Wirraway A20-502 In Ballarat

Many years ago I saw A20-502 "BF-O" at the Ballarat Air Museum. But the listing for A20-502 says "Aircraft was destroyed 10/01/46 at Piva. SOC 10/01/46."

The Stuart Wilson "In Australian Service" book for the Wirraway lists A20-502 as "SOC 01/46, extant Ballarat Aviation Museum"

... so I wanted to check if the aircraft at Ballarat is the same one which was destroyed in Piva?

Regards,
Derek

derek,
I don't have records to hand, but I think you saw an aircraft painted up to resemble "A20-502 BF-O".

Also I think this aircraft subsequently crashed. Someone will come up with more precise info.

[/QUOTE]Also I think this aircraft subsequently crashed.[QUOTE]

No, my bad. I was thinking of A20-719 (VH-WRX) which was painted as A20-458, and crashed in 1999 at Nowra.

From Warbird registry;

Serial #: A20-511
Construction #:
712
Civil Registration:
None
Model(s):
CA-9 Mk. II
Name: None
Status: Displayed
Last info: 2002
History:
Delivered to Royal Australian AF as A20-511, 19??
- Instructional airframe, RAAF East Sale, Victoria.
Acquired by crop dusting company, stripped for parts for CA-28 Ceres at West Sale, Victoria.
Richard E. Hourigan, Melbourne, Victoria, Jan. 1962-1970.
- Stripped airframe recovered from West Sale, Victoria, Jan. 1962.
- Stored dismantled at Mororabbin Air Museum, 1962-1969.
- Moved to Hourigan's house for static restoration, Aug. 1969.
Richard E. Hourigan & Ron Lee, Melbourne, Victoria, 1970-1995.
- Static restoration as RAAF A20-502/BF-O, Moorabbin, Victoria.
- Loaned to Moorabbin Air Museum, Moorabbin, Victoria, 1970-1971.
- Loaned to Warbirds Aviation Museum, Mildura, Victoria, July 1971-1983.
- Loaned to Eureka Aviation Museum, Ballarat, Queensland, 1985-1995.
Ron Lee & Ralph Cusack, Brisbane, Queensland, 1997-1998.
Mathew Grigg, Ballarat, Victoria, 1998-2002.
- Loaned to Ballarat Aviation Museum, Ballarat, Victoria, 1995-2002.
-- Displayed as RAAF A20-502/VF-O.

Attached Image

Excellent Martin, thanks for that. Mystery solved.

Regards,
Derek

VH-WRX WEARYWAY WARBIRD Crash mentioned above. Here is the story. I'll imagine that there is a more complete official crash report out there however....

AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT NOWRA AIR DAY 30 MAY 1999
Wirraway-Model CA-16 Mk3 Registration VH-WRX

Bureau of Air Safety investigation report: The pilot was conducting a handling display in a Wirraway aircraft at a civil airshow at the Nowra Naval Air Station. During the turn back towards the crowd at the western end of the airfield, the aircraft was observed to rapidly descend. Although the wings and nose were seen to be placed in a level attitude, the aircraft continued to descend. The aircraft then abruptly pitched nose up and rapidly rolled to the left inverted, before impacting the ground. The pilot and passenger received fatal injuries.

Witnesses at the airshow reported observing the aircraft conducting steep turns, at the end of each flypast, that were in excess of 60 degrees angle of bank. Some of the witnesses who held pilot or air traffic control licenses reported that the aircraft appeared to be flying at a reduced power setting and that it was being buffeted by the wind.

Discussions with a part owner and examination of fuel company records indicated that it was the pilot's normal practice to refuel the aircraft immediately after each flight. However, on this occasion the aircraft was not refuelled after arriving at Nowra. Allowing for the taxi and flight time from Bankstown to Nowra, it was estimated that the aircraft had about 1.5 hours fuel endurance available for the display. The aircraft's weight and balance were calculated to have been within the prescribed limits.

The pilot was appropriately licensed for the flight. Friends and family commented that the pilot was fit and well and looking forward to participating in the display. At the time of the accident, weather conditions were recorded as a west-north-west wind at 21 knots gusting to 33 knots and broken cloud at 6,000 feet. Discussions with naval aviators based at Nowra indicated that the western end of the airfield is subject to mechanical turbulence during a westerly wind.

A retired naval instructor who trained pilots on the aircraft type during its service with the Australian Defence Force commented that the aircraft had some undesirable flying characteristics: if the control column was pulled rapidly towards the pilot while the aircraft was in straight and level flight, it would 'flick' roll uncontrollably; or if the pilot performed a three-point landing with a crosswind, the aircraft would often drop a wing, resulting in wing tip damage. The retired instructor commented that this was most likely due to the wing tip stalling before the wing root. Therefore, towards the end of its service life, strips or wedges were fitted to the centre plane to induce stalling of the wing root before the wing tips. According to the instructor, this measure was partially successful. Pilots who had flown the accident aircraft indicated that these strips were fitted, although the strips were not recovered from the accident site.

A witness who had spoken with the pilot of the accident aircraft at a prior air show commented that the pilot was aware of the stall characteristics of the aircraft.

Although the propeller exhibited damage consistent with substantial power at the time of impact, it was not possible to determine the power setting. An examination of the wreckage indicated that the aircraft was considered to have been capable of normal operation prior to impact.

