A20-714 Saved From The Lake

[GregHyde]

CAC Wirraway rescued from Lake Corangamite after 70 years

Aviation enthusiast Rod Knights has completed his 12-year mission to recover a CAC Wirraway that has resided at the bottom of Lake Corangamite, Victoria, since 1950.

Pilot Vance Drummond ditched the aircraft, A20-714, during a low training flyover and it lay undiscovered until low water levels exposed it in 2005.

Knights was working with Heritage Victoria as a diver when he learned of the discovery, and the fuselage was finally lifted out of the muddy waters last Saturday.

The Wirraway was a two-seat trainer that was operated by the RAAF from 1939 until 1959. Thousands of pilots trained on it during World War II at Flying Training Schools in Uranquinty and Deniliquin.

Knights told the Geelong Advertiser he designed the equipment to lift the hull from the water.

“It had to be modular so we could carry it out in small boats and assemble it on the water,” he said.

“When most aircraft crash into something, they’re smashed up, but this plane was basically belly-flopped into the lake and the pilot was recovered.”
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He said the frame is in a “reasonable condition” and it will now desalinate in freshwater for years before its restoration can begin.

“It has to be stripped back to its bare frame, and we have to inspect and repair it,” he said.

https://australianaviation.com.au/2021/09/c...after-70-years/

[derekbu]

Rod has only retrieved the fuselage and the engine so far, so the usual journalistic standards are on display here... "completed his 12-year mission". He'll be back on the lake next year to pull out the wing (his permits only allow him to work from March to August).

Rod has the remains of two Wirraways - A20-714 from the lake, plus a project airframe that he purchased. This was originally Don Brown's project, which he had "labelled" as A20-636 (which it is not).