34 Reached Melbourne, the ninth and last race aircraft to cross the finish line. Total time 13 days 18 hours 51 mins with a flying time 85 hours 42 mins. Came fifth in Speed Section and sixth in Handicap Section. On 14/11/34 it Departed RAAF Richmond NSW for a direct flight to NZ, with the same three crew. Landed at Palmerston North NZ after 12 hours 14 mins flying time. They carried extra fuel in 4 gallon cans which they emptied into a feeder tank in flight.
Publicised at the time as the first aerial crossing of the Tasman Sea by NZ born pilots.

 

That's enough for here. If you want more, come to the Arthur Butler Aviation Museum

[facthunter]

DH 82 A is the tigermoth. Your shot shows the  tapered wings of the Dragon Rapide clearly. It would wingdrop easier that the Dragon. Keith Hilder had one at Pelican in the early 60's. Nev

[facthunter]

The Line of oilpots down one side (left) was standard runway lighting. and one extra at each end. If you cleaned one up you'd be on fire to start with.   Nev

[old man emu]

On 03/01/2023 at 9:48 AM, facthunter said:

DH 82 A

It's easy to make a typo when the keys for the numbers are so close together. The aircraft involved was a DH 89A.

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Thanks OME

 

[Old Koreelah]

On 3/1/2023 at 9:56 AM, facthunter said:

The Line of oilpots down one side (left) was standard runway lighting. and one extra at each end. If you cleaned one up you'd be on fire to start with.   Nev

I found quite a few of them in the back of our fuel shed at Qdi Airport. We also have a collection of heavy cast runway light bases- they look a bit like old truck gearbox housings. Do you need any for your museum?

[old man emu]

39 minutes ago, Old Koreelah said:

I found quite a few of them in the back of our fuel shed at Qdi Airport. We also have a collection of heavy cast runway light bases- they look a bit like old truck gearbox housings. Do you need any for your museum?

Bloody oath I do!

[Bruce Tuncks]

Those oil-pots would not have worked at Bond Springs when Bert was returning ( with a world record if he landed safely ) from 3 ways. The was no lighting, but there were car headlights on the strip... But poor Bert was too far out to the west and the cars were behind the scrub. If only somebody had used the Stuart highway earlier! 

As soon as he saw the lights, he turned towards them but he was too low and when the clock said 2,400 ft the wings got ripped off.

[Bruce Tuncks]

In hindsight, they should have sent a car up the road a half hour earlier, or as soon as they started hearing from the glider.