Home IBCC Lecture and Supper Series

Presented in the style of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Dave Gilbert describes some of the technology used aboard Bomber Command and Luftwaffe bombers for navigation, blind bombing and avoiding detection. With lots of light-hearted audience participation and hands-on demonstrations involving lasers, smoke machines and even an electric guitar, Dave’s approach will be easy to digest and requires no technical knowledge. So if you’ve ever wondered what Gee or Window are, or how the Luftwaffe bombed Coventry so accurately in 1940, this is the lecture for you.

Biography

Dave is a graduate electronic engineer and owns two electronic manufacturing companies as well as being IBCC’s Losses Archivist. This lecture is a fusion of his two passions in life- engineering and the history of Bomber Command.

Please note that a small part of this lecture involves the use of strobe lighting. The audience will be notified immediately beforehand.

8th March

Mike retired from the RAF 5 years ago after a career of nearly 40 years as a multi engine aircraft pilot.  

With a number of still pictures and a few short video clips he is going to talk about his experiences with 2 Lancasters;- the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s  “City of Lincoln”, and the privately owned “Just Jane” of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby.

Mike graduated from the RAF College at Cranwell in 1976 and after flying training went on to the AEW (Airborne Early Warning) Shackleton at Lossiemouth. He then moved across the road to Kinloss and completed 2 flying tours and 2 ground tours with the Maritime Nimrod.

He escaped from Kinloss in 1989 on posting to Station Ops at Coningsby, with the ulterior motive of flying with BBMF.

As a “current” Lancaster pilot at the time, he was also asked to operate the East Kirkby Lanc when it was restored to taxying condition in 1995 and has continued to do so ever since.

After 9 years at Coningsby the powers that be decided it was time for him to return to a proper job, and he was posted to 51 Sqn at Waddington to fly the Nimrod R1, so he had to leave BBMF, but continued to taxi Just Jane.

Mike was kept pretty busy on 51 and he was involved in all the recent conflicts involving British forces such as the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. He had the doubtful honour of being the world’s last Nimrod pilot when on 29 July 2011 he delivered the last airworthy airframe to Kemble where it was prepared for its final destination at Cosford Museum.

He was then reduced to “flying a desk” at Waddington as the Station Flight Safety Officer for his last two years in the Service.

As a Volunteer Reserve pilot Mike has been able to continue to fly with the RAF until November last year providing Air Experience for Air Cadets at Cranwell at weekends.

Mike is very proud of the fact that his Father, John was also a Lancaster pilot, in WW2, and they often provided a unique double act at Coningsby and East Kirkby. Sadly, John passed away in 2004, but Mike is pleased that he appears frequently in the presentation.