It is probable that during the final turn in gusting conditions, the aircraft's airspeed decreased to the point where the aircraft began to descend rapidly. The pilot, observing the rapid rate of descent, levelled the wings and attempted to recover the situation. However, realising that the aircraft still had a high rate of descent, the pilot may then have moved the control column rapidly rearwards and thus induced a stall and rapid roll to the left inverted.

https://www.faaaa.asn.au/wp-content/uploads...-11-2-Apr00.pdf

Attached Image

I wonder if it was scrapped or the remains are somewhere?

I believe at least some of the remains such as the wing centre-section were recovered and are part of a Wirraway project stored at Caboolture.


Regards

Mark Pilkington

Ta, clearly there are plenty of CAC Wirraway projects around the country then.

Yes there are a number of quite viable airworthy rebuilds around,(these 10 projects below all have the major components required (fuselage, tail, wings, centre-section etc)

A20-99 with HARS, A20-158 with Paul Wheeler, A20-223/601/605 Denis Baxter etc, A20-224 with Matt Grigg (and A20-511/502 currently static), A20-395 with Ian Whitney, A20-656 with Ross Harrison, A20-560/A20-591 with Kent Lee, A20-636 Don Brown, A20-673 Dave Jones.

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/wirraregist...raregistry.html

And that's not counting people with Bare Fuselage Frames and a pocket of dreams.

The limiting factor isn't so much the availability of Wirraway Centre Sections (Guido's Boomerang showed a T6 Centre-section could be used) its the availability of straight trailing edge Wirraway/Ceres wing outers as there are finite sets remaining, (unless someones builds them new).

Equally there is nothing to stop someone building up a "Wirraway" from one of those Bare Fuselage frames and a pocket of cash, and putting a complete T6 wing underneath it and ignoring the swept forward trailing edge, and registering it into Experimental?

(Mind you, if you were to do that it might be worthwhile to build a reproduction Harvard Mk I, at least then you would have something truelly unique, rather than a poor cousin to the real examples, and Mk I Harvards were flown by Australian pilots in EATS schools in Rhodesia.)


Regards

Mark Pilkington

This post has been edited by mark_pilkington on May 2 2018, 10:05 PM

Mark, this is my list so far.

CA-1 A20-6 VH-NBG Matthew Grigg, Ballarat VIC
CA-1 A20-10 Moorabbin Aviation Museum
CA-1 A20-13 PNG Museum
CA-3 A20-74 Travis Hughes, Kyneton VIC
CA-3 A20-81 VH-WWY Paul Bennet
CA-3 A20-99 VH-JMZ Under restoration to airworthy at HARS
CA-5 A20-103 AWM
CA-7 A20-136 Jack McDonald, Caboolture QLD: project
CA-7 A20-158 Paul L. Wheeler, Romsey VIC ,later Brisbane QLD
CA-7 A20-223 Mark Pilkington, Lara VIC
CA-7 A20-224 Robert M. Mather & Dennis Baxter, Sydney NSW
CA-7 A20-233 completed 03 as RSwAF “5-110"
CA-8 A20-295 Brendon Lynn, Kurrajong NSW
CA-8 A20-395 VH-IVS Ian Whitney Romsey Vic, under restoration at Essendon
CA-8 A20-404 Jayson Stagg, Heyfield VIC
CA-8 A20-408 Lincoln Nitschke Greenock SA
CA-8 A20-502 Static
CA-8 A20-511 Ballarat Aviation Museum, Ballarat VIC: loan, displ.
CA-9 A20-547 Rowen Bishop, Albury NSW
CA-9 A20-560 Travis Hughes, Kyneton VIC
CA-9 A20-570 VH-AAZ parts used for VH-BFF
CA-9 A20-591 VH-MHP Michael Higgins, Stonehaven VIC
CA-9 A20-601 Denis Baxter
CA-9 A20-605 Denis Baxter
CA-9 A20-606 Murray Griffiths, Deniliquin NSW
CA-16 A20-636 Don Brown, Kongwak VIC
CA-16 A20-649 VH-WIR Kermit Weeks FL
CA-16 A20-651 Fleet Air Arm Nowra NSW
CA-16 A20-652 VH-WIR Queensland Air Museum
CA-16 A20-653 VH-BFF Temora Aviation Museam
CA-16 A20-656 Geoff Eastman & Ross Harrison, Ballan Vic
CA-16 A20-666 Ewan McArthur Melbourne Vic
CA-16 A20-670 Matthew Grigg, Ballarat VIC
CA-16 A20-673 VH-WAY David Jones, Melbourne VIC Stored at Point Cook in a container
CA-16 A20-685 Camden museum of aviation
CA-16 A20-686 Lincoln Nitschke Greenock SA
CA-16 A20-687 disp as A20-561 QE-B RAAF Museum Point Cook
CA-16 A20-688 RAAFWA Bullcreek
CA-16 A20-695 VH-MFW Warplanes Pty Ltd, Caboolture QLD
CA-16 A20-704 VH-BFO Kermit Weeks FL
CA-16 A20-714 Lake in Western VIC
CA-16 A20-719 VH-WRX Robert Greinert, crashed at NAS Nowra in 99
CA-16 A20-722 VH-CAC Nhill Museum - Static

Thanks Brenden for that compiled list, however I sold my Wirraway project many years ago to focus on my Wackett Trainer collection, and A20-223 was originally with Bob Mather and may now be with Rob Greinart/HARS as spares for A20-99 although the majority of my parts went to other restorer.


Regards

Mark Pilkington