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The Day the Lancaster Bomber came to Teesside (sorry, Durham Tees Valley) Airport. Report by Keith Wilson. On Wednesday 27th August the Canadian Lancaster bomber 'Mynarski' landed at Durham Tess Valley Airport. That night the crew, some veterans and their families came to eat in our pub 'the Oaktree', where Canadian airman drank during the war when the airport was known as 'Goosepool'. On Thursday the general public came to watch the celebrations and fly past and the crew returned to eat in the evening. The following day they were due to leave. One of the engines developed a fault and the crew worked until the following Wednesday before it could fly again. The crew continued to eat in the Oaktree and we kept the kitchens open late to cater for them after 12 hour shifts with few breaks. Jill and I were invited for a private tour of the aircraft while it was being repaired on the Tuesday evening (instead of Pinchinthorpe!). We spent an hour in the fuselage, cockpit and gun seats (see attached photo).
By this time the George, where they were staying, was fully booked and so the two pilots came to stay with me and Jill. That night, and over breakfast next day, we were treated to story after story. These included: the upside down mod plate; the lady delivery pilots; preparations for ditching on the way home; survival rates of different crew members; ground crew bonuses for dealing with returning shot-up bombers; cockpit design for solo flying; benefactors and underwriters; vintage aircraft maintenance, cleaning and airworthiness; the ebay auction for a passenger seat on the transatlantic flight and so on...more than enough to fill an evening run (as long as there are no questions going uphill!) or a checkpoint duty. When the Lancaster finally took off it did two fly-overs of our house in Middleton One Row as a thank you. It was all very special. Photographs of both the public and private viewings are available on the pub's website at www.theoaktreeinnmsg.co.uk
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