Date:	Thursday 3 February 1966
Time:	day
Type:	Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub
Owner/operator:	Farmair Ltd
Registration:	G-APLY
MSN:	18-6459
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Hillborough, near Reculver, Herne Bay, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Agricultural
Departure airport:	Eastleigh, Hampshire
Destination airport:	Hillborough, near Reculver, Herne Bay, Kent
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Delivered to the UK 9.5.58 as airfreight, via London Heathrow, and first UK registered (C of R R6338/1) 12.5.58 as G-APLY to Farmair Ltd. Based at Panshanger/Hatfield, Hertfordshire from 12.5.58, then Eastleigh, Hampshire from 13.3.59, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, from 16.8.62 and Thruxton, Hampshire, from 12.11.65.

Farmair operated out of Eastleigh, Hampshire in the early 60s. They were based in the ex Saunders Roe blister hangar. The fleet comprised Super Cubs G-APLY, G-APPI, and G-APVR. These were the "working" aircraft and looked and smelt like it! Farmair also operated G-ARGV which was the "hack" and executive transport: this aircraft was clean and not fitted with spray bars or hopper.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) when crashed whilst crop-spraying at Hillborough, near Reculver, Herne Bay, Kent on 3.2.66. According to a contemporary local newspaper report - Whitstable Times Saturday 17 September 1966 - the accident proved expensive for the aircraft's owner, as the insurance company refused to "pay up":

"PILOT CRASHED PLANE - Then Left The Country
The managing director of an aircraft company, said in court on Wednesday, that he had been "conned" by a man he employed to pilot a crop-spraying aeroplane. The man had told Mr. B Collins, of Farmair Ltd., that he was fully qualified for the job. But he subsequently crashed the plane at Reculver, and has since left the country, with six police summonses still unanswered.

Mr. Collins appeared at St. Augustine's Magistrates' Court on Wednesday when his company, based at Thruxton Aerodrome, Andover, Hampshire, was charged with three offences of spraying land in Kent from an aeroplane without permission. This had happened on January 27th and 28th and February 3rd, said Mr. D. G. Williams, prosecuting. The company should have applied for permission to spray fertiliser from the Ministry of Aviation.

WELL RUN
"This is a well run company and, had it made an application for a renewal from the Ministry, that renewal would have been granted," he said "The pilot on each of the three occasions was Mr. James Edmiston, of Bridgend, Glamorgan. Summonses have been brought against him for six offences, but he has gone to Australia and seems to have no intention of coming back."

TOTAL LOSS
"The Piper plane crashed on the third day, February 3rd, while fully loaded, and was a total loss. It was the property of Farmair and there is no evidence that the company was responsible for the crash. It crashed at Reculver," he added.

Det.-Cons. David Hughes-Jones, of the British Airport Authority, gave evidence that he questioned Mr. Collins after the crash, and Mr. Collins admitted having employed Edmiston while he did not hold a licence for the job.

OUT OF POCKET
"I was conned by this chap," said Mr. Collins. "He has disappeared to Australia owing me a lot of money. Because of Edmiston's unsatisfactory certification, my insurers refuse to pay me for the loss of the aircraft and I am £3,500 out of pocket."

Mr. Williams, prosecuting, said that enquiries they had made had shown that Mr. Collins had been "grossly deceived" by Edmiston's qualifications. Regarding his failure to renew his permit to spray fertiliser from an aeroplane, Mr. Collins said: "This is a sheer error on the part of myself. I thought it was due in February of every year, in fact it expired in November of every year."

His company was given a conditional discharge on the three offences and ordered to pay £16/7/0 costs"

Registration G-APLY cancelled by the CAA 14.3.66 as "PWFU" ("Permanently Withdrawn From Use"). Hillborough is an area of eastern Herne Bay in Kent, England. The population is included in the Reculver ward of Herne Bay (which explains why the crash is sometimes stated as being at "Reculver")

According to the "Inflation Calculator" on the Bank of England website, the £3,500 loss sustained in 1966 by the aircraft's owner is equivalent to £45,974 at 2021 prices.

1. Herne Bay Press - Friday 4 February 1966
2. Whitstable Times - Saturday 17 September 1966
3. The British Civil Aircraft Register G-APAA to G-APZZ (Bernard Martin, Air Britain 1978 p.42) 45. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-APLY.pdf
5. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/93294-airspray-colchester-ltd
6. https://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=16751.0
7. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1111734/
8. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1016292/
9. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/registration/G-APLY
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillborough
11. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
25-May-2014 22:01	Dr. John Smith	Added
05-Dec-2019 10:27	rimme	Updated [Cn]
29-Mar-2020 19:02	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
17-Jul-2022 20:27	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category]