Wirr-away she goes: Success for plane salvagers

September 1, 2021

Finally. After more than a decade of trying, Rod Knights had lift-off.

The professional salvage diver and a dedicated team of volunteer aviation buffs lifted the fuselage of a CAC Wirraway aircraft to shore on the weekend, after the plane had laid in Lake Corangamite since crashing there in 1950.

The successful salvage marks the end of 12 years’ worth of planning, jumping through regulatory hoops and elbow grease at the lake and in workshops, with an eye to restoring the Second World War-era plane to fly again.

“It’s been a long journey, but I’m really pleased that it’s coming to a close,” Mr Knights said.

“The fuselage came out intact, all in one piece, just as we expected it would.

“We lifted it up, put it on the barge, towed it to shore where we had a tractor waiting that took it away.

“Now I can get into the real work of restoring it – the hard work starts now.”

The team has now shifted the plane to a Lethbridge Airport swimming pool, which will preserve and desalinate its metal frame.

Salvagers disconnected the plane’s fuselage from the wings to complete the lift, after encountering issues with the heavy engine during test runs last month.

The Wirraway’s wings have become filled with mud during their seven-decade stay at the bottom of the lake and will require new custom-made lifting apparatus – likely when Mr Knight’s work permits become active again in March next year.

Now focus shifts to completing the salvage mission’s end game – of restoring the aircraft to fly once again.

“It’s a long process. The first thing is to secure everything, we probably won’t do anything until we’ve got the wings in preservation,” Mr Knights said.

“It could take a couple of years to get to that stage, when we’ve got the bare frame to where we can treat it, and have it x-rayed and repainted.”

Restoration work will involve pool dives to remove loose items from the plane body and archaeological reporting, and will likely start following a well-earned break and retrieval of the Wirraway wings.

Early assessments of the plane’s condition have raised hope of a successful restoration.

Mr Knights had successfully budged the plane two weeks before the final lift and intended to remove it last weekend before windy weather scuppered plans – continuing a theme of constant disruptions from weather and COVID lockdowns this year.

“The more exciting part was last weekend when we first got the aircraft to move. It was the first time anyone had got the aircraft to move in almost 71 years,” he said.

“It was a little bit more work this time around. We knew we could get it up, so then we were looking at the various logistical problems to get it to shore.

“By the time we got it to the shore and got it in the pool we were exhausted, but we were all so excited; we were high-fiving and congratulating each other.”

The small salvage team had secured COVID work exemptions to finish the mission before permits lapsed at the end of August, but were unable to share their excitement with other thrilled community members because of the COVID lockdown.

Among the wannabe onlookers was former lakeside resident Kevin Hynes, who watched pilot Vance Drummond ditch the plane into the lake during the ill-fated training exercise.

Mr Hynes believes he is the only person alive who witnessed the crash, and recalled swapping stories with Mr Drummond alongside his family who had helped rescue the maverick flyer.

But Mr Knights said he hoped the myriad of footage and photographs captured on the day would document the historic moment for interested people.

“It was a shame with COVID that Kevin Hynes couldn’t come down, but that’s the way it goes,” he said.

“There wasn’t anyone else there to see it come down and we couldn’t put out an invite because of that reason.

“Unfortunately it came out without any fanfare, bar from what we had amongst ourselves.”