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Old 19-12-2019, 08:53 PM   #1
Mr Gazza
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A happy memory.

Quite by chance I stumbled upon this whilst surfing last night.
It made grin from ear to ear when I scrolled to the bottom.

http://www.historicaircraftcollectio...c_at_home.html

What a fantastic day and all thanks to Aviatore, aka Greg.. Where are you now?

http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...&highlight=HAC
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Old 20-12-2019, 12:03 AM   #2
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Last year, not this.
I live in Shipbourne , about 4 miles north of Tonbridge in Kent and for the past 4 years every year between March and October when the sun is shining we get a Spitfire over flying our house. Quite a lot of light aircraft over fly but you can tell the Spitfire by the growl of the Merlin engine, I always stop and stare whenever I hear it. Biggin Hill is about 15 miles away and the Spitfire operates from there.
My wife, bless her, bought me a flight in a 2 seat Spitfire for last year's Christmas present. Here is an account of 30 August 2016.
The whole family got there at 12.00 and had to wait around quite a bit as the flight in the morning had a problem and they had to enliven the reserve 2 seat Spitfire, which was not fuelled up and the tanker driver was the other side of the airfield fuelling jets. HS162 and Lear and Bombardier private jets operate from Biggin Hill (one of which belongs to Lewis Hamilton).

Then we had a rather boring safety briefing which lasted about half an hour. How to get into and out of the aeroplane, what happens if the pilot in front of you becomes incapacitated (you abandon the aeroplane apparently - seems a bit hard on the pilot if he is only unconscious) how to bale out etc. etc.


There were 4 rides planned for the afternoon and I was allotted ride 3 so a bit more hanging around until 14.50. I got togged up in the flying suit and installed in the back cockpit. First I was strapped into the parachute and then into the seat. The plane is fully dual controlled and I was given strict instructions to not touch anything during take-off and landing. The cockpit is very small and you are conscious of the airframe constricting your shoulders. The seat has a lever on the right which lowers the seat about 4” so that the canopy can be closed and which you have to operate to open the canopy in an emergency, inflight you can raise the seat to see over the pilot.
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Old 20-12-2019, 12:05 AM   #3
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The first impression is of the smell of the aeroplane, stale exhaust fumes and oil, absolutely fine for a petrol head. The dashboard in front of you is equipped with 1940s instruments mounted on a slightly tatty crinkle matt black plate which is attached to the airframe by 4 x 1/4” studs with springs either side of the plate, a primitive form of anti-vibration mounting. Between your legs is the control column with a 6” ring at the top with a gun button at 10.00 o’clock. Everything in the cockpit is designed to be functional and no more, there seems to be some consideration of ergonomics, but there are absolutely no frills, it is designed to ensure ease of maintenance. All the control cables from the column and the foot rudder bars and their linkages to the rear of the aeroplane are exposed on the floor. It was a job to find somewhere to put my feet to avoid having any impact on the moving parts.


The pilot started her up and the Merlin engine soon settled into a smooth(ish) idle at about 1100 rpm, the airframe vibrated quite a bit and most of the instruments in front of me became blurred. Exhaust fumes and unburnt avgas smell filled the cockpit (probably still on choke). The fumes made me fell slightly sick. We set off on the perimeter road and before joining the runway the pilot ran her up with the brakes on to do a magneto drop test – seeing how much the revs dropped when one magneto was switched off. Two separate magnetos supply the sparks to the twin plug heads. He ran it up to 1800 rpm and the revs dropped about 150 rpm when each of the magnetos was switched off. A bit difficult to tell exactly because the rev counter had two hands one recording thousands and the other recording hundreds. The airframe vibrated quite a bit at 1800 rpm and the noise was about 110Db but all muffled by the headphones. The pilot chatted away with me while at the same time you could hear the control tower talking to other aeroplanes queuing up to take off and land and it was all a bit confusing.


Out on the runway and the pilot ran it up to 1800 on the brakes and then released them. Full power is at 2850rpm so this was not a full power take off but we picked up speed smartly and after about 10 seconds I felt the tail wheel lift and at 85mph we were airborne. The airport at Biggin Hill is on a plateau and it is amazing how quickly the houses below drop away from you. The pilot increased revs to 2000rpm to climb out and at 1600ft he throttled back to 1100rpm equivalent to 210mph. There is a 2400ft ceiling for all light aircraft operations from Biggin Hill due to proximity to Gatwick and London City airport.
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Old 20-12-2019, 12:06 AM   #4
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Before the flight I told him I wanted to do a victory roll over my house, Woodhall Oast, so we banked left and headed towards Sevenoaks, found the M25 and followed it to the M26 junction then over Sevenoaks and looked for the tower at Hadlow. I had mistakenly told him WO was East of this when in fact we are West. I spotted the Chaser Inn and the village church about 300 yards from my house and looked down on WO we then did a steep banked left turn which felt about 90 degrees but was probably nearer 50 degrees and flew back over WO having lost about 500 ft.
Pilot then said "I am giving you control and only use the tips of your thumb and forefinger on the ring". To prove it he raised his hands to show that they were not on the stick. We were now flying NE and I tried a few gentle movements left and right and about a quarter of an inch gave you a 5 degree bank instantaneously, the responsiveness of the controls was absolutely incredible.
I then tried fore and aft movement of the column, pushing it forward a quarter of an inch and it was like going over a humped back bridge when you leave your stomach behind. I then tried climbing and whilst slightly more sluggish to respond (probably because we were only running at just above tick over throttle) it reacted so precisely. We probably climbed fairly close to the ceiling and then I spotted Brands Hatch below with about 20 bikes out on a track day. Pilot said "bank left and circle the circuit" so I put into a fairly steep left bank and did a lap of the circuit anti-clockwise losing about 800 feet and gaining about 60 mph – brilliant!
Pilot then said that we had better head off for the victory roll so he allowed me to climb it back up to 2000 ft. and then he took charge again.
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Old 20-12-2019, 12:07 AM   #5
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About 2 miles from WO he put the aircraft into a shallow dive (25 degree) increasing speed to about 260mph then as we crossed the Chaser he pulled up and rolled to the left and we crossed WO completely inverted and then he completed a very smooth and controlled victory roll. Superb!!

