Initially designed pre-war as an intended basic trainer to lead into the more advanced Wirraway trainer, the Wackett saw early service for evaluation in that role with the
Royal Victorian Aero Club at
Essendon, resulting in the brief formation of 3 Elementary Flying Training School (3 EFTS) before its relocation and reformation as 11 EFTS at
Benalla, Victoria, but the local production and standardisation of basic training under the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) on the simpler and cheaper
de Havilland Tiger Moth saw the Wackett largely superseded in that flying training role. The Wackett Trainer went on to serve in an important but largely forgotten role as wireless operator trainers with
No. 1 Wireless Air Gunnery School (WAGS) at Ballarat, Victoria,
No. 2 WAGS at Parkes, New South Wales and
No. 3 WAGS at Maryborough, Queensland; and also as an initial dual flying trainer with
1 Elementary Flying Training School in Adelaide, South Australia;
3 Elementary Flying Training School in Melbourne, Victoria;
11 Elementary Flying Training School at Benalla, Victoria; and
No. 5 Operational Training Unit at Tocumwal, New South Wales. It also served at several other
Empire Air Training Scheme establishments in Australia. About one-third of the 200 aircraft were written-off during the type's service with the RAAF and after the end of
World War II the remaining aircraft were withdrawn from use and sold to civilian individuals and organisations. About thirty aircraft were subsequently re-sold to the
Netherlands East Indies Air Force and the survivors of these were transferred to the nascent
Indonesian Air Force at independence, although it is thought that they did not see further use. Several dozen more were placed on the Australian civil register. , 2015|alt=VH-BEC on display at the
Central Australian Aviation Museum, 2015 On 14 January 1962 James Knight commenced a flight from
Ceduna, South Australia to
Cook, South Australia (c.220 miles WNW) in Wackett VH-BEC (ex-RAAF A3-139). He was never seen again. Over three years later, on 28 March 1965, VH-BEC was found by chance two hundred miles north of Cook. Knight had remained with the aircraft after it force-landed and inscribed a diary and his
Last Will and Testament on the fuselage panels; the last diary entry was made on 20 January 1962. It was subsequently determined that the mount of the
magnetic compass was loose and displayed headings that were 30 degrees in error. VH-BEC was recovered in 1977 and is now on display at the
Central Australian Aviation Museum at
Alice Springs. Several other Wackett Trainers and a KS-3 Cropmaster are in other museums and in private hands in Australia. ==Variants==