F LYPOST
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78 FLYPAST March 2018
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FlyPost should be clearly marked as such.A family Rapide
I was really pleased to see a picture
of my late father’s Rapide, G-ALPK,
in the ‘Wind in the Wires’ Glory
Days spread (FlyPast, February).
My father was Ken Dobson
who invented the aircraft data
recorder and crash recorders
(the ‘Black Box’) in the late 1950s,
while his sales manager was
Stuart Morrison, who in the RAF
had flown Mustangs and latterly
Valiants as well as being one of the
top UK glider pilots.
He suggested one day in early
1964 that he could hire an aircraft
for a holiday that summer for himand his wife and my family, and had
arranged that we were to have a
Rapide from the Army Parachute
Association. We went to Thruxton to
pick up the aircraft, G-AJHO. We had
the aircraft for around two weeks
and went south as far as Tangier –
thoroughly enjoying the trip.
After this experience my father
became very keen on the idea of
buying a Rapide and in March 1965
purchased G-ALPK for £1,600 with
quite a lot of life left in the Gipsy
Queen 3 engines. We used the
aircraft for a couple of months, going
across the Channel and things likethat – Stuart as pilot and my dad
navigating. We weren’t very keen
on the drab green livery, so I built
several Rapide Airfix models to try
different colour schemes, eventually
deciding on the red over white. The
aircraft was repainted by Dan-Air at
Lasham.
My dad then planned another
Rapide holiday for 1965, which was
a great success and went as far east
as Istanbul, back through Greece
and Italy, then on to Tunis. The trip
back via Spain was a bit hairy as the
weather on the Spanish east coast
had really closed in and Stu wasasking us to keep him informed of
where the lightning strikes were!
In the end we had to put down
at the military airfield at Murcia
(despite getting a red Véry
light from the tower denying us
permission). When we landed we
were guarded by a Spanish Air
Force officer armed with a sword.
We couldn’t take off for three
days and were only the second
aircraft into a heavily flooded
Barcelona.
It was in the summer of
1966 while the aircraft was at
Blackbushe that the rear escape
hatch blew in during a heavy
storm. No-one noticed this and by
the time they did, water damage
had rendered the wooden rear
fuselage unserviceable. My dad
very regretfully sold the aircraft in
September 1966 to the Parachute
Regiment Free Fall Club, but it was
withdrawn from use on February
1 , 1 9 67.
I’m told that some parts of
G-ALPK are being used in the
rebuilding of G-AKOE and G-AJBJ
in Cheshire. Although our time
with this aircraft was so short, I can
certainly confirm that this, as a late
teenager, was the time of my life.
JON DOBSON
RUGBYHard at work at
Laarbruch
I have just read the article by Sqn
Ldr Rod Hawkins describing the
RAF museum at Laarbrüch (FlyPast
February). It is very informative, but
I do feel that one particular piece
of information was missing – the
identity of the technician who not
only supplied the Canberra, but also
the three shipping containers full of
31 Squadron memorabilia.
The person in question is Terry
O’Halloran, who was a corporal
airframe fitter with 31 squadron
prior to being promoted to
sergeant on his posting to RAF
Waddington and who has worked
tirelessly since leaving the RAF as
archivist for the squadron he wasso proud to be associated with.
I know that while Terry obtained the
Canberra, he also collected artefacts
and memorabilia from former 31
Squadron members and raised
money to obtain the three containers
that now house the collection.
He worked in these unheated
containers in extremely cold
conditions on the edge of a bleakRAF Scampton, five days a week for
ten months collecting and displaying
the history of the squadron. He
put a massive amount of time and
effort into this project while working
virtually single handed, though
helped latterly by Allan Oriant.
ROBERT EAGLEN
GAINSBOROUGH
LINCSA view of the freshly repainted G-ALPK in
Dan Air colours at Lasham. JON DOBSONHelp with a
Handley Page
As an avid FlyPast subscriber,
I’ve long meant to send you the
attached photo of a Handley
Page 0/400.
This was given to me way back
in 1968, and at the time I was
a member of the Shuttleworth
Veteran Aircraft Society Model
Section. We had a display at
one of the summer shows at
Old Warden and I exhibited my
0/400 model.
I was engaged in conversationby a gentleman who had been on
216 Squadron, and who amazingly
pulled the attached photo out of
his pocket and offered it to me as
a keepsake.
His name was Mr J W Wood,
and if I remember correctly he is
the gentleman on the left of the
threesome. Mr Wood captioned
the photo on the back ‘No 216 Sqn
at Cologne Feb 1919 carrying mail
from Marquise to Cologne’, and
signed it for me.
I thought other readers would
like to see it, and if anyone canshed any further light on it I’d be
pleased to hear from them.ALAN MARKWELL
BY EMAIL