Lancaster fly past

[debih]

Mick and I went to Chatsworth this afternoon to watch the Lancaster fly past.

They were flying over the Derwent Dams as part of the 70th anniversary of the Dam Busters raid. Quite poignant for me as my grandad was involved - he was in the second crew who were to be despatched if the first crew missed. He flew Lancasters and after he died his ashes were scattered from the one that we saw fly over today.

It was rather spectacular. The Lanc came down the valley from Derwent Dam and flew over Chatsworth, very low, three times, flanked by a Spitfire. About five minutes after it had gone two Tornadoes came rocketing down.

I had sent a text earlier to the head of L's school and she had them all outside in the playground with flags on the off chance that it would fly down the valley - and they did. S saw them fly past her school so we all got to see them.

[Ally]

Oh you lucky ducks.

[debih]

It's an fantastic machine.

I've been inside it a few times as my grandad used to volunteer at Coningsby where it is housed and he used to talk to school groups about the plane.

We were invited along when they scattered his ashes - we spoke to the crew, had a look around the Lanc and then watched it take off. They flew past to give a salute to my nan before they shot off to the Channel Isles. It still brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it - it was an amazing send off for him.

[cromwell]

That sounds brilliant Debih.

[Kaz]

Oh wow that all sounds fascinating Debih

How amazing that your granddad was involved in a such a special part of our history

[cruiser2]

Have flown as a passenger in the front gunner/ bomb aimer position in a Lancaster when I was in the RAF. This was on an air test as I had serviced the engines. We flew from RAF Lindholme, near Doncater over Yorkshire. Could easily see Scarborough as well as the hills in the Lake District. Could appreciate that for the crew during the war it would not have been a pleasant journey as there were no mod cons, just a basic bucket seat.
Flying one was a lot different to a modern aircraft. All the controls were moved manually, which had to be done continuously for up to eight hours on long flights.
Glad you saw it Debih.

[JoM]

It looked amazing on the news, John was wishing he'd booked the day off work for us to go.

That's such a beautiful story about the scattering of your Grandad's ashes ((((Debbie))))

[Kaz]

That's really interesting Cruiser

Jo I just saw it too, on the news

[Weka]

It was on the news here this morning too.
What lovely memories to have Deb. and really good of the principal to get all the kids out, even on an off chance!

[saundra]

how lovely to see it today
i saw it on tv
im used to seeing planes all the time living in lincolnshire alot of my adult life and B was in the RAF

saw the lancaster /spitfire all the time
just love the vulcan/redarrows
never see much aircraft over here only commercial flights