Puss Moth G-ABLS in old pictures?

Thank you to all those who have looked into this for me. Speaking with the owner at Duxford today, I can say he is thrilled with the information that has come to light so far and some interesting leads have surfaced. I think he’s ordered several books as well! The period of it in store at Dyce seems to be the most vague but undoubtedly someone somewhere has some photos. It would be great if enough information can be gathered to reproduce the early livery during its forthcoming overhaul.

I asked over on the ScotAvNet yahoo group but no pictures offered, although one interesting tale of viewing them in a hangar at Dyce and a tale of parts of the airfield owned by Eric GD!

One user did say they had already provided a couple of B&W pictures to the new owner having seen the restoration in 2011.

Was reference to the following book provided as well:

Lots of material on Eric Gandar Dower/Allied Airways incl A4-size softback book “Rivals in The North” by that ace writer on flying in Scotland, Peter Clegg. On Page 52 a B&W photo of G-ABLS in its yellow/white/purple scheme.

Civil Aero, PM sent.

Roobarb

I have a box full of the spare parts which were with “BLISS” in Scotland, the original oil tank is there and it is painted Purple. (The tank on it at this time is a Tiger Oil Tank which is a different shape on the rear edge) Lots of parts, plus the original tool box which goes under the cowlings (Thats what the door on the top cowling is for) All the parts have Gander-Dower Labels on.

Civil Aero

The 1987 book ‘Flying Against The Elements’ (link above) is very specific:

” When new, the fuselage was yellow on top, purple below, with a white dividing line. The lettering was reversed out on each colour. Later it was coloured all purple (the wings were silver), and in the late 1930’s it was doped silver all over, with black lettering“
There is also a picture with racing No. 38 for the 1931 King’s Cup.

It also sports a number 3 on the rudder.

I’m a million miles from being a specialist, Roobarb, but G-ABLS was race number 3 in the 1933 King’s Cup. It was entered by Gandar-Dower and flown by A.C.S Irwin. I wonder then if it was still carrying the same scheme into the ’50s and if so whether the illustration on the cover of this book is accurate? –

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FLYING-AGAINST-THE-ELEMENTS-Reminiscenses-0f-Aberdeen-Airways-of-Dyce-Airport-/151876624602?hash=item235c8d60da:g:h7oAAOxyF0pThnzn

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1933/1933%20-%200011.html

Seems there’s a pic inside the book but again only b/w.

Thanks for the replies so far. The owner tells me that it was in a two tone scheme up until the 1950’s but he has only a b/w shot in the “Moths in detail” book. He is keen to establish what two colours these were. It also sports a number 3 on the rudder. Any ideas from the DH specialists out there?

Staverton 31 MAR 68

https://www.flickr.com/photos/egbj/5606681463

Roobarb…..

As you probably know BLS was stored for many years at Dyce until recovered and restored by Cliff Lovell in the late 1960s. Since then she has lead quite an active life with several owners. If you have access to a set of the Moth magazines (published by deH Moth Club) there are quite a few references to BLS including a number of photographs….

Have you seen the beautiful photo posted by Duxman on this thread? –

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?128115-Old-Warden-Images-from-the-early-years

G-ABLS is also mentioned quite a few times in “Flight of the Starling” by Iain Hutchison – there’s a preview on Google Books – but no pics unfortunately.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R9K53RAoQ1kC&q=puss+moth#v=snippet&q=puss%20moth&f=false

She’s been black and gold a very long time – will be interesting to see how she used to look!