‘Just Jayne’ flies again, or the story of three brothers.

During the 1940's the three Panton brothers lived on a farm in Lincolnshire, at East Kirkby, just 10 miles away from my own family home. As WWII raged around them the eldest of the three, Chris, decided the time had come to ‘do his bit’ and he enlisted as an officer in the RAF. Qualifying as a Flight Engineer he was assigned to Lancaster bombers, taking part in a number of raids over enemy territory. Sadly, he was shot down while on the Nuremburg raid the night of 30/31 March 1944.

 

Many years later the two surviving brothers, Fred and Harold, managed to buy a Lancaster in reasonably good condition with the idea of keeping it on their farm as a souvenir of their lost brother. Slowly, they started to restore it, even finding some serviceable Merlin engines and, in 1988, put the aircraft, named ‘Just Jayne’, on public display to try and raise money. This gave rise to what is now known as the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre (http://www.lincsaviation.co.uk) and, on balmy sunny afternoons through the summer, visitors can go and listen to ‘Just Jayne’s’ four might Merlins roar and even have a ride in her as she taxis gracefully around the field. The intention is, one day, to get her airworthy again so that she can fly with the only other airworthy Lancaster in the UK which lives just down the road at the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at Coningsby.

 

My project of recreating a number of UK WWII bases in FSX required that I become familiar with ADE. After modifying a number of other people’s airfields to make them FSX and AI compatible I decided to have a go at creating my own airfield – RAF East Kirkby. This recreation is, I would like to think, reasonably accurate based on historical information available on the internet and my own visits to East Kirkby, where I learned to drive on its disused runways or, more recently, when I have taken my family to see ‘Just Jayne’. Through the miracle of FlightSim ‘Just Jayne’ does indeed, fly again!

 

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30^th March, 1944. Lancaster BI NX611, otherwise known as 'Just Jayne', has just come out of the ‘Shed’ following a Primary maintenance check. The Riggers, Sooties, Fairies and Plumbers have worked all through the night to get her serviceable. All that remains is for RAF East Kirkby’s Duty Pilot, Flt Lt Norman ’Spike’ Dinsdale to take her for a quick test flight.

 

 

‘OK guys, let’s get all four turning and burning. This is only a test flight so we are light on fuel, shouldn’t have any problems getting over the Wolds which rise above the end of runway 02’.

 

 

‘Kirkby Tower, NX611 requesting take off clearance’. ‘NX611, line up and wait, number two for take off’.

 

 

‘140 knots, gear up …’

 

 

'You can see why they call Lincolnshire ‘Bomber County’. Flat as a witches tits and an airfield every 5 miles …'

 

 

The four hangars which make up the Tech Site were built when East Kirkby was designated as the maintenance facility for Spilsby and Strubby, two other Lancaster bases nearby.

 

 

‘We’ll make a low pass over the hangars to thank the guys who worked through the night to get this kite ready’.

 

 

Lined up on Runway 02, ‘NX611 – East Kirkby Tower, request landing clearance …’

 

 

‘NX611 – cleared to land’. ‘Full flaps, 3 greens, everybody strapped in at the back?’

 

 

‘Nice and easy does it, evereeee time tra la la’.

 

 

‘Well, everything seems to be in order. Everybody have a last check round, make sure there are no other defects, and that nobody has nicked the safety equipment ....’

 

 

‘OK Chief, Air Test – satis, she’s good to go, let me just sign off the F700. If they can get her bombed up in time she might make the mission tonight. Where are they going? Nuremburg? That should be fun!’

 

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Credits: Lancaster BI from First Class Simulations, ‘Just Jayne’ repaint from Bruce Martin, RAF East Kirkby by myself using ADE, AI Flight Planner and those wonderful WWII textures from Ted Andrews. If you like my airfield let me know and I can either let you have a copy or post it on FlightSim. I intend to have a go at other Lincolnshire airfields such as Wickenby, Spilsby, Strubby, etc when I have the time …

 

And, of course, if you would like 'Just Jayne' to fly again in real life then the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Center would be grateful for any support you can offer.

My goodness this is amazing stuff! I only live about 30 mins from Easy Kirkby and regularly visit Coningsby. You are right about Lincolnshire's terrain and I couldn't of put it better myself with your metaphor there haha.

 

This scenery is fantastic, I would love to see this blended with my photo scenery of the area!

 

Regards,

Steve

A friend of mine is building a "Just Jane" flight simulator. It is the first eight feet of the Lanc.

So far its looking VERY good. All the gauges, including the engineers panel, work.

sounds like a real labor of love, great stuff!

Wonderful! Thanks so much!

 

Please forgive my ignorance. Is there a Lancaster kitted up as Just Jayne on sale as payware? If so, that'd sure be a great way to funnel money into the project!

