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| Date: | Wednesday 27 June 1956 |
| Time: | 09:30 LT |
| Type: |  de Havilland DH-82A Tiger Moth |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | VH-*** |
| MSN: | DHA.*** |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Dumbalk North, Dumbalk, Victoria -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Agricultural |
| Departure airport: | Farm Strip, Dumbalk North, Dumbalk, Victoria |
| Latrobe Airport, Morewell, Victoria |
DH.82A Tiger Moth VH-***: Written off (damaged beyond repair) when crashed during agricultural (crop spraying/top dressing) operations at Dumbalk, North, Dumbalk, Victoria. According to the following report in the ATSB Safety Digest (Issue 09, March 1957):
DH.82 Overturns in Hillside Take-Off
FOR many weeks the weather had prevented superphosphate spreading operations in the Gippsland area of Victoria but on 27th June [1956] it dawned bright and clear and a local agricultural operator seized the opportunity to complete an unfinished contract while the weather was suitable.
He left Morwell at 0830 hours in a DH.82A aircraft and soon was top-dressing a field near Dumbalk North operating from an adjacent strip. The strip was quite exposed to the elements and after two hours work the wind strength began to rise and some storm clouds appeared in the west.
The wind was blowing across the strip and the pilot ceased operations for a time in the hope that it might abate a little. This it did not do and, as the weather looked more threatening an hour later, the pilot decided to take-off at a suitable moment and return to Morwell, abandoning further operations for that day.
The strip from which the pilot was operating was far from suitable for DH.82 aircraft even under the most favourable conditions. It ran along the top of a ridge of high land but was only 1,170 feet in length or 480 feet short of the minimum length prescribed in A.I.P.'s for a DH.82 at 1,000 feet above mean sea level. The full width of this strip did not exceed 61 feet at any point and, at about mid-length, it narrowed to 38 feet (i.e., less than 4 feet beyond each wing-tip of a DH.82A). The average longitudinal grade between strip ends was 1 in 16 (i.e., 3 times steeper than the maximum grade specified in A.I.P.'s).
Despite the strip's unsuitability under favourable conditions, it was not beyond the capacity of a DH.82A as is proved by the fact that the pilot had carried out some 200 landing and take-off operations on it; in doing so the margin of safety is considered to have been quite unacceptable. However, add to this a cross-wind gusting up to 25 knots and never below 10 knots (maximum permissible cross-wind component is 7 knots for a DH.82) and the pilot was faced with an awkward decision if he was to avoid pegging his aircraft down at such an exposed place in the face of deteriorating weather.
He decided to take-off during what appeared to be a lull in the wind, but could not hold the aircraft on the narrow strip. It swung down the steep slope falling away from the side of the strip and eventually overturned. The aircraft was severely damaged but the pilot escaped unhurt.
In the circumstances the pilot should have abandoned the operations much earlier. His eventual decision to fly the aircraft out was obviously made without an objective assessment of the risks involved. The physical features of the field, the wind and lack of wheel brakes precluded the take-off being abandoned safely once the aircraft began to move. As it was, the wind strength increased sharply during the take-off and being unable to stop, the pilot had to try and keep the aircraft on the narrow strip and endeavour to get it airborne.
In the severe crosswind conditions the pilot lost control and the aircraft veered down the steep slope with the pilot still trying to get into the air right up until the time the aircraft overturned. He was fortunate to escape from this accident without injury.
From the evidence it was concluded that
(a) The landing strip in use did not permit take-off and landing with a reasonable standard of safety.
(b) At the time of the· take-off leading to the accident, the wind component at right angles to the take-off path was in excess of 7 knots. The pilot contravened Air Navigation Order 20.1 in attempting to take-off in these conditions.
(c) The strip was so narrow that the pilot had to maintain a most precise take-off track and its downslope was such that, once a take-off was commenced in an aircraft without wheel brakes, it could not be safely abandoned.
CAUSE: The cause of the accident was that the pilot attempted to take-off on this narrow sloping strip in cross-wind conditions which affected controllability of the aircraft beyond safe limits".
Sources:
1. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH82.pdf
2. ATSB Safety Digest (Issue 09, March 1957): https://www.atsb.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/5774706/asd_09_mar_57.pdf
3. Morwell Advertiser (Morwell, Vic) 27 June 1956: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/133
4. https://airwaysmuseum.com/Downloads/DCA%20accident%20reports%201956%20to%201968%20v2.pdf
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrobe_Regional_Airport
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbalk,_Victoria
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-May-2025 15:46 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
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