MAAA Wingspan

34 35 WING SPAN AUGUST AUGUST WING SPAN MAAALogo. Harry Butler and his Bristol M1C Red Devil AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIAN AVIATION AND MODELLING HISTORY. Artile by Mike O’Reilly. On a recent road trip to Yorke Peninsula we called in to Minlaton and visited the Harry Butler Memorial. This brought back memories of our involvement in the construction of the Red Devil model in 1989. But this story begins in 1915 when the young aviation mad Harry Butler left Yorke Peninsula and rode his motorbike to Point Cook to join the Air Force. His training went very well, but anxious to fly and with the increasing tempo of World War One, Harry travelled to England at his own expense and joined the Royal Flying Corps. In early 1916 he enlisted as an Air Mechanic, but 3 weeks later his flying brilliance was recognised, and he became a Second Lieutenant. By July 1916, he was flying sorties in France. By the end of the year he was made a Captain and Flight Commander. Late in the war, Harry flew one of only 125 Bristol M1C planes that were built and fell in love with its speed and manoeuvrability. When the war ended Harry arranged to ship his Bristol M1C and an Avro 504K back to Australia and they arrived in late July 1919. Just 8 days later Harry Butler gave what was to be the first of many aerial displays. On August 6th 1919, a day with wind gusts recorded at over 100 km/h, Harry took off from Adelaide carrying an 18kg mailbag to make the first ever flight carrying mail over water. Despite the dangerous conditions the flight was a success and Harry treated the assembled crowd of over 6,000 people at Minlaton to an amazing display of aerobatics, side slips, vertical dives and finished it off with a perfect landing. History had been made by a local farm boy who lived his dreams. 70 years later the local Council had neared completion of the redeveloped Harry Butler Memorial building in Minlaton and wanted to celebrate the historic flight in some way. The SA Philatelic Society approached Bob Howie (a master model builder) who worked at Model Flight, and he was commissioned to build a ¼ scale replica of the Red Devil. Scratch built from balsa and plywood, using an Enya engine and JR radio equipment, this model was flown from Adelaide to Minlaton by Brian Horrocks. Brian was a very accomplished model pilot and a long-time member and former President of Constellation Model Flying Club. Brian flew the model Red Devil whilst seated in a Cessna that flew alongside the model across the Gulf of St Vincent to Minlaton. This was the first time a model plane had been flown across the gulf, and just like Harry 70 years earlier, the model carried mail including a letter from the Governor of South Australia. This model is proudly on display at the memorial in Minlaton, sitting alongside the impressive Bristol M1C Red Devil (the sole surviving Bristol M1C in the world) Seagull Models make a very nice 1/5 scale ARF version of the Bristol M1C https://www.modelflight.com.au/ seagull-models-bristol-m1c-monoplane-20cc-arf.html to suit a 20cc engine, and we have asked Seagull to make us version in the Red Devil colours and markings. Hopefully this will take to the air in 2022, some 133 years after Harry Butler was born on a small farm on Yorke Peninsula.