Holy cow, I flew in the Lancaster Bomber today! It was absolutely amazing. One of the great parts of my flight was seeing the amazing Lancaster fly over, soon after I left St. Catharines:
I landed at the Hamilton Airport around 11:30 this morning:
A Harvard was heading toward me soon after I landed and I radioed that I would hurry as he was burning a bit more fuel than my sputter-monkey:
We had to move my plane a couple of times, to accommodate the Lanc and a few other great aircraft doing flights throughout the day. The ground crew was very nice and helpful. Soon after we parked Vyctor, the Lanc came back from it’s first flight:
I assumed the big yellow tow truck was to maneuver my massive Cessna 150 Aerobat, but apparently it was for the Lanc.
We had a pre-flight briefing where I met up with some great flight crew folks I met previously. After sloshing about a million gallons of fuel into the Lanc (they forget about filling mine for free as I requested), we were ready to head out. A wee lass (my usual co-pilot, Donkay), joined me.
The flight in the Lanc was exceptional. I was in tears as it started up. To think, I was in one of only two flying Lancasters in the world! It truly was a moving experience.
We headed over to St. Catharines, then across Lake Ontario to Toronto:
I wonder if their radios conked out like mine usually does when they were close to the CN Tower? I heard it has to do with all of the other frequencies bouncing around that area.
We then headed south, back to Hamilton:
It was great to be able to wander around the plane during the flight, including up into one of the gun turrets:
Dang, that was terrific. Once back, the more than helpful ground crew assisted me in moving Vyctor under the Lanc for some photos. He looks like a little zit next to it:
I’m still totally buzzing from the day. The flight was amazing, the crew was amazing….my jaw hurts from smiling so much.
Today’s symptoms: So happy to say I felt great! The week of brutal heat took it’s toll over the last few days, but I made sure to keep the last couple days fairly low-key so I would have a decent amount of energy for today. I know I’m going to pay for the excitement tomorrow (my MS symptoms always get worse after emotional ups or downs) but it was totally worth it!
Lizzy McFly 