Stunt flying claimed veteran pilot Arthur Raybone

The tragic death, 91 years ago, of former RAF pilot Arthur Raybone was one of Victoria’s first flying fatalities.

“Before going up the two arranged with each other to alternate at the [dual] controls and that Benny should land the plane.”–Eyewitness.

If ever there was a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, with lethal effect, it’s the sad tale of one of Victoria’s first air crashes.

It was back in November 1928, when Victoria’s pioneer airfield was Lansdowne, then a natural plain, today a densely developed suburb. The aircraft in question was an Alexander Eaglerock, based out of Tacoma, and in town on a social call.

Which is where things went so badly wrong. Her regular pilot was 30-year-old Arthur Raybone, his co-pilot that day, Valdemar Bendrodt, also 30, and well known as a Victoria sportsman, newspaperman and, latterly, manager of B.C. Airways Ltd.

An eyewitness to the tragedy, Robin Ledingham was a friend of Arthur Raybone’s and it was from him that investigators first learned of the events leading up to the crash.

Raybone, he said, flew over on Wednesday from his home base in Tacoma where he was working on forestry patrol: “I knew Arthur well and he came to visit me as soon as he arrived. He, ‘Benny’ Bendrodt and I went to the aerodrome [Friday] morning. Arthur’s plan was to go up and see what the weather was like for his return trip. He had invited me to go with him. The weather was too bad to even get off the local field.

“We again went out in the afternoon and it was arranged that Arthur and Bendrodt should go up first to see how the weather was.

“Before going up the two arranged with each other to alternate at the [dual] controls and that Benny should land the plane. They took off at 2:45 in the afternoon…”

C-1228 circled Smith’s Hill in the area of Government House, circled downtown, then headed back to the airfield. There, rather than landing immediately, they proceeded to “do stunt flying,” Ledingham continued. “They did figure planing, banked, dipped, did spirals and several figure eights in the air. While they were going this, I could see by the way in which the plane behaved that they were alternating at the controls.”

Also conducting aerial acrobatics that afternoon was a Moth with its pilot and a passenger, fortunately at a safe distance, as it turned out, and with a bird’s eye view of the impending disaster.

Ledingham: “After the Eaglerock had done stunt flying it circled around the field; it then did a small figure eight and straightened out on its course. Then it seemed to hesitate as if no one was in control. It tilted and never came out of the dip.”

As he watched in growing horror, “It took a nose dive and headed straight for the plowed field. The impact was terrific.”

Arthur Raybone, bleeding from the mouth and nose which indicated internal hemorrhage, was pinned in his seat which had been accordioned by the force of the impact. Bendrodt was luckier, appearing to be only stunned as he sagged limply in his seat, and he was soon on his way to the hospital.

The Colonist described the plane as a total wreck, both its wings shattered, stays twisted into grotesque shapes, its engine wrenched from its mounts, the undercarriage “shattered into a thousand splinters”. (Aircraft were mostly of wood in those days–TW)

By the time of the Colonist going to press, Bendrodt was said to be resting comfortably and recovering from shock, his physical injuries being limited to cuts and bruises about the face and head, and a broken arm.

A veteran flyer with the RAF in the First World War, Arthur Raybone had moved to Tacoma upon his return from overseas to be a commercial pilot. Among his more noteworthy duties was forestry patrol and his heroic efforts in dense fog, the previous August, while participating in the search for a downed B.C. Airways passenger plane.

Bendrodt, too, had served as an RAF wartime aviator before becoming a teacher then a journalist. When B.C. Airways established an air service between Victoria, Vancouver and Seattle, “his old calling” lured him from newspaper work to become the company’s traffic manager.

A board of investigation was appointed by the Department of National Defence and A.H. Wilson who’d been flying the Moth that tragic afternoon, thought the crash occurred when the Eaglerock’s engine stalled during a climbing turn from about 500 feet because of insufficient power and speed for such a “steep angle”. Had the plane been at a higher altitude, he thought, the pilot would have been able to recover in time.

From his hospital bed, Bendrodt expressed puzzlement at the cause of the crash, maintaining there had been no confusion between him and Raybone at the time of the accident which had happened in a flash.

Three days after the crash, a coroner’s jury ruled “death by accident while flying” after testimony indicated pilot error, likely that of Arthur Raybone, based upon descriptions of the acrobatics being flown up until moments of the crash.

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All that remains today of Victoria’s first commercial air field are the grounds of Landsdowne Middle School. Intensive development has obliterated this historic site where, according to the Victoria Flying Club’s website (info@flyvfc.com), British Columbia Airways started a flying school with three small training planes in 1920.

Where, in 1928, B.C. Airways also began regular air service between Victoria, Vancouver and Seattle—the first international air service in Western Canada.