Abbotsford Air Show

At the Abbotsford Air Show this year there was a flying Avro Lancaster on display.  Jim's father was a pilot in the RCAF in Second World War and flew this airplane in Bomber Command.

Jim had the opportunity at the Air Show to spend some time with the crew and go up in the plane and even sit in the pilot's seat.  He was pretty thrilled with the day.  We got the see the plane fly.  There are only two flying Lancasters left in the world and one of them is in Hamilton Ontario.  I think the other is in England.

Jim belongs to a Lancaster Forum on line and has met some of the crew involved with this plane on line but he got to meet a few of his internet friends in person this weekend. 

A few pictures of Jim's adventure. 

Jim in the pilots seat -- the fellow standing beside him is a crew member and a member of Jim's online forum as well.  All the crew members are volunteers and spend hours and hours maintaining this plane.


Jim was just so thrilled to be able to sit in the pilot's seat - even for just a few minutes.  Jim's dad flew a lot of operations in these planes.  His dad died in 1994 - just a few weeks after we got married.

Jim has a picture of his dad just like this one - taken during the war. 

This is Lisa - one of the members of Jim's online forum as well as a volunteer member of the crew.  Lisa's grandfather was a pilot in the war as well and belonged to the same Squadron as Jim's dad and flew a couple of the same planes as Jim's dad although they did not seem to know each other during the war and Jim and  Lisa discovered their connection through the forum.

Here is Jim walking beside some of the crew and the plane as it is being towed out to the runway for a flight.

It was quite a special day for Jim and his friends from the Lancaster Forum made it all possible for him.