• No regn de Havilland Australia. Delivered 29-Mar-1955.
• A95-201 Royal Australian Air Force. Delivered 04-May-1955.
Note: As delivered A95 201 was painted overall trainer golden yellow, with black fuselage cheat line, serial number and nose trim and a black anti glare panel. Markings comprised of the “D” type roundels (plain red, white and blue) on the fuselage and top and bottom of the wings, fin flash on the tail with the DH logo above it. It had “Beaver” in white script on both pilot’s doors as well as the name “Miss Sheila”during the 1958 expedition in red cursive on the port side pilot’s door. Prior to going to Antarctica the “D” type roundels were replaced with the “Standing” Kangeroo emblem as remarked upon it Ed Coates note below. It wore these colours until repainted in March 1958 in the International Day-Glo orange scheme worn by the other Antarctic Beavers and its fuselage roundels were changed to the standard “Bounding” RAAF kangaroo design that had been adopted. (Kangaroo wing roundels were not adopted by the RAAF until 1966). Detail courtesy of Mike Mirkovic.
• A95-201 Acted as support to Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) Flight.
Antarctic Adventures.
The following notes are extracted from the book written by David Wilson, “Alfresco Flight, the RAAF Antarctic Experience”. Details of specific flights are mentioned where details are known but the aircraft flew many other sorties on reconnaissance, photographic and depot support flights as well”.
The notes highlight the problems encountered by both the flight and ground crews in the tough environment.
Current information can be found at http://www.antarctica.gov.au/ as well as Wikipaedia.
1955-1956 season.
The aircraft was initially flown to Point Cook RAAF station from de Havilland at Bankstown and then to the Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) at Laverton to help train the Antarctic Flight personnel for the season.
The aircraft was shipped to the Antarctic from Melbourne on 27-Dec-1955 on MV Kirsta Dan. An Auster was loaded into a hold and the float equipped Beaver was firmly secured on a cradle on the hatch cover. It was covered by a screen designed to prevent damage from ice falling from the rigging when the ship reached the southern ocean.
On 05-Jan-1956 the ice edge was reached and the Beaver flew a short reconnaissance to establish a route through for the ship.
On 07-Jan a photographic sortie was completed along the coast to Cape Bickerton to the east and Porpoise Bay to the west, a distance of some 300miles.
On 09 Jan-1956 the aircraft completed a further ice reconnaissance and photographed 30 miles of the coast west of Cape Southard although a route through the ice towards Mawson was not established. This was the last flight on floats as the conditions were no longer suitable for float operations but also the floats were damaged as the aircraft was lifted back onto the ship. A lifting strop broke allowing the aircraft to drop onto the cradle. The aircraft was placed back on ice alongside the ship and skis were fitted.
The aircraft first flew in this configuration on 16-Jan-1956.
The expedition ship stopped at the Russian base of Mirny for a week from 21-Jan-1956 and the Beaver conducted several photographic flights from here.
The ship was subsequently stuck in ice before finally reaching Mawson on 17-Feb-1956. Once there the airmen constructed a steel hanger to enable flying operations to continue through the winter.
Ice conditions now caused two months of inactivity for the Beaver until 21-Apr-1956 when it flew a bearing of 223 from Mawson sighting some 300 miles sighting an unknown mountain range with a height of up to 8,500ft.
On 31-Apr a further flight was made to the same area for further investigation. After four hours the visibility decreased and the pilot, Leckie, turned for Mawson. The crew reported suffering from the effects of hypoxia so dropped to a lower altitude. The aircraft landed safely at Mawson after7hr 45min.
04 May and subsequent eight days saw the aircraft involved in setting up a depot in the King Edward VIII area.
On 18-May the aircraft, with John Seaton piloting, was involved in uplifting the crew of the Auster which had landed at Stefanson Bay and was then unable to take off in the prevailing conditions
Mid winter operations in Jun & Jul were confined to test flights and essential maintenance.
On 7-Aug Seaton and G Sundberg discovered unmapped peaks in the interior of Enderby Island and visited the Amundsen Bay area discovering several islands and a glacier flowing into the bay.
Photographic, depot and field scientific support missions consumed most of Aug, Sep and Oct.
On 04-Nov Doug Leckie flew the Beaver 200 miles south into the Prince Charles Mountains to select a depot site for scientific work and encountered extreme turbulence that the aircraft was almost uncontrollable. He eventually found a suitable landing spot and a team were dropped off to create a permanent landing ground in the area as the initial spot was found to be crevassed. It was named Aerial Depot and stocked up with seven flights into the marked out new site.
On 28-Nov-1956 John Seaton completed the last flight of the season with the aim to find the extremity of the Price Charles Mountains and the glacier, which flowed between the adjoining mountain range. From Mawson he refuelled at Aerial Depot and then flew up the Lambert Glacier as it was subsequently. It turned out to be some 250 miles long and up to 40 miles wide and up to 2,500 deep with it’s highest at approx3,200 ft. It is regarded as the biggest glacier in the world.
1956-1957 Season.
After the Krista Dan reached Mawson on 03-Feb the wings were removed from A95-201 and stored against the hanger wall to allow the aircraft and A95-202 to be accommodated in bad weather.
A95-201 was re assembled and completed on 10-Sep-1956 and after a test flight flew to Davis to bring men and equipment back to Mawson. Radio problems, high winds and deteriorating weather required the crew to drop through a break in the overcast to visually fix their position before recovering to Mawson. 20 minutes after landing, with the visibility down to 200yds this would not have been possible.
