The de Havilland DH.86 in Australian operations (Part 2)

Subsequent events reinforced Taylor’s feelings about the aircraft. Qantas arranged for Imperial Airways to fly two of their ordered DH.86s to Australia and then operate them on a Darwin/Singapore service as Qantas was not yet in a position to do so. When the first aircraft, VH-USF, arrived in Darwin it was found to have both the fin post and fin bias gear not working normally. Australian authorities permitted the aircraft to fly back to Singapore with the bias gear not allowed to be used. On inspection in Singapore the serious nature of the defect was uncovered indicating the fin post would have collapsed, leading to cancellation of the CofA. A new fin post was built for the stranded aircraft and the CofA reinstated. Discovery of faults continued. Both VH-USD and VH-USE were shipped by sea with the former, also discovered to have a tail assembly fault.

The defects and delays caused by DH.86 problems called for drastic rescheduling of equipment. The substitution of older equipment from the 1920s with a reduced capacity would have caused annoyance to Qantas. Imperial Airways agreed to fill the gap with Armstrong Whitworth Atalantas operating Singapore to Darwin while Qantas would fly Brisbane to Darwin with single engined DH.50J and DH.61 aircraft. So, the planned 10 December service did commence, but it was with Qantas substituting DH.50J VH-ULG Hippomenes (delivered in August 1929) and DH-61 Giant Moth VH-UJC Diana (delivered in March 1929), flown by Captains Tapp and Brain, respectively. The DH.50J was one of a batch of three built by Qantas at Longreach in 1929, sold by the airline in 1936, while the DH.61 was also sold in 1936.

Qantas launches overseas flights

After all these setbacks, on 25 February 1935 Lester Brain captained VH-USF from Seletar Aerodrome, Singapore arriving in Darwin the next day. The first northbound flight the following day by Captain G U Allan in VH-USC was particularly noteworthy as the first time an Australian crew had flown an international air service from Australian shores. After the DH.86 was cleared for passenger flights the first normal service carrying the full mix of passengers, freight and mail departed from Archerfield on 17 April 1935 commanded by Captain H B Hussey. The first passenger was Coldstream Guards reserve officer Major H Phillips. The second passenger who joined the aircraft at Charleville was Lady Louis Mountbatten. 

This service, named Commonwealth Class by Qantas, left Archerfield, Brisbane on Wednesday and Saturday morning at 8am or 7am depending on the seasonal winter or summer timetable, with 11 intervening stops at Roma, Charleville, Blackall, Longreach, Winton, Cloncurry (overnight stop), Mount Isa, Camooweal, Brunette Downs, Newcastle Waters and Daly Waters, arriving in Darwin at 4:05pm or 3:05pm the following day. Then to Koepang, Rambang, Sourabaya with an overnight stop, Batavia and the longest stretch of 950 kilometres to Singapore. The first class fare Brisbane to London was £244 offering an picturesque experience over the several day experience. On the inbound flight the overnight rest was at Longreach. One can imagine the interest created at the inland locations, some small and isolated, at the sight of an impressive modern four-engined aircraft flying across Queensland and the Northern Territory then continuing to an Asian destination.

The service across Australia had a double role, not only to provide the beginning of the international flight, but to also serve small inland towns. The involvement of the frequent Australian stops on the 3,200km internal journey imposed an additional strain on the crews. Hudson Fysh lamented the cabin service in the restricted space in a DH.86 did not match the Imperial Airways standard, with Qantas offering sandwiches and tea from a Thermos in a lunch basket served by the First Officer. At some stops you got light refreshments, others a meal, and at the remainder – nothing. Fysh said that under the control of Brain and Allan, “The old DH.86s kept chugging away and operated up and down that 4,361 mile route like clockwork.”

It’s a reflection of the high standards of Qantas crews and planning that during the three and a half years of the Qantas DH.86 international service, 4,315,000km of flying were conducted with over 10,000 landings with no major damage to aircraft or injuries to passengers or crew. The new international service had operated with safety and punctuality until the flying boats were introduced in 1938. That new equipment also now enabled Qantas to introduce a separate DH.86 domestic service. But the new DH-86 Inland Service operating Brisbane-Darwin suffered from having lost experienced pilots transferred to the flying boats. Fysh said, “This aeroplane required good pilot-training and undoubtedly our standard had dropped on this secondary service.”

Domestic flights had continued

Meanwhile, on the domestic side, the DH.86 seemed to have settled down until an event the following year. On 2 October 1935, Holyman’s Airways DH.86 VH-URT Loina departed from Melbourne at 8:15am on a scheduled service to Launceston with a planned stop at Flinders Island. The crew consisted of Captain Arthur Evans, First Officer Max Brown, Engineer Edward Best and two passengers. Following a routine radio message at 9:51am reporting “Approaching Emita (Flinders Island). Height 1,000 feet. On course 136 deg. Closing down.” prior to a landing at Pat’s River Aerodrome, Flinders Island, nothing further was received. Approaching Flinders Island, the aircraft was observed by eyewitnesses entering a sharp left bank before impacting the sea. General Manager Captain Ivan Holyman arranged for two aircraft, DH.86 VH-USW Lepana from Melbourne and DH.84 VH-URD Miss Launceston from Western Junction, Launceston to begin a search while a police boat sent to the area salvaged six inflated lifebelts. Later Lepana reported floating wreckage was seen off the coast near Chalky Island. Other wreckage was also found washed on a beach near Blue Rocks, Flinders Island. There was no sign of the occupants uncovered in the search.

