Built by de Havilland Ltd at Hatfield and registered as G-ADMO on March 15th, 1936 and remained as such until it was delivered to Rochester Station Flight in April 1940, and impressed into military service as AV969 on May 10th, 1940. G-ADMO served with a number of Units until finally delivered from Maintenance Command Communications Sqdn, Andover to 5MU Kemble for storage on April 4th, 1946, prior to being sold in July 1946 to de Havilland Aircraft Co. Ltd, Witney.
The UK CofA was renewed on November 25th 1946, intended for delivery to Denmark as OY-DTI. It was not delivered because of an import licence problem and remained stored at Hatfield. Purchased by FIDS as a readily-available, urgent replacement for their Auster J/1N Autocrat G-AIBI ‘Ice Cold Katy‘ destroyed in the Marguerite Bay accident September 15th, 1949 (see “Ice Cold Katy”, 1947).
Re-registered as G-ADMO on November 26th, 1947, it was crated and shipped from Southampton on ‘John Biscoe‘ to Deception Island, arriving there on February 2nd, 1948. Although unloaded onto the beach there was no point unpacking it because, due to a loading oversight, no skis had been sent with the aircraft!!
On September 26th, 1949, while still located at Deception Island, a FI Registration Certificate was issued allocating the Registration VP-FAE to the aeroplane, thereby cancelling G-ADMO on the British Civil Aircraft Register.
VP-FAE remained snowbound in packing cases until shipped on ‘John Biscoe‘ to Stanley (arriving March 3rd, 1950) where the crated machine was off-loaded and stored in the landplane hangar. When eventually partially unpacked, an inspection revealed that dampness had affected the plywood construction and some glued joints. Although no longer airworthy, VP-FAE (still marked as G-ADMO) languished in storage until early 1957 when it was burned with VP-FAA, VP-FAB and VP-FAC.