Dambusters old and new .....

Tonight I am posting a quite wonderful image taken by Richard Paver earlier this year. It shows a Tornado GR4 of 617 squadron flown by Dambusters2013's good friend Flt Lt Stew Campbell in formation with the battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Lancaster PA474.

The biggest challenge for the current Dambuster pilot was to fly that slowly! As Stew commented "We were flying at about 180kts with 5 tonnes of fuel on board - not very comfortable at all!"

Dambusters2013 is a charity motorcycle ride which will use the commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the 1943 Dambusters Raid to raise cash for charities Help for Heroes (www.helpforheroes.org.uk) and Motorcycle Outreach (www.motorcycleoutreach.org). See our image below!

 

The 2013 ride will build upon the success of Dambusters2012 and will for the second year running enjoy the full support of 617 sqdn, The Dambusters!

Dambusters2013 70th Anniversary Charity Motorcycle Ride

Take the idea of the ‘Biker’s Easter Egg Run’ but this time riding all the way to the Mohne Dam in the heart of Germany to commemorate the famous Dambusters Raid of 1943 with all the riders raising cash for Help for Heroes and Motorcycle Outreach! Are you interested in being part of this amazing event in May 2013?

Our website will launched soon so watch out for details – and get ready to sign up as a Dambusters 2013 rider!

Dambusters2013 70th Anniversary Charity Motorcycle Ride

Take the idea of the ‘Biker’s Easter Egg Run’ but this time riding all the way to the Mohne Dam in the heart of Germany to commemorate the famous Dambusters Raid of 1943 with all the riders raising cash for Help for Heroes and Motorcycle Outreach! Are you interested in being part of this amazing event in May 2013?

Our website will launched soon so watch out for details – and get ready to sign up as a Dambusters 2013 rider!

Dambusters2013 - Planning meeting at Motorcycle Live 2012

The Dambusters2013 Team met for their first planning meeting last Thursday at the Motorcycle Live 2012 Exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham. First though - what a great show for the biker! New bikes, kit, exhausts, comm's, demonstrations ..... just a treat for the biker! Roll on next year.

Anyway, enough of that. Dambusters2013 is rolling - loads to do but we are on the move!
Watch this space for updates.

We have also been able to add some new and great supporters to the dambusters team such as Nich Browen of Motorcycle Action Group UK (www.mag-uk.org) and Steve baker MP, Chair of the Commons All Party Motorcycling Group. Great to have them 'on-board'!

We also picked up the endorsement of motorcycling legend, and I use that word deliberately, Nick Sanders! Have a look at www.nicksanders.com and you'll see what I mean. Just amazing. Get hold of a copy of his latest DVD, The Incredible Ride, - just exactly what the title says. Here is Nick with me and Al Hunter who is responsible for the Dambusters2013 website when launched during December.

So here we go - Dambusters2013 70th Anniversary Charity Motorcycle Ride. A fully approved event supporting Help for Heroes (www.helpforheroes.org.uk) as we did last year but now also supporting overseas charity Motrocycle Outreach (www.motorcycleoutreach.org) on a 80:20 split. Both incredibly worthy causes.

So stick with us and this blog - we need all your support again in 2013 as we seek to raise an absolute shedload of cash for our two charities. You can also follow us on twitter, currently @dambusters2012

 

Thankyou!

Selling Dambusters2012 Teddies ... the film!!

This is the short film put together to sell Dambusters2012's Help for Heroes Teddies at the Birmingham Help for Heroes Ball on November 3rd 2012.

 

Teddy 1 raised £800 and Teddy 2 £700 - a great result as every penny went straight to Help for Heroes!

Dambusters2013 - The Planning Begins ....

The Dambusters2013 Team is in place and we have some big ideas for how we can raise a significant amount of cash for Help for Heroes (www.helpforheroes.org.uk), our primary charity, and also for our secondary charity for 2013, Motorcycle Outreach (www.motorcycleoutreach.org) .

The full team will meet for the first time on 29th November 2012 at the Motorcycle Live Show which is being held at Birmingham's NEC.

Watch out early in December for the Dambusters2013 website to go live where you will find loads of information about our plans for a much wider participation event than took place in 2012. You will also be able to sign up to be part of what we hope will be one of the big charity events in next years biking calendar.



The Team for Dambusters2013 takes shape...

2013 is the 70th Anniversary of the Dambusters Raid which was the inspiration for our charity motorcycle ride for Help for Heroes which took place in May this year.

In 2013 we will build upon what we learnt this year and deliver a charity motorcycle ride that is bigger, better and with significantly wider biker participation.

This time the plan is for bikers to travel from the UK to the continent via three ferry ports. Harwich to the Hook, Hull to Rotterdam and Newcastle to Ijmuiden. From there the bike routes will follow the navigation routes of the Lancaster bombers of the first and second waves of the real Dambusters in May 1943, with all the riders coming together at Ahlen (as did the real Dambusters in their Lancasters),for the final ride down to the Mohne Dam in time to commemorate the lives lost on both sides at 12.19am, 17th May.

Again, our primary charity will be Help for Heroes www.helpforheroes.org.uk but this time we will also have a secondary charity, Motorcycle Outreach. Check them out at www.motocycleoutreach.org

I am thrilled to again have the confirmed support of 617 sqdn, the Dambusters.

My main contact with the Dambusters for 2012 has been promoted and posted (more on that a bit later in the post). However, the good news is that in 2013 the 617 Sqdn participation will be coordinated by the one and only Flt Lt Stew' Campbell, Tornado GR4 pilot and biker! Stew' is already firmly linked with Dambusters2012 as he flew our Help for Heroes Teddy No.2 on its combat sortie over Afghanistan and then he joined us at the Birmingham Help for Heroes Ball on 3rd November to both help us sell the teddies and to represent 617 sqdn and RAF Lossiemouth. Stew' is pilot in the image below and 'on stage' at the Birmingham H4H Ball.

 

 

The even better news is that Warrant Officer Paul Peden, the man who made Dambusters2012 Teddy Bears over Afghanistan happen will also remain part of the team as much as his commitments to his new role will allow! Paul is a top man and Dambusters2012 and Help for Heroes are in his debt. the image below shows Paul with one of his 617 Sqdn charges at Kandahar Airbase during Operation Herrick 16 this year.

If we are going to be bigger and better we need to gain better PR and visibility, to be much more professional with our promotion. We are therefore thrilled to have Craig Carey-Clinch on the team. Craig is MD of Rowan Public Affairs and a Member of the Chartered Institute of PR. He is also an extremely experienced overland biker. Top man.

Also new to our team for 2013 is Al Hunter. Al, a New Zealander by birth, runs his own IT Consultancy and rides a a big orange KTM. Al has kindly agreed to pick up the delivery of a much more professional web presence for us in 2013 - once built our web url will be www.dambusters2013.org.uk  Sadly I don't yet have a piccie of Al so you have to use your imagination!

The team is rounded off by myself and fellow Dambusters2012 rider and fund-raiser Victor Chevens. Dambusters2013 will be the third charity ride Victor and I have done together for Help for Heroes. Victor is a great man to ride with, level, calm and good company too. Rides a bright red Triumph Daytona. The pic below was taken at the Mohne Dam on 16th May this year during our charity ride to and from the dams as Victor was being interviewed by Laura of BFBS for the short news film at the top of this post.

 

and then there is me!

So that's the team. Bigger and more capable than in 2012. 

The teams first full meeting is at the Motorcycle Live Show - watch out for more information on how to get involved soon after that!!!

We already have indications of support from a helmet manufacturer, two of the ferry companies on the routes we plan to use...

Bring it on I say!