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Lancaster KB976
Section 5 - The Flights from Canada to
Strathallan, Scotland
Unless otherwise credited, all photographs on this page are taken by Glyn Genin, the official photographer on the Trans-Atlantic flight and provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson. |
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| The
below photographs are at Edmonton International
Airport where the aircraft was located following
the recertification work. From here the flight to
Scotland began. |
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| Now at Toronto International Airport | |||
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| The above two
photographs are at Halifax, Nova Scotia, parked
outside Imperial
Marine Products which serviced C130s. The
President of IMP is pictured here with his family.
The staff of the company also came out for
photographs and kindly helped sort some radio
problems KB976 had been having. |
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| KB 976 leaving
Halifax Canada, 18th May 1975 Photo by Barrie MacLeod from his Facebook page YHZ ATC |
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| KB 976 leaving
Halifax Canada, 18th May 1975 Photo by Barrie MacLeod from his Facebook page YHZ ATC |
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| KB 976 leaving
Halifax Canada, 18th May 1975 Photo by Barrie MacLeod from his Facebook page YHZ ATC |
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| Captain P A
Mackenzie (DSO, DFC) British Caledonian Director
Flight Operations |
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| Landing at
Reykjavik, Iceland |
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| Landing at
Reykjavik, Iceland |
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| Flypast at
Reykjavik, Iceland |
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L to R: David Kemp, Stan Banfield, Capt MacKenzie, Dick Richardson and Gerry Moore The flights
from Alberta took 34 hours, flying by way of
Toronto, Halifax, Gander and Reykjavik (Iceland)
to Scotland.
The five man crew was made up of three officers of British Caledonian Airways Ltd, all former Lancaster crew in WWII - Captain MacKenzie, BCal’s Flight Operations Director, was in command Gerry Moore as Co-pilot David Kemp as Navigator Stan Banfield was Flight engineer Strathallan’s Dick Richardson was also on board Glyn Genin was on board as the official photographer |
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| RAF Nimrod meets
KB976 at Tiree, Scotland |
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| Photograph taken
from Nimrod, May 1975. |
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| Approach to
Glasgow Airport, May 1975. Photograph taken and provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson |
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| Photograph courtesy of Dave Thaxter http://www.british-caledonian.com/ | |||
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| Photograph courtesy of Dave Thaxter http://www.british-caledonian.com/ | |||
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| Glasgow Airport
May/June 1975 |
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| Captain
Mackenzie and new owner Sir William Roberts at
Glasgow Airport |
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| Charts and Maps
from the Trans-Atlantic journey. |
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| Photograph courtesy of Dave Thaxter http://www.british-caledonian.com/ | |||
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Photograph courtesy of Jim Bavin |
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| Photo
by Hugh McMillan |
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| Photo by Hugh McMillan | |||
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| Photo by Hugh McMillan | |||
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| Photo by Hugh McMillan | |||
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| The next 8
photos are all taken and provided by courtesy of
Dick Richardson. They were taken during an attempt
to land at Strathallan on 18th May 1975. The
Cessna 207 G-AYTJ belonging to Sir William Roberts
delivered Dick to Glasgow airport that day and the
remaining photographs then show the view from the
aircraft on the way to Strathallan. Captain MacKenzie deemed the conditions unsuitable for landing so returned to Glasgow airport. |
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| En route to
Strathallan above Crosslee, on the bank of the
River Gryffe about four miles west of Glasgow
Airport. Thanks to Joe Kokes for identifying the location. |
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| Two images showing Crieff in the distance. | |||
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| Circling above
Strathallan before returning to Glasgow Airport. |
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| Finally on 10th
June 1975 another attempt was made, this time
successfully. Photographs taken and provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson - A view of the village of Kippen, Stirlingshire on the flight from Glasgow Airport to Strathallan Airfield. |
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| Possibly the
very last flight for KB 976 - flying above
Auchterarder, on either the May or June flight
1975 Photograph by Douglas Campbell from his Flickr photo site |
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| Photograph by Douglas Campbell from his Flickr photo site | |||
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| Photograph taken
and provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson Approaching Strathallan airfield |
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| Photograph taken
and provided by courtesy of Dick Richardson Approaching Strathallan airfield |
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| The final flight
and landing at Strathallan |
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| Sir William Roberts (left) and the Lancaster crew | |||
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| Photograph
courtesy of Dick Richardson KB976 Finally at her new home. |
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| Clippings
courtesy of Margaret Issa |
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| Photograph
courtesy of Dave Thaxter http://www.british-caledonian.com/ From the left - Mr J M Ritchie, British Caledonian External Affairs Director, Colonel Frank Kaufman, Sir William Roberts of Strathallan, Captain P A Mackenzie (DSO, DFC) British Caledonian Director Flight Operations. A reception was held at
the Canadian Embassy after their arrival, hosted
by Colonel Frank Kaufman, Senior Liaison Officer
(Air Force) of the Canadian Defence Liaison
Staff in London, in honour of the last flight of
Spirit of Caledonia and the British Caledonian
crew who flew the aircraft to Scotland.
