Avro Lancaster low pass....

[tac]

There we were, minding out own business playing trains, when this noise came at us over the trees...the unmistakable roar of four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. The only flying Lancaster this side of the Atlantic, this one belongs to the Battle of Britian Memorial Flight, based at that time at RAF Scampton, home of the famous DamBuster's 617 Squadron RAF.

I advise you to crank up the volume to get the benefit. After all, the engines WERE made in the USA - all four at that time were genuwine Packard-built Merlin engines.

tac

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[Stomper]

I was born too late... I SHOULD have been a WWI or WWII (or both) fighter pilot flying the Sopwith Camel and/or the P51D Mustang fighter plane.

 

[SA Shooter]

Now how cool is that!?!? tac, I am jealous. I've never heard 4 Merlins at once and I would love to do so.

We get a few fly bys, with the occasional touch and go, by WWII aircraft. My house is in the approach path so I have a lot of fun watching the annual air show from my back patio.

 

[tac]

We live under the North-South flight path of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight on their way to IWM Duxford and London, where they perform for the Queen's Birthday. Duxford, formerly RAF Duxford of WW2 fame, is the home of the Fighter Collection, the largest collection of WW2 fighters belonging to the Allies outside the USA. However, please note that they also have around TWENTY Spitfires and SIXTEEN Mustangs on call, to bolster the numbers somewhat. THE reconstruction company, Airworks, is based in nearby Saffron Waldon, where they rebuild Spitfires and Hurricanes from bits and pieces. Duxford has its own workshops where they are presently rebuilding a Rhodesian Airforce Bristol Beaufighter, apart from all the other stuff - curently about twleve, including the famous P51 Mustang, 'Jim Crow'. Oh, and the B17G - 'Sally B'.

Caroline Grace's two-seat Spitfire is based there, too. It was converted from single-seat to be used as a trainer after seeing service with the emergent Irish Air Corps. Before it, and a few of its brothers were given to the Irish, it was in service with the RAF, and saw action on D-Day, at which time it shot down the very first German aircraft that day, of all days. Later in Ireland, on conversion, the reflector gunsight was removed and put into store. For reasons I am not willing to divulge, and because of my earlier connections with certain members of the Irish Air Corps who had been my students, I was presented with the gunsight as a gift, in the hope that Mrs Grace would eventually be happy to see it back.

Back in the late 90's, when I received it, I wrote her, advising her that it was now temporarily in my possession, and wouldn't it be great to make an occasion of getting it back from Ireland after all these years? I happened to mention that there was also a spare, zero-hour Rolls-Royce-built Merlin engine on its stand, and that might be useful.

I never heard back from her to this day.

I could dig the gunsight out, if anybody is interested.

tac

 

[Mikej]

Across the river in Vancouver is Pearson airfield. They have quite a few old planes coming and going from there. I'll get to hear some of them fly over several times a year.