Daks Over Normandy - June 2019

Well, two events actually, bringing together 30+ Douglas DC-3 Dakotas / C-47 Skytrains from around the world to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day:

- Daks Over Duxford on 4th and 5th June, with aircraft arriving from 2nd June;
- Daks Over Normandy on 7th and 8th June at Cean-Carpiquet airport.

Practice mass parachute drop at Duxford on the 4th, then the 30+ Dakotas (and escorts) will fly across The Channel on afternoon of 5th June to do a parachute drop near Ranville. D-Day itself will be restricted to official events then the events and access at Duxford will be repeated at Caen-Carpiquet.

https://www.daksovernormandy.com/

Should be pretty special, especially trying to catch them en route to Normandy on the 5th June.

Regards,

Dan

 

https://www.daksovernormandy.com/program/

Rough itinerary for the event. Currently 38 aircraft booked, but others are being sourced it seems, so should be over 40.

 

Thanks for info, Steve, Looks like an unmissable event

 

Both days booked.

 

Who's Steve?!

Nigel

 

I'm on nights that week so not sure what to do. The Wednesday is the easiest - go to the event in the morning, watch the mass departure, then home to bed for a few hours!

 

I'll be doing the Sunday and Monday too to see the arrivals and practice. Hopefully the surrounding roads won't be shut as they are on display days and some decently lit shots will be possible. Assuming the sun shines of course.

 

It’s called senility, I think I must have got where you live in my head and thought of another resident in that noble town!

 

That reminds me, I must change that - I moved 18 months ago!

Fingers crossed that, as it's not an air show as such, Grange Road remains open. Though as it's June, it doesn't matter where you stand, the sun will be directly overhead anyway.

 

Certainly during large parts of daylight but any early or late moves may be better lit but of course the sun could well be on the museum side of the centre line at those times.

 

Route and timings on 5th June released:

https://www.daksovernormandy.com/news/daks-over-normandy-historic-route-revealed/

Regards,

Dan

 

A great pity that the weather got progressively worse as the day went on on Tuesday and because of the wind, the planned mass parachute drop didn't happen but a good event none the less. Where else would over 20 Dakotas assembled in one place in the 21st century. I managed to rescue some shots in PS. The first picture is a remarkable survivor it was the lead ship in the American Airborne assault, dropping a contingent of the 101st Airborne.

 

Thanks for sharing John. I've got loads to go through as I went to Shuttleworth to see the seven that popped in there on the Saturday afternoon. Then Duxford for the next four days to see late arrivals and practice, then the two day event itself.

 

Another DC3 has it's first flight in nearly 30 years on 6th June was C-FDTD owned by Mikey from Buffalo Airways.

The story of the restoration was covered in 156 daily episodes.

 

Another late entry was G-ANAF which changed hands shortly before and was repainted just in time. That was possibly the last DC3 on the UK register as a commercial aircraft. Now for a graceful semi retirement.

 

Here are 24 photos of the two drops near Caen on 5 June. The first drop was flown by RAF and French Air Force aircraft, the second by Daks from Duxford:

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.co...Normandy-Satterville-para-drop-2019/i-CbM8tpC

Andrew N

 

Here are photos of 23 Daks in Normandy, at Carpiquet airport, Caen.

14 Daks which had flown from the USA are here:

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.co...s-over-Normandy-2019-C-47s-DC3s-from-the-USA/

Nine European Daks and other aircraft are here:

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.co...over-Normandy-2019-other-C-47s-DC3s/i-XTbLCz9

Cheers

Andrew N