CWHM 's Lancaster is on her way to the motherland.

[Matt Gunsch]

The weather was too bad for the British to fly, but it did not slow down the Canadians. Too bad Just Jane is not airworthy yet.

[Firebird]

The weather was too bad for the British to fly, but it did not slow down the Canadians.

Slightly unfair (even if tongue in cheek)

Here's the official word from OC BBMF about Friday's events.


Hi, it's Dunc (OC BBMF) here! Thought I'd give you an insight into Fridays arrival from my perspective. If you didn't know, I had planned what I hoped would be a spectacular arrival for VR A, with our Lanc and 2 fighters (Milli and I in a Spit and Hurricane) meeting her at Kirton in Lindsay and then transiting across Scampton, Lincoln Cathedral, Waddington, Cranwell and then into Coningsby. The Red Arrows were to arrive over the top of the formation at both Lincoln and Coningsby trailing Red White and Blue. We briefed for this on Thursday evening as the Canadians were setting off from Iceland very early on Friday with one of our Navigators, Rich Gibby, on board to assist in the complexities of the formation join up at the end of their 6 hour sortie. We used Skype to communicate with Iceland and had all other elements at BBMF.

On the day we did MET at 0830. It was a better prospect than we had hoped for. The MET man said that the rain was due at 1400 so we might get away with it!! We tracked VR A across the ocean as she headed toward Scotland and our Nav Jim Furness looked at us bleakly and said 'I reckon she is 35 minutes late'... This took us perilously close to the rain. Undeterred I told everyone we would brief on time and so we recapped all the points from yesterdays brief ,with up to date winds and other minor detail, at 1050. After this it was a case of watching the weather radar and hoping. We got word from Scottish Radar that VRA was indeed 35 minutes late and slipped the timings accordingly. At around 1230 local there was an ominous development. A huge line of thunderstorms emerged in the South and were tracking North, around an hour away from Coningsby. As we watched them develop it was time to make some tough decisions. With the weather deteriorating all the time and the Canadian Lanc now progressing past Edinburgh, and further storms developing to the North at Humberside and even up towards Teeside, should we advise VR A to go safely into Newcastle and await fairer weather? We booked it as a diversion just in case and then saw that Doncaster might escape the rain... at 1320, ten minutes before the original time we were supposed to arrive at Coningsby as a formation, the heavens opened and torrential ranin accompanied thunder and lightening. The weather was such that I had to make the heartbreaking decision to ground our aircraft. A join in that weather was not going to be safe. We were all bitterly disappointed. We advised that the Canadians continued south with Doncaster booked as a div if it got too dicey!! Now the priority was making sure that VR A arrived safely, hopefully at Coningsby, but if not, at least somewhere! My personal feeling was that, with the weather as it was, there was only about a 30% chance of it making it to Coningsby. We hoped that if they did make it at least the Red Arrows might make it to be able to welcome them. They, by this time, were in their aircraft and preparing to launch.

We watched the aircraft as it crossed the Humber and it seemed to turn towards Humberside. 'It's not coming' we thought. Then it turned back south and we got the message that it couldn't flypast all of the other locations, but was coming directly to Coningsby and would arrive in 9 minutes!!

With 3 minutes to go I stood in the rain, 500 other people sheltering from the rain in the Hangar or under the tents, looking out to the North to see if I could see her. To the south the sky was a little brighter, but to the north, where VR A was coming from, it was ominously black. Then there was a shout from Rog Nichols, one of our Lanc Pilots, and there she was, on finals, wheels down, at the end of an epic journey!

I can't tell you how pleased I was to see her, along with 500 people at the Flight, and thousands outside the fence.

The rest of the afternoon was fabulous, welcoming the boys and then, most importantly, honouring more than 100 veterans who had come as our guests of honour.

But this is just the start. Now, the adventure begins.....

Dunc.

[Fleet16b]

The Canadian Lanc finished up its 25 hr checks yesterday and c/out a couple of practuce flights accompanied by one of the BBMF Hurricanes
To day , after many many years the World got to see two live Lancaters take to the air together for some initial formation training flights.
Congratulations and well done to everyone on both side of the Atlantic that helped to make this happen.
It looks like it will be one heck of a tour across the UK
Hopefully in the near future we will see a similiar event take place here once the second B29 starts flying
Imagine that and then also being able to see two Mosquitos fly together.
We also saw 3 P38s at Oshkosh and that does not happen often either .
There are some great possibilities on the horizon

[p51]

Does anyone know when the last time two Lancs flew together?

[goshikisen]

Does anyone know when the last time two Lancs flew together?

According to a CBC story on the Lanc's Atlantic crossing:

The last time Lancasters flew together was 50 years ago over Toronto, at RCAF Station Downsview. The RCAF flew a special formation of three of the bombers in April 1964 to mark their retirement from service.

I wonder if FM213 was part of that formation.

[Mark Allen M]

Here ya go fans ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-linc ... e-28756779

[Grikka]

as the bbmf regularly transit over my office been looking out for these all day long....no such luck..keep yer fingers crossed for me as they start heading off to airshows nationwide. would brighten the work day no end that's for certain (before making an airshow for the full spectacle)

outstanding achievement by all concerned to date and the uk is in for one heck of a treat through august/september. These 2 will probably have the same effect on airshow audiences the Vulcan has managed on its own the past few years

separately been wondering just how the guy who made the ride over from canada after he won on ebay found the whole experience. anyone seen anything written up as yet..?

[Fleet16b]

Haven't seen anything written by the British passenger but accompanying the crew was a film crew that is doing documentary of the entire project .
Can't wait to see that one day
Plus, there is more to come about this project yet to be released ( cant say more than that for now)

[Flat 12x2]

separately been wondering just how the guy who made the ride over from canada after he won on ebay found the whole experience. anyone seen anything written up as yet..?

On a car forum he is on
"Its hard to put into words what it was like to be on that trip back from Canada, emotional amongst other things.
What a fantastic crew, fantastic piece of history and fantastic journey. Made some excellent friends on this trip.

I would urge people to go an visit the CWHM near Toronto once in their lifetime, it is simply a club for likeminded people to sit and chat, drink coffee, restore plans and then roll open the shutter door and fly them. And after that nip down the 'wing' RCAF bar down the road and have a few beers with more likeminded enthusiastic people. Couldn't get any better.


Will get some of my 50GB worth of videos online in the next few days to help try to show what the trip was like.
Cant wait to see VERA and her crew at the air shows coming up, its going to be epic.

Matt."

[Flat 12x2]

Some clips of 'Vera' & 'Thumper' airbourne together, 8 Merlin's
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=748406515217656&fref=nf

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=748278908563750

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=748274915230816

[hbtcoveralls]

Does anyone know of a link of their schedule? I'll be in England next weekend and would love to see them if possible. I've seen the Canadian one but to see two together is a joy.
Tom Bowers

[JohnTerrell]

Here is the schedule: http://www.warplane.com/lancaster-2014-uk-tour.aspx

As can be seen, there will be plenty of opportunity to see them around the UK over the coming weeks, especially on the weekends. In many circumstances the aircraft will be displaying at several different locations all in a single day.

[Matt Gunsch]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

[Elliott Marsh - GAR]

UK Public Display Authority has been obtained ahead of today's airshow displays - nice one, guys! Photos of the two flying together attached below.

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/08/14/aviation-news-bbmf-cwhm-lancaster-duo-obtains-public-display-authority/

[DH82EH]

Great shots as always Elliott.

Thanks. I can almost hear the Merlins

Andy