A different sort of plane!

[mailee]

Oh, Roger, you jammy devil. I would kill for that chance. I have to agree with all the others that the 'Spit' was one of the pretties planes that ever took to the air along with the other one mentioned earlier the old Tiger Moth, beautiful aircraft. We used to have the Spit and Hurricane from the Battle of Britain Memorial flight over us up here quite regular at one time and it always used to send shivers down my spine when I heard that Merlin roar. What a wonderful gift mate.

 

[Kalimna]

Not a critique of either types' qualities as a fighter aircraft in any sense, but I feel it would be a cold heart to deny the Spitfire (particularly those Mks with non-clipped wingtips) title of 'Best Looking & Sounding' fighter in the BoB.
For all all it's abilities, the Me109 is not an aircraft that could ever be called aesthetically pleasing!

Adam

 

[Jonzjob]

One very common, but tiny, mistake made by a lot of people is to call it an ME109. The correct name is BF109 because it was made by Bayerische Flugzeugwerke Messerschmitt. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

One of the biggest problems with it was that it didn't have and automatic propellor. The pilot had to manually adjust the prop pitch and that resulted is a number of them just not getting off of the ground in a scramble. They were started in fine pitch and had to be moved to a course pitch for take off and in fine they just didn't get enough speed so they just made a high speed dash into what ever was at the edge of the airfield! They also had to change the pitch as well as the throttle in battle too. Quite a complicated machine to fly by all accounts?

On the Spitfire and Hurry the pilot just had the throttle to look after, the prop was automatic.

 

[Kalimna]

Jonzjob - you are absolutely correct. I really should know that as I read about them in modelling mags most months!!!
I wonder where the 'Me' bit came from then>

Adam

 

[Jonzjob]

I suspest from the chief designers Willy. Willy Messerschmit that is :twisted:

What kind of models? Noisey, smelly ones, or nice quiet gliding ones? Or electrifical ones?

I have a room full of nice quiet gliding ones and used to belong to the SCSA (South Cotswold Soaring Association) Stroud. I have a PSS of my avitar. Don't arf look good in the air. 4 channel, flapperons and ruddervator.

 

[Kalimna]

Im afraid to say that they amongst the smaller, static, no flying plasticy ones. At least that way, I can get more of them on my shelf!
Having said that, a B-29 in 1/48 isnt exactly small.........
I always fancied the having a go at flying versions, but I need a new and expensive/time consuming hobby like I need a hole in the head!

Adam

 

[Jonzjob]

This is my Fouga Magitser being chucked off of the side of Froster hill near Stroud, me in the background with the tranny.

And me chucking my 10' 1/5th scale 1936 Minimoa off of Selsley Common, Stroud

That really does fly nicely and looks fantastic!

 

[RogerS]

If you like the sound of one Merlin, how about experiencing four ?

as you taxi along inside ...... http://www.lincsaviation.co.uk/

 

[woodbloke]

In our last house near Shaftesbury several years ago I was indoors during the summer (doors and windows open) and I heard that sound...four Merlins. It's so distinctive that once you've experienced it, it's very difficult to forget. Anyway, I dashed outside into the garden, looked up to see the a Lancaster flying directly over the house...a fantastic and very unusual site. The aircraft was on a heading twoards Boscombe Down which is where I guess it was coming in to land - Rob

 

[RogerS]

It's fascinating what you turn up. In the latest local CAMRA newsletter, the Bromsgrove Beer Festival logo features a Mk IX Spitfire which took part in "Operation XXX" in 1944 after D-Day. Aircraft MJ329 was converted to carry beer barrels to the continent in a propaganda exercise.

So I Googled for more information - as one does - and it turns out that there is a lot more behind this story and seems to suggest that MJ329 was not an 'official' Spitfire but one built from spares!

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofi ... 46549.html

 

[SammyQ]

Rob, having lived under Ballykelly's main approach for 25 years, with Shackletons and their EIGHT contra-rotating propellors, I can empathise with you, the sheer physical sensation of a BIG, MEATY, low-flying bomber is something that really stays with you! I would love to have experienced the Lanc, like you, but I will raise you the night the Army arrived in force in N.I. and the Hercules convoy to Balllykelly that evening was simply beyond words. At one point, it seemed to be one every 5 minutes - the RAF can't have had a Herky Bird anywhere else in G.B.!

Sam, frustrated, would-be pilot and aerophile.

 

[Jonzjob]

Sam, at your time in Ballykelly the Shackelbomber would have had Griffons. they did when I worked on the Mk2 Phase 2 taildraggers in Singapore on 205 Sqdn in 1966/7. They were the last taildraggers in the R.A.F.

Literally, my first contact with a Shack was when I first got to S/pore and I was seeing one in from a patroll. The driver parked it nicely and stopped the engines and as I had done for 5 years on Bristol Britannias I went to 'tidy the props', put them in line. I was YELLED at by the driver/skipper and allmost put on a charge. If I had moved the prop on a hot engine it would probably have fired the engine and taken my head off! Britannias are nice calm jet turbine engines with no bad faults like that and it was the fact that it was my first time near a piston engine that stopped me getting either the charge or the surgery :shock: By the way, I was an aircraft elecky..

The Shack was a lovely simple aircraft to work on, but it didn't arf get hot on the pans at Changi! About 120ºF on a standard day. When it went out on a 17 hour patrol you knew that what ever happened it wouldn't be back for at least 7 hours, even if someone was dying on board. Because it was too heavy to land and it couldn't dump fuel, it had to burn it off! So once the evening patrol took off we could go and have a beer or too!

40.000 rivets all flying in close formation!

 

[SammyQ]

John, I was really fortunate to be in the "largest hanger in Europe" (as Kallybelly was then) when the fitters were changing an engine on the Shackleton....Jasus, Murphy and Joseph, thon was one BIG lump of metal.....I remember it as basically bigger than my Da's mini.....Nice to make contact with someone with similar memories.

P.S. She may have been nice to work on, but those perishers stopped every TV transmission for 15 seconds, as they approached the house, reverberated overhead (ornaments hurling themselves off the mantle, roof tiles 'doing the twist') and then turned into final leg. GAWD, 'Circuit and bumps' were SO noisy! Sam