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| Postcard courtesy of Dick Richardson | |||
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VETERAN
LANCASTER RETURNS TO UK
Originally
from
http://www.aircrew.org.uk/woking/W_News210401.html
- this page is now unavailable.
Members of Woking Aircrew
Association at their regular monthly meeting at
the Fairoaks Flight Centre were treated to a
lively and very humorous illustrated account of
the adventures of an ex-Pathfinders crew and a
very experienced ground engineer who went to
Canada in the late 70s to fly a retired
Lancaster back to Britain.
The speaker was Dick Richardson, who had the distinction of serving for 12 years continuously on the same RAF Station, rising from Corporal Fitter to Chief Technician, looking after Mark I and Mark II Vulcans, and subsequently taking on responsibility for maintaining the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster. Following his RAF career, he became Chief Engineer to the Strathallan Collection of Vintage Aircraft owned by Sir William Roberts. It was in this capacity that he was sent to Canada to survey an ex-wartime Canadian built Lancaster Mk X parked at Calgary Airport, which had been converted as a Water Bomber, carrying 2000 gallons at a time to be dumped on forest fires. Having scrounged necessary replacement parts from nine other derelict Lancasters of various vintages which he found dumped at Edmonton, he was joined by a crew led by Captain P A Mackenzie, ex-83 Squadron, who was then the Operations Director at British Caledonian Airways, and other B Cal crew members who had also flown Lancasters during the war. They had a tremendous reception at their first port of call, Toronto, where the aircraft was originally built, with huge crowds to see them off, and much media coverage. On departure, the queue of impatient 747s in the takeoff queue were told by Air Traffic Control that "Today it is age before beauty" and had to wait until the Lancaster had completed a requested fly-past for the waiting crowds! Similar attention was paid to their refueling stops at Halifax, Gander and Reykjavik, where it turned out that the British Consul was an ex-rear gunner, and so they were required to beat up the town before they left. On their return to UK they were, to their surprise, met and escorted in over Tiree by a Maritime Reconnaissance Nimrod, with wheels and flaps down and with 39 people on board, all clustering with cameras round portholes on the port side, upsetting its trim! Captain Mac asked the Nimrod Captain to "clean up his aircraft" so that they could get decent photos, which they subsequently exchanged to great glee all round. They had another great reception at Glasgow Airport, after which they had to fly the aircraft onto an 800-yard dirt strip at its future home at the Strathallan collection, where it was repainted in 405 Squadron colours, but sadly, although its Merlin engines "never missed a beat" all the way across the Atlantic, it never flew again. Dick Richardson finished his presentation with slides of derelict military aircraft he found all over Canada in various stages of disarray, but he could name every one, and his whole talk sounded as if it had happened only yesterday. He was given a heartfelt vote of thanks by all present, and our Social Secretary was urged to provide more speakers like Dick, PLEASE! Above originally from http://www.aircrew.org.uk/woking/W_News210401.html - this page is now unavailable. |
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