Gallery > 2009 > Lancaster Flypast May 4

Lancaster Flypast May 4

On monday May 4 2009 the Avro Lancaster of BBMF made several flypasts over different war monuments in the Netherlands. She started her route in the very south of the Netherlands and then making her way op North flying over several monuments in Limburg, Brabant and Gelderland. After that she lands at Schiphol where she will depart again May 5 to fly back to England via Texel. I went to the monument in Heythuysen to watch the fly-past. The lady who arranged the fly-past is Ria Schmieder from Heythuysen (she is also responsible for the monument in Heythuysen). The Lancaster would make the most fly-pasts over Heythuysen for that reason. That, the wonderfull open location in Heythuysen and being nearest to my home were the reasons for me to watch the fly-past in Heythuysen.

It was wonderfull to be there in the field and watch the Lancaster circling over another monument in Haelen (few kilometers away) knowing that in a few minutes the beauty will fly right over your head.

The Avro Lancaster "Phantom of the Ruhr" that made the fly-pasts is currently the only airworthy Lancaster in the world! The other Lancaster (Canada) isn't airworthy anymore due to corrosion in the propellers. They are working hard to get her back into the air. In England there is one other Lancaster that used to be airworthy but nowadays is only allowed to do taxi-runs.

After six or seven passes she waved goodbye and left to the next monument.

When she flew away the grey clouds above us closed. During the fly-past we had a nice opening in the clouds above letting through some sunshine, the weather Gods were truly on our sides!

Later in the afternoon the Lancaster safely set foot on Schiphol but during her taxi one engine broke down. I believe it took about 2 weeks before she was back in the UK. A pitty she broke down, lot's of luck she didn't broke down during the fly-pasts or before! Ow yeah, almost forgot. The German Luftwaffe brought her a new engine with a Luftwaffe cargo plane! How Ironic!

Guus Luijten, July 17 2009

For more info about the fly-past and the monument visit: www.lancastermonument.nl

Also visit the BBMF website (they keep the Lancaster in the air): www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf