Date:	Sunday 12 August 1934
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.84 Dragon
Owner/operator:	Leonard Gillespie Reid
Registration:	G-ACJM
MSN:	6049
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Hamble Airfield, Hamble-le-Rice, Hampshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Hatfield Aerodrome, Hatfield, Hertfordshire (EGTH)
Destination airport:	Hamble Airfield, Hamble, Hampshire (EGHM)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
First registered (C of R 4436) on 16.8.33 as G-ACJM to De Havilland Aircraft Co Ltd., Stag Lane, Edgware, Middlesex. C of A 4018 issued later in 1933. Purchased by Sir Charles Wakefield (of "Castrol Oil" fame) and presented to Jim & Amy Mollison, named "Seafarer II". (As a replacement for the first "Seafarer", G-ACCV, which had been wrecked in a crash landing at Bridgeport, CT on 23.7.33 - see separate entry). The aircraft had been adapted for long range record breaking flights with extra fuel tanks (and other parts) which had been salvaged from G-ACCV "Seafarer".

Proposed transatlantic flight by Mr JIm & Mrs Amy Mollison to Baghdad and shipped to Canada aboard the s.s "Duchess of York" 8.9.33. Damaged on take-off Wasaga Beach, Georgian Bay, near Toronto, Ontario 3.10.33 and flight abandoned. Returned to UK by sea (first aircraft to complete double Atlantic crossing by sea!); erected and ferried from Catterick, North Yorkshire to Hatfield, Hertfordshire 31.1.34

Re-registered [C of R 5072] 15.5.34 to Capt Leonard Gillispie Reid, Colindale, Hendon, London NW9 (aircraft based at Hatfield, Hertfordshire) and renamed "Trail of the Caribou". Shipped back to Canada, departing 18.6.34.

On 9.8.34, the first flight from inland Canada (Wasaga Beach, Ontario) to the UK, a distance of 3,700 miles, landed at Heston Aerodrome, Heston, Middlesex after a flying time of 30 hours 55 minutes. The pilots, J.R.Ayling and Leslie Gillespie Reid, in DH.84 Dragon (G-ACJM) named "Trail of the Caribou", were attempting to beat the then long distance flying record (5,657 miles) by flying 6,300 miles from Wasaga Beach, Canada to Baghdad, Iraq. However, icing of the engine throttle controls increased fuel consumption and, together with bad weather, resulted in the flight being terminated early at Heston. A few hours after ending their 31-hour flight they flew from Heston to Hatfield. The Pathe newsreel interview about their record flight was filmed at Hatfield (although the crew intended to fly non-stop to Baghdad, Iraq)

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 12.8.34 when hit boundary fence on landing at Hamble Airfield, Hamble-le-Rice, Hampshire. There are a number of newspaper articles about the crash. The one that follows seems to have more details than most of the others...

"Birmingham Daily Gazette" - Monday 13 August 1934
"Atlantic Plane Damaged in Crash
Pilot Escapes With Slight Injury
The Trail of the Caribou, the aeroplane in which Captain J.R. Ayling and Captain L. Reid flew the Atlantic from Canada last Wednesday and Thursday crashed at Hamble (Hampshire) yesterday. Captain Reid, who was piloting the machine, escaped serious injury.

The machine struck a hedge on landing, and buried its nose, damaging the the propeller and wings aeroplane.- Captain Held was accompanied by a woman passenger, who escaped injury. Captains Ayling and Reid with their plane. The accident occurred when Captain Reid was landing at the Hamble air service training aerodrome. The Trail of the Caribou is now lying badly damaged in the hangar of the Hamble aerodrome. Captain Reid suffered from slight concussion.

TOUCHED A HEDGE.
An official at the Air Training Service told a Birmingham Gazette reporter that Captain Reid was flying from Bristol with the intention of going to Manchester, but meeting with very bad weather, decided to get a weather report, and so made for Hamble as the nearest point on his course at the time.

"In making his landing" said the official "the under-carriage of the of the Caribou touched the top of a hedge of the boundary around the aerodrome. The aeroplane was turned completely round so that it finished up pointing toward the way it had been coming with its tail in the air. Of course, the machine crashed, but It had only a few feet to fall. It was badly damaged. The port engine, both port wings, the nose of the aeroplane, the starboard Propeller, and the undercarriage were all damaged. Captain Reid was given first-aid treatment at the station, and after resting for some time he left to go to London. The aeroplane, which, of course, is unflyable, has to stay at Hamble until Captain Reid instructs us what has to be done."

Captain Reid was accompanied by a woman passenger who escaped injury. The aeroplane, a de Havilland Dragon, is the one in which Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Mollison made their successful crossing of the Atlantic. It was then called "Seafarer"

Captain Ayling and Captain Reid left Canada on Wednesday in an attempt to beat the world long distance record held by the Frenchmen Codes and Kossi(?), but carburettor problems, which led to an unduly heavy petrol consumption, compelled them to land at Heston aerodrome (Middlesex) on Thursday evening.

Captain Ayling, his fellow pilot, who was at home at the time of the crash said "The accident is unfortunate - more than unfortunate. I don't want to speak about it".

To add to the bad luck he happened to be flying a potential benefactor's wife at the time. Not repaired. Reportedly still in store Hatfield in 9.39. Ultimate fate not known, but presumed broken up for spares at Hatfield in the early 1940s. Registration G-ACJM belatedly cancelled by the Air Ministry 1.12.46 after 1946 post-war Census by the Air Ministry to assess the continued existence of all surviving pre-war aircraft

1. Birmingham Daily Gazette - Monday 13 August 1934
2. Lewis, Peter, British Racing and Record-Breaking Aircraft, (1970), ISBN 0-370-00067-6
3. Hotson, Fred W. The De Havilland Canada Story. Toronto, Canada: Canav, 1983. 41-43
4. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14003.0
5. http://afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/77-register-gb-g-ac
6. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ACJM.pdf
7. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A4.htmll
8. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p060.html
9. Photo of crash: https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/2021650/memorix_ccb4f733_cba4_d559_b25a_1bae981ff223.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Aerodrome#Flight_record_attempts
11. http://www.hatfield-herts.co.uk/fame/aviation_pioneers2.html
12. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/hancrash.html
13. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH84.pdf
14. https://whatjustflewby.blogspot.com/2010/08/trail-of-caribou-august-8-1934.html
15. https://www.wasagabeachpark.com/trail-of-the-caribou/
16. http://www.hatfield-herts.co.uk/fame/aviation_pioneers2.html

Capt. Read's de Havilland DH.84 Dragon 'Trail of the Caribou' G-ACJM

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
15-Dec-2017 23:14	Dr. John Smith	Added
23-Feb-2020 21:37	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
15-Oct-2020 17:58	Sergey L.	Updated [Total occupants]
28-Oct-2022 16:18	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative, Category]
28-Oct-2022 16:23	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Embed code, Category]
28-Oct-2022 16:23	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Location, Embed code, Category]]
28-Oct-2022 16:24	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Category]