Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By stodge
#1543100
Just an amazing day! My 92 year old chap flew as a mid upper gunner i Halifaxes and had a whale of a time spotting other aircraft which I'm sure he was just itching to shoot down.

After departure from Denham, we ran into pretty low cloud base between Oxford and Gloucester so I chose to go IFR and did the ILS with a circle to land on 22. Fantastic service by Gloucester ATC who were extremely on the ball and always gracious and courteous in a pretty hectic environment.

I thought the day was brilliantly handled - huge thanks to the positively heroic Graham Cowie and his entire team who should all get gold medals for what they did and continue to do. The cadets were also top notch, and the food (especially the cake) was out of this world. I only hope we didn't breach W&B limits on the way back!

After landing, my vet had the biggest grin on his face and said the day was "a dream come true". He also said he was determined to remain alive for another year so he could do it all over again.

Thank you Project Propeller.
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By Mournkaye
#1543119
I suffered with an extreme case of getthereitis (rationale: "they had to fly in this while also being shot at so I should be able to do it") and executed my most challenging flight yet in worse-than-the-worst-forecast weather to pick my 94-year-old flight engineer & former POW up from Barton but then couldn't get out again. Totally heartbroken as the departure window for the last arrival slot came and went and my veteran returned to his home. "Next year," I said - "maybe, I'm running out of borrowed time" said he :'( I think someone was cutting onions in the Barton café that afternoon...

Really pleased everyone had a great time. I'd absolutely love to do a 'reprise' if matspart3 can pull one off!
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By GolfHotel
#1543126
Mournkaye wrote:I suffered with an extreme case of getthereitis (rationale: "they had to fly in this while also being shot at so I should be able to do it") and executed my most challenging flight yet in worse-than-the-worst-forecast weather to pick my 94-year-old flight engineer & former POW up from Barton but then couldn't get out again. Totally heartbroken as the departure window for the last arrival slot came and went and my veteran returned to his home. "Next year," I said - "maybe, I'm running out of borrowed time" said he :'( I think someone was cutting onions in the Barton café that afternoon...

Really pleased everyone had a great time. I'd absolutely love to do a 'reprise' if matspart3 can pull one off!


last year we couldn't make due weather. So I took "my" vet up for a local flight. He said its the flying he likes anyway. Luckily we made it this year.
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By Cessna57
#1543138
GolfHotel wrote:
Mournkaye wrote:I suffered with an extreme case of getthereitis (rationale: "they had to fly in this while also being shot at so I should be able to do it") and executed my most challenging flight yet in worse-than-the-worst-forecast weather to pick my 94-year-old flight engineer & former POW up from Barton but then couldn't get out again. Totally heartbroken as the departure window for the last arrival slot came and went and my veteran returned to his home. "Next year," I said - "maybe, I'm running out of borrowed time" said he :'( I think someone was cutting onions in the Barton café that afternoon...

Really pleased everyone had a great time. I'd absolutely love to do a 'reprise' if matspart3 can pull one off!


last year we couldn't make due weather. So I took "my" vet up for a local flight. He said its the flying he likes anyway. Luckily we made it this year.


Agreed, I was weathered off last year, and took my VET up flying at a later date. This suited him and his daughter just as much, and they enjoyed it just as much.

@Mournkaye contact your vet and take them flying soon anyway. Don't wait a year.
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By N-Jacko
#1543140
Hmmm, flight at FL70 described as "peaceful, but a bit cramped". :?

I think what John meant is that a Maule is a fair bit smaller than a Lancaster, but at least nobody shot at us - even over Cumbria.

Anyway, thanks to Graham, his helpers and the event sponsors - Mrs J has already "liberated" the Tesco goodie bag...
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By Ridders
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1543215
Thanks to Graham and all the team that were involved in yet another great Project Propeller event at Gloucester.

I picked up my veteran John at 7.15 at home in in sussex, anticipating heading over to the airfield to launch for Gloucester.

Except for the weather....

Forecast did not look too good especially the earlier brize TAF so we had a chat about giving it a go by air with possibility of not making it, or heading northwest driving.

So I'm afraid to say we didn't manage to fly in on the day, but we did make it by road so John managed to meet up with friends and have lots of chinwags with lots of people.

I had the pleasure of chatting to John over a number of hours on the journey, on all aspects of his time in the RAF, during and after the war - an incredible gentleman, I am totally in awe of this recipient of both the MBE and DFC.

Great event - thanks again everyone. :salut:

Ridders
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By GrimReaper
#1543221
Well, good evening everybody, and let me commence by thanking everybody who has texted, e-mailed or posted above for the congratulations and thanks I've received. In terms of social media, I'm the most visible, so tend to get name checked the most; however, I am one of a team that works to deliver a day befitting the esteemed guests whom we welcome every year.

I will start by thanking my colleauge Harry Burgoyne, who looked after ground side matters this year. He has devoted at least as much time to this year's event as I have, possibly more, and everything that happened after your wheels touched the ground at Gloucester is down, in large part, to his hard work, tenacity, attention to detail and outright effort.

