My Flight in the Lancaster Bomber

I love all the WW2 4 engine Heavies, especially the B-17G

But that Lanc is a piece of work. they always look to my Yank eye like you harnessed a flight of Hurricanes to a B-24!

pretty jealous here

Great shots! It must be unreal to fly in one of those!

Great stuff !!! Lucky you !!!

Great shots !

I love Toronto City Tower wanting a low pass !! Too cool .

miccullen wrote in post #12698584
I love all the WW2 4 engine Heavies, especially the B-17G

But that Lanc is a piece of work. they always look to my Yank eye like you harnessed a flight of Hurricanes to a B-24!

pretty jealous here

And it could carry 22 THOUSAND pounds of ordinance. B17's IIRC only managed 4 thousand, due to the small bomb bay. Of course it was designed in the 1930's as a maritime bomber so had a long range for the period with that load. I know that with a 22K Lbs load the Lancaster had a restricted range, but it could carry 8-10,000 Lbs quite far enough, and only a seven man crew needed too. Of the American bombers only the B29 came close to the load of the Lancaster.

Alan

Simply awesome shots!

BigAl007 wrote in post #12696726
Love the hand held GPS nailed on the control panel. I wonder what they would have given to have had one when they were on OP's for real?

Alan

What? And I thought it was standard equipment

How I would have loved a chance of a flight in a Lancaster.

BigAl007 wrote in post #12701461
And it could carry 22 THOUSAND pounds of ordinance. B17's IIRC only managed 4 thousand, due to the small bomb bay. Of course it was designed in the 1930's as a maritime bomber so had a long range for the period with that load. I know that with a 22K Lbs load the Lancaster had a restricted range, but it could carry 8-10,000 Lbs quite far enough, and only a seven man crew needed too. Of the American bombers only the B29 came close to the load of the Lancaster.

Alan

yep, IIRC there was some talk of using Lancaster's to drop the Atomic Bombs due to their enormous payload.

After the Canadian Lanc went back into the air there was all those years ago talk of her flying the Atlantic to meet up with her Flying sister, for one reason or another it never happened.
Perhaps one day one of the two Lancs will make the trip, despite the risks for an awesome meet up

Thanks everyone!
Every time I look over the images I keep hearing the hum of the engines under the headphones (cabin noise is around 100 dB in flight), and I keep getting goosebumps thinking about how low we passed over the island runway. It will be a vivid experience for many years. I wish I had time to edit some short video clips but I'm already behind in my work. I'll have to check the flight schedule and head up and get some video from the ground to add in.

jock3 wrote in post #12704387
After the Canadian Lanc went back into the air there was all those years ago talk of her flying the Atlantic to meet up with her Flying sister, for one reason or another it never happened.
Perhaps one day one of the two Lancs will make the trip, despite the risks for an awesome meet up

That would spike huge opportunity to offer short public rides. Maybe the RAF would finally permit the public the chance of a lifetime.

Coo shots.

Jon.

Great shots and a day to remember.

Always looking out for good opportunities, on the flypast photo, I would have loved to have been on the yacht in the distance with a Lanc coming toward me at that height.

Rubi Jane wrote in post #12704413
That would spike huge opportunity to offer short public rides. Maybe the RAF would finally permit the public the chance of a lifetime.

Unfortunately I don't think that will ever happen. Even for serving personal it is very difficult to even get near them. I was lucky in the 1980's that I went to one of the air shows at West Malling in Kent. I was with my friend who is an Air Electronics Op now on E3's but in those days he had just finnished training at RAF Finningly. I turned out that the BBMF's Lancaster Flt Eng was one of his instructors, so I did get a chance to go on board the Lancaster for a look around. As they say it is always who you know not what you know. I do remember that we were late meeting up with my dad for the trip home which did not make him happy, and even less so when he found out why we were late.
There is a civilian owned Lancaster that is Taxiable, and you can go for a run up the runway in it, but they cannot fly her.

Alan

It's really too bad they make the UK Lanc so inaccessible. Even my son who was 4 at the time was lifted into the Lanc by ground crew and was taken up to the cockpit while I was perched at the doorway shooting up the fuselage taking pics of him. My admission was $10 and he was free at the time.

We're blessed to have such open access to some cool WWII planes.