Circumstances:
The pilot had completed a superphosphate spreading operation, from an agricultural strip, and was about to take off on a ferry flight to Albury. As the aircraft commenced the take off the pilot was distracted when a drink bottle fell from his seat and began to roll between the rudder pedals. As he retrieved the bottle, the aircraft became airborne and drifted to the left. When the pilot looked up, a loader vehicle was immediately ahead, on the left side of the strip, and a collision was unavoidable. The aircraft sustained serious damage when it hit a structure on the vehicle. About 18 centimetres of one propeller blade was removed, the nose gear leg was displaced rearwards and the right mainwheel separated from the aircraft. The pilot contacted the loader driver to ascertain the extent of the damage. He then decided to continue the flight to Albury where emergency services were alerted for his arrival. The aircraft was landed on the grass strip beside the sealed runway but overturned as it neared the end of the landing roll.