During the remainder of Sep-1957 and into Oct and Nov-1957 the aircraft was primarily used to reconnoitre and establish various camps for the field teams to carry out seismic and geological surveys at Proclamation Island and Mount Biscoe and further afield. The previously established Beaver Lake depot was used to extend the range of flights. It is recorded that on some of these flights the strong winds caused the aircraft to impersonate a helicopter.
The fuel consumption of the aircraft had been causing concerns and on a flight on 17-Dec the aircraft landed back at Mawson it was thought that reasonable fuel was remaining but only about 6 gallons was found to remain in the tank. The problem was traced and rectified.
1957-1958 Season.
A95-201 was crated and returned to Australia on the 28-Feb-1958.
The aircraft returned to de Havilland, Australia in March 1958 for servicing and modifications.
1958-1959 Season.
A95-201 was embarked on the MV Thala Dan on 26-Dec-1958. The ship suffered a couple of problems with losing aircraft fuel drums overboard and then hitting an uncharted rock within sight of Davis that caused damage to the hull. While repairs were completed the aircraft, on floats, flew to Davis to drop mail on 20-Jan 1960 and a reconnaissance flight made to Lake Stinear to establish if it was a suitable float base near Davis while the ship was unloaded. The aircraft was re embarked on 31-Jan-1959 and arrived at Horseshoe By at Mawson on 04-Feb-1959. Its first flight for this season was on 06-Mar-1959
The wheel Ski configuration was fitted on 16-Mar and on the 20-Mar flew a party to the Taylor Glacier.
On 09-May it flew it flew to Davis and was grounded by bad weather until 22-May. During this enforced grounding and radio aerials which had been carried away in a blizzard were replaced and a carburettor icing problem solved. And a partial problem to snow icing covering was solved by wiping them over with glycol.
On 08-Jun 1959 the aircraft flew to the Foldoya Emperor Penguin rookery, The landing surface appeared smooth but in reality was hard sastrugi filled with soft snow and the pilot had to taxi for some four miles to enable a take-off.
On 18-Jun on a flight back to Mawson from a drop off at the Taylor Glacier an aileron counterweight fractured causing severe vibration but it landed safely back at Mawson. It was replaced by the part from a partly disassembled A95-203.
During a blizzard lasting from 27-30-Jul 1959 the spare floats and cradles were smashed against the wind fence.
The aircraft left Mawson on 23-Aug to spend a week at Davis to support a geological party but the aircraft was delayed returning to Mawson until 23-Sep because of the vagarities of the weather.
It was then involved in supporting the scientific teams but because of the poor weather the aircraft only completed flights on eight days of the month.
During one of these flights to deposit a fuel cache at a new depot, A95-201 suffered a sizeable oil leak The return flight to Mawson was successful with A95-203 standing by in case of a forced landing.
On 27-Oct whiteout conditions caused the aircraft with A95-203 to land near Crooked Island 120 miles from Mawson, and had to remain on the ground until the morning of 29-Oct when conditions improved, the crew living on army rations.
A major service was completed during Oct-1959. It was decided to convert A95-201 into its photographic configuration to conduct an astro survey in Kemp and Enderby Lands using a camp at King Edward VIII as a base.
On 05-Dec the aircraft was flown over to the plateau airstrip in readiness for the summer activities and was involved in normal support activities but on one of these flights the tail strut collapsed at Davis with a spare being delivered by A95-203.. It returned to Mawson on the 13th Dec flying through whiteout conditions and landing just before light snow fell at the station.
The period before Xmas was spent establishing a fuel stock at Beaver Lake, obtaining astro fixes and preparing for the New Year operations
On the 28-Dec-1959 three of the crew drove a Weasel up to the plateau but broke through an ice encrusted melt-water stream which delayed arrival at the aircraft. By the time they arrived the moderate wind that had been blowing on the coast at Mawson had increased to a velocity of 80mph. A95-201 had broken its three ton tie down wires and the wingtip fasteners had broken loose. The pilot Sanderock climbed into the aircraft started the engine and turned the aircraft into the prevailing wind, an action which would place the pilot in severe danger if the aircraft could not be secured.
The aircraft intermittently “took-off” above the icy slope before help arrived from Mawson and new cables were affixed to the aircraft by Bell, Bechervaise and Rippon wearing crampons and leaning into a wind now exceeding 100mph. As the wind increased to 120mph the aircraft began to break up with a wing being blown over the ice, and other parts of the aircraft being smashed to pieces. As the men had been unable to remove the battery a fire was feared. The wind blew for a further 17 hours before the men could get back to Mawson. The flight salvaged the remains of the aircraft which were shipped back to Australia.
Parts from A95-201 & 203 were used to rebuild one aircraft receiving A95-203’s c/n 1052.
Remarks by Ed Coates: The photo with the “Kangaroo roundel” was taken just prior to this aircraft accompanying the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition. In the mid 1950s the Commonwealth started to get very nationalistic. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other members decided they no longer wanted to use the RAF roundel. They wanted their own identity. N.Z. got its Kiwi, Canada went for the Maple Leaf, but Australia had a problem deciding what they wanted. This aircraft displays the first attempt at the Kangaroo emblem. It carries an insignia, facetiously known as the “Pregnant Kangaroo,” which was never officially adopted by the RAAF. The “Flying” Kangaroo (currently in use) was the one finally adopted (and a much nicer one it is too, albeit that it looks like QANTAS’ trade mark at the time) but in 1956 several aircraft were, in fact, painted with the original version.
