Good job in pinning down the location to St Mary’s airport, with the landmark tower in the distance. I’ve compared the photo to Google Earth, and it matches pretty well. The first image shows, from a higher altitude, the relationship between the airfield and the tower, which measures to .94 or .95 mi from the curve in the road, at a heading of about 332 degrees, looking from the road. The yellow line connects the two points, and the inset box gives measurements.

The second comes closer to matching the view in the black & white photo, with the same yellow line still showing. Yes, some of the fields have changed, but there are numerous landmarks which can be perfectly matched up, in addition to the sightline to the tower in the distance. Note, for example, the light-colored road coming in off of the right margin to T-intersect the tree-lined A3110. Look at the shapes of fields beyond the A3110 and you should be able to easily correlate the black & white photo to the Google Earth satellite shot. The yellow line isn’t perfectly straight, because it is following the lay of the land; the dips and rises are more apparent from this low oblique angle.

A third GE image is included, from directly overhead (not an oblique view), but it doesn not go all the way to the tower. The T-intersection is more easily seen here.

I can’t be certain that the grass strip upon which the Dragon Rapide landed is exactly the same as the current 18-36 grass runway. Nor do I know if the road seen in the b&w photo is the same turn-to-the-left road seen in the GE image.

NO doubt in my mind — it’s St Mary’s airport, looking in the direction of the tower. A fine job by others to point me in the right direction, and then I just used Google Earth to make it visual.

Cheers,

Matt