In 1999 John Gaertner had the privilege to work with Peter McMillan, owner of the Vickers Vimy replica.

Peter and his dedicated staff planned on moving the Vimy from its home in England to Munich Germany and then to Paris for the Paris Air Show.

John met up with the Vimy and its crew on June 7th at the Deutsches Museums wonderful Oberscheisheim Museum located at the outskirts of Munich.

From here we flew to France stopping at Nancy Essay for custom’s, were we were placed under arrest for failure to pay VAT! This bureaucratic nightmare took 36 hours to get settled before we flew on to La Ferte Alais.

Here the Vimy was very graciously hosted by Jean Salis and his staff. This was the Vimy’s base of operations for the Paris Air Show on June 14th, 1999.

In total, John logged 6.3 hours as flying crew member on the Vickers Vimy.

To view a presentation on this trip click here.