Dam Buster re run
 

Looks like a interesting program being trailed on channel four tonight.
Modern day RAF aircrews are going to re run the Dam Buster raid, from the clips they are using some kind of simulation.
According to the trailer they are going to be tasked to navigate the whole distance at 100 feet at night and to carry out the bomb runs.
Will keep a eye out for the time and date it is to be shown.
Should be good.

I got pulled into some of that, although my efforts won't get used.

Southampton University Aero Department's sim was reconfigured as the various stations of a Lanc then they used (I think) Cranwell Cadets to fulfil the various crew roles and try and work together as a team to fly the mission.

They also separately did a bit of low level in the Canadian Lanc.

My bit was working on dropping an actual weapon from a smaller aeroplane, but all the maths seemed to show that the scale of the thing needed a Wellington or larger to work at-all, so nothing economically feasible for a TV programme was going to work. Plus the TV company couldn't organise a drinks party in a yeast plant, so nothing they were supposed to do ever happened and we all gave up on them.

However, the bits organised by a major University, and the RAF - who between them can organise a drinks party, I understand went jolly well.

G

Are they going to do it in the BBMF Lanc???

SSD

I believe they did something similar a while back, I recal a documentry where a RAF crew tried navigating using only the methods available in WW2 , finding a given target and doing a dummy bomb run on that.

SSD said:
 

Are they going to do it in the BBMF Lanc???

My understanding is that the BBMF Lanc is not allowed into German airspace. This was certainly the case when a 50th anniversary rerun was requested by HM Govt. So the Red Arrows "transited" the Mohne coincidently!! instead.

Hmm.....

16 May 1983 Phantom FGR2 XV 469 Self + F/L R*** 'LL Navex'....

40th anniversary of the Dambuster's raid - too good an opportunity to miss! Over at Gutersloh on Ex Bold Gauntlet ("Don't say 'corridor' chaps, whatever else you say...") and the No 2 went u/s. So, no LLOLPIs for us - it was a LL Navex around Das Reich instead. No pansy limits then; so off we went at 250-ish feet for a sightseeing tour - which, of course, had to include both the Eder and Moehne dams. At the Edersee it was round the castle, downhill, across the dam, full A/B.....that was fun - let's do it again! So we did! The the No 2 turned up so then we did it as a pair. Then went home via the Moehne.... Stn NavO at Gutersloh was mightily unimpressed - apparently there was something called a low flying handbook or Manuel de Vol a Bas Altitude which said that you weren't supposed to go anywhere near the Dams. Ah - but we were Air Defenders - don't know nuffink about such cr@p!

But the locals did wave from the castle. At least I think that they were waving....

I had the pleasure of replicating the Mohne Dam raid in the Cherokee 140 from Gutersloh Flying Club one gorgeous still summer's evening. Still got the video...now where did I put it...

Beagle, Why was the German low flying manual written in French??????

Closest I've come to replicating the raid was over Grafham Water in a C150, throttle full in (so only about 100Kts then) at about 500'. And I was still pooing meself. :eek:

BEagle - you're a legend! :D

Many moons ago, one of my first trips post PPL, on a local jolly from Netherthorpe.
Decided to go round northern side of Sheffield and then the dams run down Derwent/Ladybower as per real Dambusters practise sessions (not below 500 ft...but only just;) ).
Did it once, big grin....let's do that again. Tracking back up one side of the reservoir to have another go when a pair of Buccaneers come blasting through the valley at approx 250 ft doing what we had just done!:eek:

Definitely a "I learned about flying from that" trip!

I hate to be a kill-joy, but many many years ago, before I started flying, I was birdwatching (the other hobby) at Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex. A Cessna 150 dropped down and flew low over the water. Now in winter, as this was, Hanningfield is home to literally 10,000 of birds, and most of them took to the air as the aircraft flew over.

It was a spectacular sight, of which the pilot was probably blissfully ignorant as the birds were behind him, but if they'd all got up in front of him.................I'll leave it to your imagination.

So please, reservoirs are great landmarks, but from september to april, they are crammed full of birds and best left alone.

Wouldn't mind a reinactment next month preferably with the Lanc but a couple of Tornadoes will do when I visit the Moehne and Eder dams as part of the Dambuster week holiday (Leger Travel) I'm booked on. Any fellow Ppruners on this trip? When I went to the aeronautical society lecture at Southampton University a month or so ago they said this TV programme would be shown at Easter.

Monday 7/4/03 CH4 (UK) 21:00 - 22.35 BST - Dambusters

Concludes the following Monday

Flap 40 - probably for the Canadians. Or rather the Quequettoise Canadians qui parle le strange noise on ecoute en Canada de temps en temps?

Ah - Ladybower. Went belting through there at 250 ft in a JP many years ago with my QFI. Seemed great fun - but when we checked the LFHB afterwards we found that there was actually a ban on flying throught the Derwent valley below 500 ft. Ooops.....

Catcleugh reservoir was another good tick to get. 250 ft and 350KIAS, over the dam then overbank to about 110 deg and pull right down the valley. In a Vulcan - such sport! But you had to stay below 2.35G or the wretched fatigue meter would record an incriminating 'J count'.

As for birds and reservoirs, I once flew with an ancient navigator who'd been on Lincolns. His claim to fame was being on a crew who made such a gross cock-up one dark night that instead of bombing some range in Germany, they'd taken out about 3 million ducks in a nature reserve. The Germans, understandably, were rather miffed. But the local restaurants had enought wild duck to keep them happy for months!

I watched a documentry about the bomb itself a while back, can't remember if it was terrestrial or cable, I was supprised to learn that more than one type was developed a smaller anti ship version for the Mosquito I think , but I don't think it was ever used and the Germans also developed a bouncing bomb.
I get spoiled with documentires since I got cable.
;)

Just as a passing thought, I don't suppose the aircraft was officially permitted in German airspace last time either.

G

Tony D

The bomb developed for the mossie was codenamed Highball. the major difference with this bomb apart from being a smaller scale, it retained its outer casing unlike the dam bombs that during testing lost the casing and the cylinder carried on bouncing.... the joys of science!!

;)

It was a spectacular sight, of which the pilot was probably blissfully ignorant as the birds were behind him, but if they'd all got up in front of him.................I'll leave it to your imagination.

Years ago I used to fly our Chippy down Southport beach at a couple of feet above the sand. I used a high power setting and trimmed a tad nose-up so I had to hold it down - a sort of fail safe. Skimming along at speed like that was quite exhillerating, especially rolling into turns (I'd drift up to about 10 feet wheel-height before rolling on bank).

It was (and is) quite legal provided you stay 500 feet away from persons, vessels, structures etc and it teaches you about the difficulty of accurate manouvering at low level with no useful horizon. But you did have to watch out for the gulls. Engine failure wouldn't have been a problem - miles of firm sand to land on. But a birdsrike might not have had a happy outcome.

Haven't done it for years. Must be getting old ;~)

I remember seeing a film once where (taildragger) crop sparayers, for fun, would fly along a canal brushing the mains on the surface of the water leaving great spray trails behind each wheel. Now that DID look dodgy ;~))


SSD

I noticed the "book of the series" in WH Smith the other day - didn't have time to have more than a quick glance but from that and the TV trailer, I have a suspicion that this series is going to be a "reality reconstruction"... on the lines of The Trench or the one on National Service.

Most of the "flying" looks to have been done on simulators, or on NX611.

Could be good, could be bl**dy awful!

Here's a link with some more info...

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/notams03/damb0403.htm