THEY get together once a month to recall those halcyon days when "proper" planes had propellers.

Members of Scarborough's historical aircraft club rolled back the years as they spent time at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, near York, to learn more about the original home of Bomber Command in Yorkshire.

While there they found the time to think of others, leaving a £25 donation towards The Press Guardian Angels Appeal.

The men served with the RAF, many during the Second World War. For one, a visit to the station's memorial room was the chance to try to trace a long lost friend. Gordon Smith, 86, who is originally from Easingwold, served on Hampdens as a wireless operator and air gunner during the 1939-1945 conflict.

During training, his pilot was Walter Henschell, a Canadian of German extraction, who was shot down on his first operational flight from Linton.

Mr Smith said: "He began as an awful cack-handed pilot. Once he hit a tree on a night flying exercise but by the time we reached our final training sortie he had become more than competent."

"We were sent to Scotland, but the weather forecasters got it wrong and we ended up in thick cloud. Walter flew the plane as if blindfolded for more than two hours which took a lot of concentration.

"By the time we got back to base the cloud was very low. I received a radio direction to fly from the control tower and he managed to sneak us in. After all that time with no visibility he made a wonderful landing. That day Walter went from being one of the worst pilots I had ever flown with to the best."

Tragedy struck though in 1942 when Henschell was posted to Dalton airfield, near Thirsk, to join a newly-formed squadron. It was yet to receive its aircraft so he was sent to Linton-on-Ouse to gain air experience with 428 Squadron.

"Walter's maiden flight was a raid on Leipzig the week before Christmas in 1942 but his aircraft was shot down," said Mr Smith.

"There is no mention in his squadron's missing-in-action log possibly because he was flying from a different airfield. So I hope to find out what happened to him from records at Linton."

Base staff told him they will search their archives in an attempt to trace his friend.