After completing spreading operations in the Mansfield area during the morning the pilot returned to Benalla
and refuelled the aircraft before going home at 1150 hours for lunch. The wind throughout the area on the
day was from the south-west at a speed in excess of twenty knots. At 1330 hours the aircraft was observed
to take-off and headed towards the destination airstrip 28 miles to the south west. The aircraft proceeded
in a generally south-westerly direction and to the right of a direct track to its destination, over hilly country
known to the pilot and rising to about 2,000 feet. At 1350 hours the aircraft was seen east of Euroa flying
south westerly over lower and level terrain at a height of about 2,000 feet. It continued for two miles on
this heading before It made shallow and medium turns and flew in an easterly direction toward rising ground.
In a level attitude and with the engine apparently operating normally, the aircraft struck a gently rising hill
at a point 20 feet below the crest. The aircraft bounced 112 feet and came to rest Inverted and caught fire.
The medical evidence does not provide any basis to suggest that the pilot suffered incapacitation before the
accident.