New South Wales
At approximately 1620 hours EST on 21 February 1962, a De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, registered VH-AAP, struck the ground 3.5 miles south-west of Woolbrook, NSW.
The aircraft was owned and operated by Aerial Agriculture Pty Ltd, and at the time of the accident was engaged on an agricultural fertilising flight.
The pilot, David James Mark Wills, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, was killed in the accident.
The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and subsequent fire, but there was no damage to other property.
The pilot, 30 years of age, held a valid senior commercial pilot licence endorsed for the aircraft type. His total flying experience amounted to 3,238 hours of which 201 hours had been gained on DHC-2 aircraft. His flying experience in DHC-2 aircraft included 186 hours gained in agricultural operations.
There was a currant certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft and no evidence was found of any defect or malfunction which might have contributed to the accident.
The aircraft was loaded within safe limits at the time of the accident but it is estimated that, at the last take-off, the all-up-weight of the aircraft was 57 pounds in excess of the maximum permissible. This, in taking off, the pilot did not comply with the provisions of the Air Navigation Regulation 227(7), however the overweight circumstance did not contribute to the accident.
The weather was fine, the visibility was unrestricted and the wind was from the north-west at 12 knots. There was no significant turbulence.
The aircraft took off from an agricultural strip to continue superphosphate spreading over a paddock situated on a small ridge flanked on either side by rising ground. A witness saw the aircraft make the first of the four spreading runs necessary to fertilise this paddock but then took no further notice of the operations. Several minutes later the aircraft was observed after it had crashed on the side of a slope adjacent to the area being treated. The aircraft struck the ground in a steep nose down attitude near rising ground where a procedure turn would have been made at the completion of the second spreading run.
