VTR1000.ORG

Bear with me on this,

up untill about four years ago I used to do competition field target air rifle shooting, was quite good at it, used to shoot for one of the factory teams & travelled all over the country most weekends.

I was cleaning the bike on tuesday night when one of my old shooting friends walked by, he said that there was a national shoot on at the local club on sunday, out in the counrty side near Kidderminster.

So I went along this morning to have the crack with some old mates who I'd not seen for a long time, have a joke & take the piss when they missed a target, you know how it is.

Told them about a book I'd just finished reading about a young WW2 spitfire pilot, 19 years old, first posting was Biggin Hill just as the Battle Of Britain was starting.

Whilst talking to some mates I heard a plane off in the distance, thought that sounds strange but familiar, bloody hell thats a merlin engine !!, must be a spitfire or hurricane, turned round & could just pick out the plane about a mile away, watched as it got a bit closer, then it pulled up in to a climbing turn, there was the unmistakable shape of a spitfire, watched as the spit got a bit closer, then it started a turn that would bring it straight over the top of us.

As the plane got to us, the pilot pulled it up into a climbing roll & then proceeded to give us our own private flying display. 150 blokes all stood with there mouths open for the next 15 minutes, as the plane climbed, turned, rolled & banked all at tree top height, & at times below the trees!.

The sound of the merlin engine, the shape of the plane, it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, fantastic. At times the plane was no further than 30 yards away at 0 feet, unbelievable!!!, this was a once in a lifetime experience you just couldn'd buy, one final climb & turn & it was gone.

Every one just looked at each other & said has that really happened.

As I said, the best morning ever.................................

Alan

I would really love to have seen that, been up in a Dakota, regular in Sea King Helicopters, and once went up as observer with the RAF in a Trainer, Scared the poo out of me that did, but theres something about the sound and sight of Spitfire that is just MAGIC
paul

That must have been just brilliant
Isn't life great when something like that happens just out of the blue

Chris.

Hi Alan,

WOW- i fully admit to be a ww2 aircraft GEEK!

Ironically i also saw the spit your talking about (was it a mk5?) with d-day stripes as one flew over manston today with a hurri for some "do" in france! MK5-different prop, wing tips, cannons, and most obviously the shape of the tail. Early Mk1s and 2's had a very roundy tail plane, the later the version the more angular the tail is...(im sure theres hundrads of other differences....)

If you chat to the flyers, they love doing little wing waggles and barrel rolls for people on the ground, its like us wheelieing past school kids :-) (not that i do that, lol)

During the shepway airshow a few years back we had a pits perform several manovers directly over my house as im on one of the approaches for manston. Like you, we stood in my garden cheering and in awe of the mad stunts he was doing! Then to polish it off he hedge hopped round the house so we could see him, then cannopy'ed back and waved! bloody great!

So are you going to biggin hill airshow this year? im exhibiting there this year, and i cant wait! At last i get to exhibt somewhere other than the NEC and low and behond its biggin! w00t¬

Badger - he did a barrel roll over the Arrow Mill

Totally made the day

Hi Squiffy,

not sure what Mk it was, but it had cannons & a short nose, no DDay marks though.

Alan

Droid,

How often do you go to the Arrow Mill ?, I was there last week, what time do people get there ?, when I turned up at about 7.00, they were all going home.

Alan

I wasn't there, but several of the wetmidsriders.co.uk lads/lasses were.

They meet there regularly. Sign on the website and the times are usually posted on the message boards.

There's several storms in the group, apart from mine! We could do with another Darksider!!

Droid

Sorry Alan that should read westmidsriders.co.uk

Can't beat the sound of a Merlin

You lucky man bagder i love the spitfire and it has been years seeing one. If i was regressed to a former life i would have been a ww2 fighter pilot in a spitfire. I think there is a link between bikes and planes, the speed the freedom the sound My storm is the closest i can get now to reliving my past life.

I know what you mean about bikes & planes,
if you want to read a good book, get First Light by Geoffrey Wellham, its the book I was on about in the first post, It's like your in the plane with him.

Alan

Everyone goes on about the spitfire and for sure it was/is a cracking plane
However it's a finnicky/ fickle beast with a few major flaws.

The one that really does it for me is the Hurricane
Now THAT is a proper bit of kit


Ben

LOL@the hurri

but as a fighter it was:

a) Made from balsa...

b) Old even before the spit

c) Slow....some pilots said they would rather a gladiator than a hurri
d) Because the jerrys used cannons mostly and not .50 machines like us, the hurricanes suffered much more being wood as the shells would literally blow entire holes in them!

e) The sliding cannopy was known to frequently jam...

f) They were a nightmare to keep trimmed due to a larger leading edge (look at the late spits and they have less "humps")

g) The early versions of the 109 could out turn them (although a little known fact is that the spitfire cannot vertically dive as it cuts the fuel surpply out so it has to roll right thru into the drop, something the hurri had no problems with)

h) They were phased out as a fighter as they were just old, slow and outdated (although i think they were the first plane to reach 300!)

HOWEVER...i so agree with you ben, despite the fact it was a bit of an old dog it looks nicer, the lights are smoother, and in flight its really magic. i specifically like the desert varient with the cannons and underwing rockets, the later versions just looked more polished inmo.

I'm with Ben on this one
1) the Spitfire was a better plane but harder to fly and not as stable a gun platform as the Hurricane
2)The Spitfire was far mere costly and tine-consuming to make
3)The Spitfire used more metal. Metal was a very scarce resource
4) The planes were used for different purposes - the Hurricane was used to shoot down bombers. Being a very stable platforn it excelled at this. More planes were shot down by Hurricanes than by Spitfires
The Spitfire was used to take care of the fighter escorts.

Where did you get your info on armament?
Bf 109F-2 2 7.92 MG + 1 cannon
Spitfire VB either 8 .303 MG or 4 .303 MG + 2 cannon
Hurricane1 8 .303 MG

ATB

Droid