On the 6 June 2024 it will be the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings on the Normandy Beaches.

Planning has been trickling along but mainly by individual members.
So far the IAC has secured the use of Falaise Aerodrome (LFAS) which is about 50km south of the beaches. There aren’t many airfields near the beaches and the large airport of Caen will no doubt be busy and difficult to access. Falaise has been used before and they are a friendly bunch and have free landing fee, camping and fuel available. Several members have already secured accommodation in the nearby town. If you are thinking of going, be warned that accommodation in the whole of normandy is already difficult to find and will be expensive.

Flying on the 6th of June anywhere near the beaches will most likely be prohibited (due to official ceremonies) so it will be a good day to stay locally at Falaise and maybe have a bbq and organise our own party 🙂

The 8th will most likely be the main day for the public to attend the beaches and we know there is an airshow and historic vehicles at Gold beach in the afternoon. We have a slim chance of being involved with other historic aircraft of the Aerolegends flight, provided that the Auster(s) is in camo scheme (I am not sure if it needs to have the black and white invasion stripes too?) and the aircrew are dressed in period clothing. The Aerolegends Flight is limited to 20 so far and any Auster interested would be on a reserve list as this is already full. They will be meeting on 30th May-2nd June at North Weald and then flying to Cherbourg on the 3rd June.

So if you are planning or hoping to go to Normandy what we would like to know is the following.

1. Names of Crew and Aircraft registration and whether it is currently in Military scheme.
2. The dates you are planning to visit and if you wish to use Falaise Aerodrome (or if not what alternate arrangements you have made).
3. Do you plan to camp or have you got other accommodation reserved?
4. Are you interested in joining the Aerolegends Flight? If so I (Roger) will gather the details of the A/C and crew and co-ordinate with Aerolegends.
5. Additionally, there is a contingent of Austers planning to depart from Spanhoe on 4th/overnight at Abbeville and then on to Falaise on 5th? Anyone interested in joining let us know.

We still do not know what the flying restrictions along the beaches for the whole week will be and whether we can join any airshows/flypasts but first we need to know who many Austers will be there so please can you let us know asap the answer to the 5 bullets above.