VH-UGX de Havilland D.H.60X Moth
(c/n 425)
Originally owned by O.B. Hall and D.G. Officer of Bellevue Hill, NSW,
this Moth was acquired,
in January 1930, by Hart
Aircraft Service Pty Ltd (a broker?). It was then sold to the
Central
Australian Gold Exploration
Co as a replacement for VH-UMR ('Golden
Quest') which had
crashed some 200 miles west
of Alice Springs in August of 1930. -UGX was named 'Golden
Quest 2' , as seen in the image immediately
below. It is seen above circa 1931 (looks like Sydney
Harbour Bridge was
still under construction) in this photo from the Frank Walters
collection.
The company had
been formed to specifically search for an alleged reef of gold which
Harold
Bell Lasseter
claimed to have found on the western edge of the McDonald Ranges.
The aerial
search was less than
successful (pilot W.L. Pittendrigh got
lost trying to find the base camp, and
was
forced to land,
nearly perishing for lack of water). Lasseter himself left
the base camp with
7 camels on
15th. September 1930, heading SW in search of the reef that he had
claimed to have
seen from
the air in Golden Quest 2. He perished in the desert after
his camels bolted. For
more
details on this story of
Australian exploration go to
.
http://www.duckdigital.net/FOD/FOD0499.html
Anyway, in May 1931 VH-UGX was sold off to Adastra Airways
of Mascot and then, three
months later to J.N.M. Weir
of Sydney When its CofR lapsed in 1932 it was fitted
with a
Gipsy II engine before
being renewed. Sold again in January 1934 to D.L.
Rawnsley, it was
repatriated in July
of that year back to the U.K. becoming G-ACXF. The
fourth image of -UGX
(below, in
company with VH-UJN) is from the John Hopton collection.
Finally at the foot of the page is a
photo which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald for
31 March 1928 depicting
G-AUGX as the "racing machine in which Major de Havilland made
a non-stop flight from
Melbourne to Mascot in 5 hours 3 minutes"..