Excellent work with the airport scenery Dave and a nice job with the test flight. The interesting historical story of the three brothers makes the flight of "Just Jayne" even more appropriate. Very well done. :cool: :cool: :D

Very nice looking scenery and wonderful dialog. Loved it.

Interesting thread. I sat in JJ's pilots seat back in 2007 and she has been my default set up ever since

 

Pity your Lancasters have Canadian Cockpit layouts and not British, such is the inaccuracy of FCS Lancasters.

 

Sure Just Jane will Fly again. She already has in a video I made for the Vera visit in 2014.

 

 

This video has also lead to me doing flightsim vision in a professional documentary using voice overs by surviving WWII veterans:

 

(1) Dambuster Attack on the Sorpe in moonlight.

(2) Sink the Tirpitz from the Camera Lancaster point of view.

(3) The Wizernes V2 Rocket site.

(4) Bielefeld Viaduct with the first Grandslam.

 

Plane-Design Lancasters, tweaked from fs9 to FSX by Ross McLennan, paints, new 3D objects including droppable Tallboy and Grandslam by Koos van Menen of the Netherlands. Flightsim sequences flown by Ross McLennan.

 

Special built Tirpitz for the video by Erwin Welker

 

The resulting videos with voice overs will be a major part of the new Bomber Command Museum being built in Lincoln to be opened in October 2015.

 

I am meeting with the Director of the Museum during her visit to Australia at end of May 2015. At 80 years of age I am too old to spend 44 hours in the grips of the airlines so cannot attend the opening.

 

Cheers, RMcL

KCD, like the Willie Tait Lancaster code letters, first to drop a Tallboy and hit the Tirpitz. Nice idea. I used Sticks 611 for a few poor videos.

 

Sticks is because I was once 6 feet 6 inches tall (actually 199cm with a nick name in French Guiana of "double meter") and rather skinny. Now 50 years later I am only 6 feet 3 inches and a little less like "sticks"

 

Cheers

Hello Dave,

Nice flight, last october we were there. I tried to make East Kirkby as it is now. Sorry about your misspelling the name, it should be Just Jane.

See both pictures.

GREAT!!!!!! :cool::cool::cool:

Thank you all for your kind remarks. Let me respond to the more specific comments: VFR Steve - my family and out-laws live in Mareham le Fen. I spent most of my RAF career on 29 Sqn Phantoms at Coningsby and bought my first house out at Friskney. I would be interested in your idea but we would probably need to juggle the airfield's position to make sure it fitted in with the road that wraps round the north end of the site. Rupert - great idea about the repaint, probably wouldn't bring in much money but every little helps. Not sure how to go about it though ... Sticks - respect my friend, excellent work. Degeus - yes, you are perfectly correct, stupid error. Probably freudian in its origins, a good friend's wife is called Jayne. I am still working the scenery, adding little bits of eye candy from Ted Andrews' scenery objects library to make it seem a little bit more realistic but I will probably upload it to this site in a few weeks time. Best regards, David.

Good one Piet. A great experience to sit in the Pilots seat, feel the silky smooth controls and ponder what it was like to fly for 15 hours in a Lancaster during WWII. More so when ones hobby is simulating No 617 Sqd 'Dambusters'.

 

 

This is the 4th Tallboy dropped in the Tirpitz raid of 12 November 1944, the first rolled her about 20 degrees, this one rolled her over further. Both these hits were 617 Sqd the first by W/C Taite and records do not show which aircraft dropped the 4th one.

 

The Tallboy impact shown in the image was dropped in the sim from 14000 feet and would almost have hit a 5 cent piece for accuracy.

 

In relation to "Just Jane" the subject of this thread, she was a MkVII Lancaster which essentially was a MkI with Merlin 24 engines and with the mid upper turret shifted further forward than all other Lancasters. She was flown in from Australia and finally came to rest at East Kirkby.

 

Unfortunately no sim provider ever gets such detail right as most are based on a Merlin 22 engined MkI.

 

Cheers.

Hi,

For your info:

I am also interested in WW2 aircraft to be used in Prepar3D or FSX. We have a group of 5 people, led by an Australian, Ross McLennan, making projects with Lancasters, mainly of 617 sqn. I am merely testing, not developing. Have a look at this.

Maybe you contact him for exchanging ideas or knowledge, in these things allcontributions are welcome.

What is your name and where do you live? I live in The Netherlands, having a kind of WW2 airfield defined behind my house.

 

reg.,

Piet de Geus

Piet, thanks for your message. As a senior executive in the aerospace industry, and still very active professionaly, I do not have a lot of time to get involved in the sort of projects you and Ross are involved in but I would be happy to correspond, share ideas and contribute in any way I can. Please send me a personal message. Best regards, David.

Hello David,

I do not know how to deliver a personal message, maybe you write an e-mail to me, then I'll repond. My e-mailaddress is degeuspiet@gmail.com

reg.,

Piet