Skipper"

Thanks for your kind words to me, but really my hours are insignificant when you compare them to our "Lancaster pilots "group. We have 18 pilots who are certified to fly the Lanc for CWPHM. Some of them have hundreds of hours of "seat time " on our Avro Mark 10 Lancaster.

This aircraft was first acquired by the museum in 1977. It had been built in Malton Ontario, at Victory Aircraft in 1944. It did not go overseas, and was kept in RCAF service, as a weather and iceberg patrol plane until it was retired in 1964. It was bought by a retired officer's group and mounted on a pedestal ina park in Goderich, Ontario. In 1979, CWPHM bought it and arranged to to have the wings and tail removed, and then a CF heavy helicopter squadron lifted it and flew the load down to our location at Hamilton International airport, as a training exercise. The wings came down on a low loader trailer by road.

The restoration process took ELEVEN YEARS to complete.

On September 11th, of 1988, the first trial flight took place. On September the 24 of that year, the first official flight took place. So since 1988 we have put thousands of hours on the Lancaster airframe. This is the twenty year anniversary of it's career with us. It has been flying with CWPHM longer that it did with the RCAF.........

The CWPHM pilots that fly the Lancaster are all "four engine heavy jet " pilots who are employed by Air Canada, or West Jet, or other commercial airlines. All of our aircraft have a group of "endorsed pilots ' who are checked out and qualified to fly that "type ' of aircraft, and our operations office keeps a rotation list that shows who is next to fly any particular plane in our inventory. Pilots provide their own helmets, coveralls and boots, all in our approved colour scheme and insignias, as well as their own charts and checklists, for that individual plane. In return they get to fly genuine WW2 antique aircraft, and have fun doing so.

We never have any trouble getting a pilot to fly for us, they are wating in line to do that. They also have to fly under our "standard operating procedures " that do not allow any dangerous aerobatics or low flying stunts. In the entire history of the CWPHM we have NEVER crashed a plane.

Jim Bunting. Toronto.