“This aeroplane required good pilot-training and undoubtedly our standard had dropped”

The anxiety caused by the loss of two DH.86s over Bass Strait was further increased by an incident two months later. On 13 December, VH-USW Lepana was operating a scheduled flight from Launceston to Melbourne flown by Captain Alex Bayne and First Officer Des Ditchburn carrying eight passengers. The pilots became concerned observing unexpected movement in interplane struts, understandably heightened by the knowledge of the two previous Bass Strait tragedies. The crew sent a Morse code message expressing their alarm in the belief a structural failure was a possibility and indicated their intention to make a landing on Hunter Island. A successful emergency forced landing was carried out on a grassy area with no injuries to all on board although damage was sustained by the aircraft. The stranded occupants left the Island the following day by sea. Hunter Island near the north-western tip of Tasmania was described as a bleak location with the only inhabitants being a dairy farmer and his wife who send their produce by ketch to Stanley in northern Tasmania. In a determined salvage operation in February 1936 to remove the aircraft, undertaken by the Matthews Aviation Co, a path was cut through scrub 1km to the sea. The aircraft was dismantled and loaded onto the ketch Leeta May, later repaired and returned to service that year.

To the Australian civil aviation authorities this incident required immediate action. With the loss of three DH.86s in Australia in the space of one year and widespread reporting of this latest event, the minister for defence, Archdale Parkhill, in an announcement from Canberra said the CofA of all Australian DH.86s was suspended immediately. However, an examination of Lepana revealed no structural fault but the crew’s alarm was due to a loose wing strut fairing. An understandable reaction at the time taking into account all the previous accidents. In a resounding anticlimax, the lifting of the CofA suspension was revealed in press release on the following Monday allowing the aircraft to resume service the following day.

The Australian decision to take action to cancel the DH.86 CofA received criticism in Britain from the secretary of the parliamentary air committee in the House of Commons, de Havilland and the Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SBAC). They felt it reflected on the quality of British aircraft and could be detrimental to exports.

W R Carpenter Airlines

This airline bought three DH.86Bs, which were all shipped by sea and assembled in Sydney. Carpenters flew its aircraft primarily in PNG and also commenced a return service from Sydney to Rabaul, which attracted good support enabling a build up to three flights a week. The first official airmail service from Sydney to Rabaul was operated by VH-UYU on 30 May 1938 carrying several passengers including former Australian prime minister Billy Hughes, who was then minister for territories.

Under a contract with the Australian government set to expire in May 1943, a subsidy was paid to Carpenters at the rate of one shilling per mile for one return flight Sydney-Rabaul each week. The effect of this was to equate to an approximate yearly payment of £9,654. The route flown was Sydney, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Townsville (overnight stop), Cairns, Cooktown, Salamaua (night stop) and Rabaul, with an elapsed time of two and a half days. The distance covered was similar to the Qantas Darwin to Singapore route. Following the outbreak of World War II, the airline’s DH.86Bs were impressed by the RAAF, with the service now maintained by Carpenter’s two Lockheed L-14-H2 Super Electras, VH-ADS RMA Carmania II and VH-ADT RMA Coronia II, in 1941. The service was suspended following Japanese attacks during World War II.

“The flying on the Sydney to Rabaul route presented its challenges, largely due to the lack of aids we had available”

The route was not without difficulties as explained by pilot Ken Jackson in an interview with Greg Banfield in the Journal of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia, “The flying on the Sydney to Rabaul route presented its challenges, largely due to the lack of aids we had available. I can remember going across from Cooktown to Port Moresby once during a cyclone. There were no drift sights or radio beacons and we just had to guess what the wind was to work out our drift. Flying at about 500 feet over the wave tops, we could gauge the wind better from the water and we went across with up to 40 degrees of drift on, just guessing that would take us to Port Moresby. As it turned out, we chanced it pretty well spot on.”

Jackson also explained some aspects of flying in New Guinea, “One of the most difficult parts of the DH.86 operation was that we were scheduled out of Port Moresby at 2:40pm to go over the Owen Stanley Ranges to Salamaua. Nobody over flew over there after midday, because every afternoon the cumulo-nimbus clouds built up, and with mountains up to 15,000 feet around you, you never went into a cloud and never flew blind. To get across the ranges one day, I had a DH.86 up to 19,000 feet, without oxygen; but I always managed to make the trip to Salamaua and never had to turn back.”