That, of course, is not the whole story, because without the magnificent co-operation of our hosts at Gloucester, headed up by Darren and his team, we would not have had half the day that we did. He's too much of a gentlemen to spell out in detail the logistical issues he had to overcome in the few weeks leading up to the event, but they were many, and we are all indebted once again to his efforts.

Darren, there were no doubt many more component elements in the operation than I was aware of, so I must ask you to convey our thanks to them globally. However, off the top of my head, the ATC staff, the marshallers and the drivers all excelled. The contingent of Air Cadets did so much to make the day run smoothly, and we have conveyed our gratitude to their C.O. directly.

The centrepiece of the day was the presentation of medals to Flt Sgt John Galloway: what a privilege and honour to have been involved in this. Gideon Todes is one of the founder members of Project Propeller, and he observed that this presentation cut to the very ethos of the event: acknowledgement of the sacrifices and service of the wartime generation; a synopsis I think few would disagree with.

Beyond those I've already mentioned, the caterers did a sterling job, and it seemed to me that the method of serving at table was universally popular. Heather Marie and her husband Matthew provided marvellous vocals, accompanied by John Hunter on the piano. Sean Strange of http://www.seanstrangephotography.co.uk/ gave up his time for free to provide portrait photography, and once I have details of where you can get prints from, I will publicise. Thanks to all the photographers who captured landing and arrival shots as well.

I'm sure I've missed out others who are fully deserving of direct thanks; any such omission is my fault, not a judgement.

Lastly, to the pilots - without your help and dedication, this simply doesn't happen. My gratitude to you is unbounded, especially those who undertake repositions to pick up veterans. Aviation is a very costly business, and I dread to think what the collective fuel burn would have been from Sunday.

So thoughts turn to 2018; I don't have any idea on venue or date at present, but once I do, I will post details. If you are a Facebook or Twitter user, I'd encourage you to "like" and "follow" respectively. The web page is here: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectPropeller/ and the Twitter handle is @ProjectProp

Let me close by leaving you with a couple of comments: the first is an e-mail I received from a Dakota Wireless Operator this morning:

"I feel I must write to compliment you on another first class reunion. I was yet again amazed and somewhat humbled by the reception that us old chaps received, from being transported from the aircraft in an immaculate Jaguar limousine, to being hosted like VIPs in the marquee. The method of serving the food to each individual in a package was brilliant. It was also so good to chat with all our like minded veterans, which brought back so many memories.

Everything was so well organised, and I can't compliment you enough for all the hard work you obviously put into the event. So may I just say thankyou to you and your team of volunteer pilots, and I look forward very much to joining you again next year
"

More succinct is a comment made to me by one of the drivers as we were closing up the site. He said this:

"you know, it's strange - when I dropped them off, they shuffled in to that marquee at a crawl - but they came out almost marching, with a spring in their step".

Wow! Well done everybody - we did this.

:D :thumleft:
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By GrimReaper
#1543238
matspart3 wrote:
(What he doesn't know - and this might push him over the edge - is that I'm already thinking of a 'reprise' for our locally-based veterans who didn't get to fly today and maybe some of those who didn't make it in due wx)



Oh, go on then....hit me with a date.... :D
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By matspart3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1543242
A few operational statistics....

99 of a planned 121 aircraft made it. Those making multiple trips gave a grand total of 106 PP arrivals and 104 departures from a total daily movement tally of 329 for the day. 5100 litres of fuel were sold to 54 participants.

The runway utilisation peaked at 47 arrivals between 10-1100L, which included a couple from of bizjets onto runway 27 and a pretty staggering 59 departures (plus 5 helicopter movements) between 15-1600L.

Amongst those departures was a Southend-based Cherokee, G-ATTK, which was the first aircraft I ever spoke to as a student Air Traffic Controller almost 25 years ago!
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By matspart3
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1543243
GrimReaper wrote:
matspart3 wrote:
(What he doesn't know - and this might push him over the edge - is that I'm already thinking of a 'reprise' for our locally-based veterans who didn't get to fly today and maybe some of those who didn't make it in due wx)



Oh, go on then....hit me with a date.... :D


My post above preceded your text but I WILL be in touch soon. Still 'buzzing' from yesterday :D
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By Rob L
#1543247
My sister is a teacher in Stonehouse (just down the road from Gloucester) and last night I sent her a link to the news reports and the PP website.

This evening I got this reply from her: "[Today] I showed the news clip and photos to my class as we did WW2 this term. They were all amazed"

Many kids have living great-grandparents these days, and it sounds like there may be a few "what did you do in the war?" questions from the kids she teaches. It wouldn't surprise me if JAM get a request for another school visit!

Rob
By pullup
#1543251
matspart3 wrote:
Amongst those departures was a Southend-based Cherokee, G-ATTK, which was the first aircraft I ever spoke to as a student Air Traffic Controller almost 25 years ago!


Mere child...... I used to instruct in it 37 years ago and frequently talk to it as an A/G operator nowadays!
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