Two Lancaster Bombers First Flight Together

The First Flight Of The Canadian And Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster Flying Together At Coningsby. Filmed On Wednesday 13 August 2014.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2724404/Dambusters-reunited-Two-Second-World-War-Lancaster-bombers-fly-time-50-years.html

CWHM Lancaster KB726 (C-GVRA) arrival signals start of Lancaster Bomber Tour.

Friday, 8 August 2014 saw the culmination of a plan months in the making as the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s (CWHM) Avro Lancaster Mk.X KB726 (C-GVRA) safely completed its 3,700 mile trip to the UK, arriving at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, to begin a one-off month-long tour of Great Britain. Elliott Marsh previews the ‘Lanc’ season’, with exclusive images from the aircraft’s arrival courtesy of Karl Drage and Dave Gledhill.

The CWHM Lancaster’s near 4,000 mile journey to the UK took it from its Hamilton, Ontario base on Tuesday, 5 August, via Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada, and Keflavik, Iceland, prior to its arrival at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, UK, on Friday, 8 August. Supporting the Lancaster for the initial leg of its flight was the CWHM’s B-25 Mitchell. 

Sadly, the planned formation flypast of the Canadian Lancaster, the Red Arrows and the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s (RAF BBMF) Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane was cancelled due to poor weather, with the Lancaster instead arriving straight into landing at RAF Coningsby at around 1400.  It was greeted on the ground by over 100 RAF Bomber Command veterans, to whom this trip means so much, and hundreds of spectators lining the fence to greet the Canadians at the culmination of their transatlantic flight.

EXEMPLARY AIRMANSHIP SAVES HISTORIC SEA FURY.

Commanding Officer of the Royal Navy Historic Flight, Lt Cdr Chris Götke Royal Navy displayed exemplary airmanship when the Fly Navy Heritage Trust historic Hawker Sea Fury T20 G-RNHF (VX281) lost power during a display manoeuvre at RNAS Culdrose Air Day on 31 July, forcing him to take swift action and carry out a dramatic emergency landing.

Lt Cdr Götke’s quick thinking and skilful handling of a complex and potentially highly dangerous situation averted disaster, not only putting the aircraft on the ground safely and avoiding injury to the 33,000 crowd – but undoubtedly saving the aircraft as well as himself.

A witness on the display line said “I have complete and utter respect for the pilot for being so professional. It was a textbook forced landing in extremely difficult circumstances.”

“The aircraft lost power at a critical point in the display” said Commodore Bill Covington, a Trustee of the Fly Navy Heritage Trust. “Chris did a fantastic job. He only had 250-280 knots and couldn’t complete the manoeuvre as intended. He initially thought he would land in a nearby field but when he realised he didn’t have enough power to make it, he exercised superb judgment and landed the aircraft on the runway as soon as possible. 

Carrying out a successful forced landing in one of these heavy fast heritage aircraft is extremely difficult. It is hard enough to get it right even in practice – let alone from the middle of an air display. His quick reactions and calm decision-making protected the public and saved a rare and historically significant Navy Heritage aircraft.”

Lt Cdr Chris Götke (above) pictured with Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown CBE DSC AFC Royal Navy (95) the Royal Navy’s most decorated and distinguished Naval Test Pilot, in front of Sea Fury T20 just before he took off to fly to the Air Day at RNAS Culdrose.  Captain Eric Brown who has flown 487 different aircraft types, more than any other pilot in the world and also holds the world record for carrier deck landings at 2407, said of Chris’ skilful emergency landing “it was a pretty amazing piece of flying. There couldn’t have been a better person at the controls and the entire Fleet Air Arm community salutes him!”

For the complete statement from the Fly Navy Heritage Trust follow the link.

http://www.fnht.co.uk/exemplary-airmanship-saves-sea-fury.html

Essex Armed Forces Days.

Towards the end of June numerous Armed Forces Day events were held across the UK, in addition to the showpiece National event hosted this year by Stirling in Scotland. Mike Shreeve reports for GAR from two such events held in Essex at Barleylands Showground and Stow Maries Airfield.

Inaugurated a decade ago as Veterans Day, and held at the end of June to mark the anniversary of the first Investiture of the Victoria Cross in June 1857, the event was renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009. Intended to raise public awareness of the work of the Armed Forces, and to give local communities the opportunity to show their support for serving members of the Armed Forces, events were held nationwide across the last two weekends in June.

On 21-22 June, the South Essex Armed Forces Day event was held at Barleylands Showground, Billericay. 

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/07/31/aviation-event-review-essex-armed-forces-days/

RAF Benson 75th Anniversary.

As part of the celebrations to mark the station’s 75 year anniversary, Royal Air Force Benson took the very positive decision on 4 May to take its personnel, ground equipment and two of its helicopters into the local community near Wallingford, Oxfordshire.  Ian Harding reports for GAR.

This special event, which proved highly popular, was held during the May Day bank holiday weekend in Benson village to acknowledge Benson and Ewelme villages’ support to RAF Benson throughout its history. Events included a parade of troops marching to the music of the Central Band of the RAF, a church service at Benson’s St Helen’s church as well as various displays on the village green itself.

http://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2014/07/29/aviation-event-raf-benson-75th-anniversary/