WANGANUI PLANE IS DAMAGED WHILE SPREADING MANURE

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 December 1950, Page 4

WANGANUI PLANE IS DAMAGED WHILE SPREADING MANURE

HAWERA, Last Night (PA).— A Tiger Moth aircraft, owned by Wanganui Aero Works, crashed yesterday at Meremere during aerial topdressing operations on the farm of Mr S. Powell. The pilot, Mr D. Holloway, was uninjured, but the aircraft was extensively damaged. Damage was also caused to a truck that was struck by the plane immediately before it crashed.

The accident occurred when Mr Holloway, who has been carrying out topdressing on farms in the district for over two months, took off for the first flight of the day at 8.10 a.m. The plane, which was carrying a load of 2751 b of fertiliser, left the ground at the far end of the paddock, where a fair breeze was blowing, but when approaching the other end apparently ran into still air in the lee of a boxthorn hedge. According to Mr Holloway, there was insufficient speed in the take-off and subsequent lack of height. Portion of the undercarriage struck a truck belonging to Mr C. Dietschin, Mokoia, denting the bonnet and smashing the windscreen. The plane carried on for about 30yds before striking a gate in a portion of the hedge near the corner of the field that had been cut low for a distance of about 20yds. FORCE OF IMPAOT The force of the impact smashed the gate and caused extensive damage to three of the four main planes of the aircraft. The aircraft came to a standstill with its nose down, the propeller and fuselage being undamaged. The lower port and starboard vviqgs, however, were pushed well back and the undercarriage was thrust badly out of alignment. The motor was undamaged.

Mr Holloway was not injured in any way, either in the crash or by thorns from the hedge, thrown back when the plane sheered off twigs and small branches. Mr Dietschin, who had carried a load of fertiliser out from Hawera, was luckily not in the cab of his truck or there would have been a great poss bility of his being cut by flying glass. Both he and Mr Powell escaped injury by taking shelter behind the truck. Mr Holloway, who is a pilot with long experience, including service as a flyer during the Battle of Britain, took off from the same field 125 times yesterday in operations over Mr Powell's property and over the property of Mr G. W. A. Williams, Ohangai. Another plane arrived to take over the work while the damaged aircraft is undergoing repairs. Mr Holloway was of the opinion that the strengthening of' the fuselage by the hopper that carried and distributed the tertiliser was responsible for the fact Hint the damage was, in the main, cpnlined to the wings and undercarriage.