Orkney Image Library

See my photo No.147 of a deHavilland DH84 Dragon at Berstane in 1938. Same type of aircraft. After Berstane a field in Stenness was used, subsequently Hatston and finally Grimsetter. During WW2 I enjoyed several flights to and from Inverness in the successor to this plane, the DH89 Rapide. On one occasion I was the only passenger on a mail flight and was sat in the Wireless Op's seat. Being an army wireless op I offered to operate the set if necessary. The pilot said, "You'll be lucky, it hasn't worked for years!" I also flew in one of these in Tanganyika between Dar es Salaam and Mtwara in 1949. They were very bumpy in turbulent weather, and the wings literally flapped.

My mum came up from Edinburgh in a de havilland just before the war. She said she sat with her eyes shut the whole way as her tummy seemed to meet her throat! Mind you she does the same in a jumbo jet! The second time she came up at night and it was better as all was in darkness so she couldn't see these flapping wings! It didn't put her off as she has stayed in Orkney ever since - about 60 years.
Great photos Marion.

My mother and grandmother were once the only passengers on a Rapide flying back to Orkney. The plane came down and down through a thick covering of cloud and when they eventually came out into the clear not far above the sea, the pilot looked around and said, "Now how the bloody hell did we get here?" My father left on one from Hatston aerodrome one windy day when there were a couple of the ground crew hanging on to the wing tips on each side and holding them down, running alongside till the plane gathered speed.

I am researching Edmund Miller's painting "Wideford" and this plane may be one of the three DH's painted in that painting. The original painting is in the arrivals hall at Wideford airport I believe.