Leopard Moth AX862 at Carnaby airfield.
On 18th March 1945 the port undercarriage leg of this aircraft collapsed on landing at Carnaby airfield. The pilot was a highly experienced officer with nearly 2,000 flying hours to his name, his hours flying in the Leopard Moth would seem low with just an hour but given there were very few in impressed service use the chances of him flying one was probably fairly limited having served with front line No.4 Group squadron equipped with Halifaxes. The aircraft was on the books of No.4 Group Communications Flight at the time of the incident and was probably a general run-about aircraft used by the higher ranked officers at Carnaby.
Pilot - W/Co John Mortimer Viney RAF DFC (42283).
2 Passengers - Names unknown.
John Viney was born in 1920 in the Abingdon area and as a boy he attended Abingdon School. He joined the RAF before the start of the War and was granted a commission as Acting P/O on probation on 24th June 1939. He was then graded as P/O on probation on 20th April 1940 and was
confrmed as P/O on 1st May 1940. He was posted to 158 Squadron in October 1942 and flew a Tour with them. While in the rank of Acting S/Ldr he was awarded the DFC for service with 158 Squadron, Gazetted on 9th July 1943. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for service with 640 Squadron, Gazetted later on 13th April 1945, having served as 640 Squadron's Commanding Officer. This was the only DSO awarded to any 640 Squadron personnel. With his second Tour of operations completed in January 1945 he was posted to Carnaby where he served as Station Commander from 22nd January 1945 until May 1945. He left the RAF after the war and died in 1976. His medal set, log book and other photographs were presented to his former school after his death.
This Leopard Moth was first registered on the UK civilian register as G-ACLW on 24th November 1933 to Sir Philip Sassoon GBE CMG, and was based at Lympne, Kent. Ownership later changed and it was re-registered to Aircraft Exchange and Mart Ltd, and it was based at Heston Aerodrome but the date of re-registration is not yet known. The ownership changed again when it was re-registered on 28th October 1937 to London Air Park Flying Club Ltd, Park Lane, London with the aircraft based at Hanworth. The ownership would change again on 24th February 1939 when it was re-registered to William Russell Keith Silcock, of Hammersmith, London and it was based at London Air Park, Feltham. With the outbreak of the Second World War civilian flying was prohibited so the aircraft was held in store until 15th June 1940 when it was impressed into military service and given the RAF serial AX862. The aircraft would probably have been used as a communications or general run-about aircraft. It appears to have been in the care of No.4 Group Communications Flight well before 1945.
The "avation-safety.net" website must have done far more research. They state that the aircraft was in use by the ATA on 18th March 1945 (flown from White Waltham) at the time of this incident at Carnaby so clearly they must have found documents stating it this or why write it. This is more than I have been able to do unfortunately. I personally think that this is not correct. The pilot does not appear to have been seen any ATA service so I find it highly unlikely he would be flying an ATA aircraft when he was Carnaby's Commanding Officer at the time of this incident.