One of the three original aircraft, VH-UYW, on a flight from Salamaua to Rabaul was written off on 15 March 1940 when Jackson encountered a very heavy monsoonal storm preventing a landing at Rabaul. After several attempts to get through to Rabaul, which had no radio aids, the aircraft diverted to Kavieng but the fuel was exhausted about 48km short of the destination. The aircraft ditched in smooth water inside a reef a few hundred metres from the shore. Native canoes carried all on board ashore together with luggage mail and other equipment while the aircraft floated for about 40 minutes before later sinking in over 30 metres of water. A salvage was attempted about one week later, but as it was grappled to the surface, the wood and fabric structure made it a write-off.

When the two remaining DH-86Bs were impressed into RAAF use as air ambulances, two DH.86As were purchased soon after from Wearne’s Air Services in Singapore in mid-1940 with VR-SBC and VR-SBD becoming VH-USX and VH-ADN. The worsening war situation saw both these replacement aircraft also impressed into RAAF service soon after they were registered. On 16 October 1944, Carpenter’s aviation interests were taken over by Qantas.

Into military service with the RAAF

During World War II, the RAAF impressed eight surviving DH.86s from the Australian airlines, VH-UYV, -ADN, -UUB, -USW, -USC, -USF, -UZX, -UYU allocated serials A31-1 to A31-8 initially serving with No 34, 35 and 36 Squadrons. In Australian military service the DH.86 proved a versatile aircraft used for a variety of tasks such as wireless operator training and conversion for aeromedical duties with Air Ambulance Units. In this latter role three of the modified air ambulance aircraft, A31-3, A31-7 and A31-8 served in the Western Desert with No. 1 Unit to cater for the medical needs of wounded AIF personnel. One other aircraft A31-4 also served as an air ambulance with No. 2 AAU based in the Northern Territory.

“I always managed to make the trip to Salamaua and never had to turn back”

The perilous nature of this operation in a combat zone was highlighted by the loss of A31-8, formerly VH-UYU, shot down by a Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 110 of III./ZG26 on 8 December 1941, 3km south of landing ground LG.138 near the Libyan border (some sources attribute the attacker as a Bf 109, but Luftwaffe unit equipment records indicate it was a Bf 110). Both the pilot, Flying Officer Duffield, and a nursing orderly were injured in the encounter, with the seriously damaged aircraft written off. Three former Imperial Airways DH.86Bs, impressed into RAF service as AX762, HK829 and HK843, also joined the RAAF’s No. 1 Air Ambulance Unit in Egypt in 1942. All three were written off in accidents in Egypt, Tunisia and Italy, two in landing accidents, with HK843 destroyed by fire while evacuating patients from Pachino, Syracuse Province, Sicily when a Verey pistol was fired in the aircraft. A31-3 was also a victim of a fire at Heliopolis on 19 April 1942 when it was hit by RAF Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter X7804 after it had suffered an engine failure on take-off. Of the eight civil DH.86s impressed into RAAF service, these losses and other write-offs saw only VH-USW and VH-USF returned to civil use.

Qantas meets wartime challenges

There was another series of dramatic flights conducted by Qantas DH.86s, spurred on by events during World War II. In May 1942, a group of Australian New Guinea residents at Mount Hagen in the New Guinea highlands were located behind Japanese controlled lines at risk of being captured as prisoners. Enlisted in the rescue plan were DH.86As VH-USC and VH-USF, transferred and loaned from the RAAF on 30 March 1942, then modified with long range tanks and high-altitude equipment, flown by Captains Denny and Sims with the first flight on 13 May. The Australian end of the plan had been established with a fuel supply on Horn Island in Cape York Peninsula. When the flights arrived over the area cloud was encountered but they pressed on through a gap in the Bismarck Range arriving at Mount Hagen. Although the airstrip was 3,000 feet long an operational challenge was the 7,000 feet altitude reducing passenger numbers to seven or even six if dictated by the conditions. 

After two days of use, the grassy surface was causing the aircraft to sink. Captain Denny solved the problem organising a sing-sing of 2,000 participants to stamp down and compact the surface. The Horn Island departure at 7:00am to Mount Hagen flight took an average of three hours with the return flight arriving at 3:00pm. On one challenging flight to Mount Hagen, Captain Nicholl met severe icing conditions at 16,000 feet freezing instruments, with ice on all four carburettors causing the aircraft to enter a spin. Fortunately, warmer air at lower altitudes enabled the aircraft to resume normal operations. When the last of 18 flights was completed on 24 May, 78 people had been rescued including 45 troops. Luck was on the side of the rescuers as a major Japanese raid by 34 bombers on 21 May on Port Moresby did not upset the rescue plans. Further missions were conducted with one to Port Moresby on 13 December carrying rations to Popondetta and Soputa. During the Japanese bombing raid at Ward’s Strip, Port Moresby that night both aircraft were damaged and returned to service after repairs. On 9 October 1944, VH-USC was damaged in a cross-wind landing at Darwin and hit a ditch with major lower wing spar and undercarriage damage and reduced to components. While VH-USF was returned to the RAAF, it was later sold by the Commonwealth Disposals Commission to MacRobertson-Miller Aviation in January 1945, which also similarly acquired A31-4, resuming life as VH-USW.