Stinson A Trimotor [Archive] - Australian Land Rover Owners

4bee

30th May 2020, 12:46 PM

Firefighters in 1968 saved the last Stinson A Trimotor from an approaching wildfire - Fire Aviation (https://fireaviation.com/2016/05/16/firefighters-in-1968-saved-the-last-stinson-a-trimotor-from-an-approaching-wildfire/)

vnx205

30th May 2020, 01:00 PM

A more interesting Stinson story is about the one that crashed in Queensland in 1937.

JDNSW

30th May 2020, 03:45 PM

And was found because the resulting fire resulted in a patch of brown in the middle of a rain forest - which must be close to, or at least in similar country, to some of the rain forest that burned last summer.

austastar

30th May 2020, 04:24 PM

A more interesting Stinson story is about the one that crashed in Queensland in 1937.Hi,
"Green Mountains" is the story, O'Riley is the author.
We walked to the site from Christmas Hills in 1976.
Cheers

4bee

30th May 2020, 04:50 PM

Hi,
"Green Mountains" is the story, O'Riley is the author.
We walked to the site from Christmas Hills in 1976.
Cheers

Green Mountains is certainly a good read as is the Southern Cloud story in the Snowies.[smilebigeye] Found years later by accident during the Snowy Development.

1931 Avro Ten Southern Cloud disappearance - Wikipedia

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Avro_Ten_Southern_Cloud_disappearance)

4bee

30th May 2020, 07:07 PM

For the possible interest of our WA Members. ANA DC-4 1950 Crash of the Amana.

1950 Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 crash - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Australian_National_Airways_Douglas_DC-4_crash)

JDNSW

30th May 2020, 10:20 PM

To complete this thread, mention should be made of the other Stinson crash, in 1945.

A sister ship to the earlier one, it had been converted to a twin from a trimotor in 1943 because it was impossible to get parts, using two of the more powerful P&W Wasps used in, for example, the Wirraway, which were readily available.

On a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne it lost most of the left wing, and crashed killing all on board.

It is of particular note in that it was the first aircraft crash (anywhere) directly attributed to metal fatigue, and led to Australia becoming a leader in this aspect of air safety, fixing safe life limitations for metal aircraft.

87County

31st May 2020, 10:08 AM

4bee

31st May 2020, 10:48 AM

wikipedia entry:

ANA didn't have a great deal of good fortune

1945 Australian National Airways Stinson crash - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_Australian_National_Airways_Stinson_crash)

Being a fledgling Australian Airline I suppose that was understandable.

In time, it was events of this nature that built on experience upon experience so today we have very safe airline operations.

My late uncle was a Captain with ANA before & after, a Training Captain, when it merged with Ansett & my thoughts after reading that post was that I wondered if he had flown the Stinsons? Probably yes. He had flown PNG air drops from DC-3s during WW2 (I believe it was a contract that the airlines of that time had with the Govt.) There is an article on Wiki about that.

He finished his time with Ansett flying B727s & flew their Lockheed Electra into Adelaide on it's maiden flight here.

Unfortunately his remaining Brisbane family members are reluctant to share much more information/photos on his service so I cannot find any more detail about that but would dearly love to.

I regret missing the opportunity to meet him again before he retired because my older Bro [of the "Burnt Feet/Picric Acid episode] knew he was coming to Adelaide but couldn't be arsed telling me. So much to learn from him too.

Such are families.