VH-UMC    de Havilland D.H.50                     (c/n  74)

                                 

                                      The above shot, from the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland collection, shows Alan
                                      Cobham's famous DH.50 as G-EBFO at Cloncurry, Qld probably in 1926 when it was being flown
                                      on his round trip from England to Australia whilst on a proving flight for Imperial Airways.     Two
                                      years later Norman Brearley of West Australian Airways saw it languishing in bits and pieces in a
                                      hangar at Stag Lane and had it shipped to Perth where he completed its rebuild as VH-UMC
                                      complete with a 300 hp ADC Nimbus engine replacing the original Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar.
                                      The shot below, from the Ted Fletcher collection, shows it shortly after its rebuild in October 1929
                                      on its nose at Forrest, WA. when being flown by WAA pilot Bert Heath in the East-West Cent-
                                      enary Air Race from Sydney to Perth.  (WAA staff had jokingly made up the slogan "Verily Heath
                                      U Must Crash").   At the foot of the page is an image culled from the Brisbane Courier of 1 October
                                      1929 showing the D.H.50 just before the race.  Anyway, inbound to Forrest from Ceduna and Cook,
                                      while in a low altitude duel with a Moth, Heath's undercarriage struck a rock resulting in this arrival
                                      at Forrest.   However the aircraft was repaired overnight at Forrest, using the undercarriage borrowed
                                      from the Civil Aviation Board's DH.50 which was accompanying the race, and Heath continued to
                                      Perth the following day to take line honors as first across the finishing line at Ascot Racecourse at
                                      3.02 pm.  VH-UMC was to crash again at Mia Mia Station between Carnarvon and Onslow, WA
                                      on 1 March 1934, and six months later its CofA expired and it was officially written off.