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Wilton, NSW

VH-AAX

de Havilland DHC-2/A1 Beaver

Constructor's number 1411 was built in Canada in 1959 and delivered to Australia in March 1960. It went on the register as VH-AAX on 30 August 1960 with Aerial Agriculture at Bankstown, and was withdrawn in May 1967.

S.W.P. Aircraft Engineering restored it and, in 1968, fitted a Garrett TPE331 in place of the Wasp Junior. The conversion was called a DHC-2/A1, or Walleroo 605, and it carried a revised tail. It went back to Aerial Agriculture, was cancelled as withdrawn in December 1982, and crashed on 31 December 1983. Aviation Industries put it back on the register in September 1986.

With a turbine fitted again, it was being ferried for parachute work on 26 October 1990 when the TPE331 failed near Somersby. The pilot forced-landed heavily. From 1996 it was with Mobile Carpet Cleaning Factory and flew as a Sydney Skydiving Centre jump ship from Wilton, with a jump step on the fuselage. It was offered for sale in August 2018 with 15,925 hours, and was in a major rebuild at Bankstown by June 2020. By November 2020 it was flying from Moruya with Skydive Oz.

On 4 April 2022, overhead Moruya with Skydive Oz, the engine failed just after the parachutists had left. The pilot shut it down and landed back at Moruya. The ATSB found a fatigue crack in the third-stage turbine wheel, which had been left in service past its cycle limit. The airframe had 17,039 hours.

It was flying again by early 2025. On 23 February, on a positioning flight from Langhorne (YLGH) into Deniliquin with Jump Aviation, the pilot met a crosswind on landing and lost control. The right main undercarriage leg came off, and the right wing and propeller struck the ground. Nobody was hurt. The damage was substantial. It remains on the Australian register, to Jump Aviation from 19 June 2025, and as of May 2026 was on rebuild at Sealand Aviation in Campbell River, British Columbia. The earlier photographs are from the Wilton years. The November 2020 set is at Moruya.

Type
de Havilland DHC-2/A1 Beaver
Constructor's no.
1411
Built
Canada, 1959
On the VH register
30 August 1960
Engine
Garrett / Honeywell TPE331
Registered operator
Jump Aviation, from June 2025
Status
Damaged at Deniliquin, Feb 2025; on rebuild in Canada

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