Header Image: Flt Lt Paul ‘Ernie’ Wise (centre holding a bottle of champagne) is congratulated, along with other newly-qualified Lancaster aircrew, by BBMF aircrew and groundcrew, after he qualified as a Lancaster captain on 15th May 2022.
As part of the BBMF’s pre-season work-up, several aircrew have qualified on the Lancaster.
Header Image: Gold Beach, where the RAF 15083 GCI (Ground Controlled Intercept) unit went ashore on D-Day, 6th June 1944.
6th June marks the anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy on that date in 1944. 20th June marks a far less well-known anniversary of one of the RAF D-Day heroes who was killed in action two weeks after the landings.
Header image: A dramatic picture of BBMF C-47 Dakota ZA947 on a ‘hangar break’ during its first flight of the year on 13th April. (Photo: Lisa Harding)
Many regular readers of the Club newsletters will know that the BBMF C-47 Dakota, ZA947, became due a ‘Major’ maintenance programme at the end of the 2021 display season, but contractual difficulties kept the ‘Dak’ in the BBMF hangar. Excellent work by the BBMF engineering team across the winter period, with a focussed package of winter servicing and out-of-phase maintenance, allowed an extension of 10 flying hours for the Dakota before its scheduled ‘Major’.