It was then back to Biggin Hill. We approached at about 500 ft. parallel to the runway about 500 yards to the right. The windsock showed a cross wind left to right. The pilot said because of the crosswind the landing would probably be right wheel first then both wheels then tail wheel. He banked right and side slipped in beautifully losing height quite quickly (a bit alarmingly if I am honest with the aircraft at a 45 degree angle descending and banking right as he did so). Sure enough I felt the right wheel kiss the tarmac about half a second before the left wheel and then the tail wheel settled. Pilot afterwards said he much preferred that approach to landing as forward visibility is restricted on a straight approach and you cannot see the ground from the pilots position because the wings are in the way.

So that was that, apart from a tour of the facility. They have 2 x 2seaters and 2 x single seaters operational and they are reconstructing another single seater Spitfire. They have a Hurricane also which I think they wheel out for demonstrations periodically. They also have a Me 109 being restored (almost complete by the look of it). There were also 4 Merlin engines being worked on, two immaculate and ready to be installed and one obviously from a crashed plane as the propeller gearbox on the front was holed and the engine generally was covered in mud and bent ancillary equipment.
I hate to think what it cost but for me it was worth every penny. It was only half an hour all told in the air but I shall remember it forever.
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Old 20-12-2019, 07:30 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Gazza View Post
Quite by chance I stumbled upon this whilst surfing last night.
It made grin from ear to ear when I scrolled to the bottom.

http://www.historicaircraftcollectio...c_at_home.html

What a fantastic day and all thanks to Aviatore, aka Greg.. Where are you now?

http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/s...&highlight=HAC
Yes Gazza that was a fantastic day and love the website picture

Have a great Christmas and look forward to catching up next year
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Old 20-12-2019, 03:43 PM   #7
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Cheers Alan... I reciprocate the same..
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Old 20-12-2019, 08:59 PM   #8
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Strong interest in aircraft and aviation amongst you guys. I'll see if I can find some pictures you may find interesting. My son restored Spitfire wings for a local business for 4 years mainly working on Kermit Weeks owned projects. The owner was associated with another restoration guy in the area that had ME262 and Focke Wulfe for restoration and while working on these he was storing one of the ex Spanish HE111's that appears in the 1969 Battle or Britain film. I sat in the pilots seat and front gunner position and took some pics.

The FW190 was very sophisticated and have to say manufacturing method was so much simpler than the Spit. The ME262 was something else, the auxiliary engines amused me because they would probably have powered a craft in their own right.

I didn't get any pics of the Howard Hughes mystery ship ... that was a closely guarded secret project but I did see an touch it!

I'll see what I can find.... and I'm not lying!
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Old 21-12-2019, 03:00 PM   #9
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fascinating stuff emzedder.
I wouldn't mind getting up close to a ME262 or any of those aircraft that you mentioned. Never seen and actual ME109, only Bouchon's. Not enough attention paid to the Axis planes in my opinion, everybody just wants to see Spitfires!

The Merlin engine originally fitted to the Spitfire (or Wren as it was first called, pre-production), had Bosch magnetos. The supply of those dried up in around 1939 due to a little falling out with the supplying nation! I believe Miller mags were sourced as a replacement. After the falling out, ME109s were built in Spain as the Bouchon and used Merlin engines... Wonder if they had Bosch mags?

You can tell a proper ME109 by the low exhausts exiting from the heads of the inverted V Mercedes Benz engine. The Merlin engined Bouchon exhausts exit high like the Spitfire.

Looking forward to any pictures you can find emzedder... Good luck with the house moving today..
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Old 21-12-2019, 10:33 PM   #10
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My Christmas present from Heather 4 years ago, was a tour of the restoration hanger based at Biggin Hill.
Had a fascinating afternoon being shown around the various aircraft being restored/refreshed. Mainly Spitfires of various marks, plus a Hurricane.
Tucked at the back of the hanger was the oldest flying ME109, a 'E' variant. The plane had been recently purchased by a British collector. The aircraft was being refreshed along with obtaining an airworthy certificate for the British display circuit.
Seating proud as punch on the front of the airframe was a Mercedes Benz engine.
If memory serves me correctly, the RAF back in the '90's displayed a ME109G, totally original. I remember having a conversation with the ground crew the first season the plane was displayed. Apparently the aircraft was captured in North Africa, taken back to Britain for assessment against the current batch of Allied planes, put in a crate at the end of the war, pushed to the back of a hanger and forgotten about for over 30 years!
Unfortunately the 109 was crash landed after several seasons of flying. It, as far as I know, has never been restored to flying condition.
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Old 22-12-2019, 02:40 PM   #11
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As a foot note for pedants and rivet counters... Grumpy and I met today and chatted about the Messerschmitt bf109 among other things and agreed that it was actually powered by a Daimler Benz engine, although Mercedes Benz was pretty much the same animal.
I have subsequently discovered that the prototype Version 1 proving aircraft were powered by Rolls Royce Kestrel engines, provided by RR in exchange for a Heinkel, for use as an engine test bed.
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Old 23-12-2019, 04:30 AM   #12
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Thanks that was all brilliant
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Old 23-12-2019, 08:07 AM   #13
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Great info, thanks all.

I just love the sound of the merlin engine. Living down near Dover now the spitfires fly over our village, in the summer I kept running outside to watch and listen
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