Date:	Sunday 24 May 1936
Time:	day
Type:	British Klemm BK.1 Eagle 2
Owner/operator:	W.M. O'Hara
Registration:	ZK-AEA
MSN:	106
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Cadogan Station, Eumangeria, NSW -   Australia
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Cadogan Station, Eumangeria, NSW
Destination airport:	Dubbo, NSW
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
1934: Built by British Klemm Aeroplane Co Ltd at Hanworth Air Park, Feltham. Production B.K.1 Eagle Series 2 Although a B.K.2 model, this aircraft was completed with the deeper rear fuselage of the replacement design B.A. Eagle. Ordered by Australian agents Adastra Airways Ltd, Mascot Aerodrome, Sydney. Shipped to Australia in December 1934. Assembled by Adastra Airways at Sydney Airport, Mascot in January 1935
29.01.35: Registered VH-USP Adastra Airways Ltd, Mascot Aerodrome, Sydney. Australian C of A issued same day
11.02.35: Change of ownership: Walter M. "Pat" O'Hara, Malang, Java, Netherlands East Indies. Named 'Zeelandia'. Walter O'Hara, a New Zealand citizen who had served in WWI as a army machine gunner, now lived at Dampit, Java where he managed a tea plantation. He had learnt to fly with the Aero Club of WA in Perth.
30.09.35: O'Hara was in Sydney where he had VH-USP modified with an extra fuel tank in the cabin. He had an automatic pump fitted to replace the need to pump fuel with a hand pump. The design and engineering drawings for the installation were submitted to the Civil Aviation Branch
01.10.35: Sydney newspapers reported that a pilot would depart Sydney on 17 October on a solo flight to NZ. Because he did not want to worry his aged mother, he did not release his name to the press, which referred to him as a mysterious 'Pilot X'.
17.10.35: Civil Aviation Branch advised O'Hara that the Eagle's C of A was suspended, based on an inspection of the cabin fuel tank installation ruling they did not comply with regulations
18.10.35: O'Hara departed Richmond RAAF Station near Sydney at 5.05 am bound for New Zealand. He reached the New Zealand coast near Auckland in rain and low cloud and approached Mangere Aerodrome in the dark. Landing at Mangere in the dark, he ran through a fence, damaging the undercarriage and coming to rest on the aircraft's belly. The flying time from Australia was 12 hours 47 minutes. Pat O'Hara was the first New Zealander to fly the Tasman Sea solo in either direction. He was a guest of the Auckland Aero Club and treated as a hero.
19.10.35: Meanwhile the Australian Civil Aviation Branch suspended his Australian Pilot Licence for flying VH-USP while its C of A was suspended. O'Hara announced that he would make a goodwill tour of New Zealand when the aircraft was repaired. A campaign by Sydney businessmen commenced raising funds for him to make a special flight in 1936 from Australia to Netherlands East Indies and on to Japan to promote a trade fair with Japan, but O'Hara declined the offer.
07.12.35: Test flown Mangere, Auckland after repairs
26.12.35: Pat O'Hara departed Auckland in VH-USP on a New Zealand tour visiting many towns on both islands, giving passenger flights and donating the funds to the NZ Returned Soldiers Association. Aero Clubs made all the arrangements and promoted his itinerary with civic receptions
10.01.36: Propeller tip damaged landing at Stoke, near Nelson. Repaired the same day by Cook Strait Airways.
02.02.36: O'Hara returned to Auckland in VH-USP
19.02.36: Struck-off Australian register
14.03.36: Registered ZK-AEA Walter M. O'Hara, Auckland New Zealand.ZK-AEA visited a flying event at Rongotai Aerodrome, Wellington. A picture shows the Eagle in a line of aircraft including a Waco, Moth Major, five Gipsy Moths and a Rapide
30.04.36: Dismantled at Auckland and crated for shipping to Sydney. Shipped from NZ to Sydney as cargo on the m.v. 'Monowa'
05.05.36: m.v. 'Monowa' docked at Sydney carrying the Eagle and its owner.
07.05.36: Assembled at Mascot, Sydney, NSW. Press articles reported that O'Hara said he would fly his NZ registered aircraft from Sydney on a leisurely return trip to Java. He intended to travel via Perth and then up the West Australian coastline
18.05.36: ZK-AEA departed Mascot, Sydney. NSW
24.05.36: Crashed, destroyed by fire, Cardogan Station, Eumungerie via Dubbo NSW. O'Hara was killed. O'Hara had been staying at Cardogan Station as a guest of Mr. R. E. Boyce. That morning he took off to fly to Dubbo to collect a hat before continuing to Cootamundra to have lunch with Mr. Arthur Butler of the Butler Air Transport Co at Cootamundra Aerodrome. After becoming airborne, O'Hara circled the Cardogan homestead at a low altitude waving to his hosts, when the aircraft stalled and dived into the ground
23.7.36: Struck-off NZ Civil Aircraft Register

According to an obituary of the pilot (Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 122, 25 May 1936, Page 7 -see link #1):

"Born at Thames in 1899, Mr O'Hara was the eldest son of Mrs Mary O'Hara and the late Mr Patrick O'Hara, of Wharepoa, Thames Valley, who arrived from Ireland in the late 'nineties. After education at Kopti and other Thames Valley schools, Mr O'Hara studied at Sydney University. He was attached to the machine-gun corps, New Zealand Expeditionary Force, during the Great War, enlisting as a private, and being promoted to commissioned rank before the war ended. Since the war Mr O'Hara had been living at Dampit, Java, where he had interests in rubber and coffee plantations".

Eumungerie is a town in central west New South Wales, Australia. The town is in the Dubbo Regional Council local government area and adjacent to the Newell Highway, 423 kilometres (263 miles) north west of the state capital Sydney and 37 kilometres (23 miles) north of the regional centre of Dubbo.

1. Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 122, 25 May 1936, Page 7
2. Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 131, 4 June 1936, Page 9
2. https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/ba-eagle/baeagle.html
3. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/BK_BAMco.pdf
4. Starboard view of Klemm Eagle monoplane Zeelandia, ZK-AEA, on tarmac outside Sydney-Newcastle Air Service hangar, ca. 1935 [picture]: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-144898008/view
5. https://aeropedia.com.au/content/ba-eagle/
6. http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac2/NZAM/ZK-AEA.html
7. https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~sooty/genealogy/miscairdeaths.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eumungerie

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Aug-2021 18:15	Cobar	Added
11-Aug-2021 10:16	Cobar	Updated [Location]
11-Aug-2021 16:42	Cobar	Updated [Phase, Destination airport]
08-Jul-2022 11:27	Ron Averes	Updated [Aircraft type]
08-Jul-2022 12:11	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]