Last weekend, enjoyed my Christmas/Birthday gift from LOML and took these pictures....









It's a Mark VB Spitfire from the Historical Aircraft Collection, pictures taken from a helicopter hovering and flying around the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne, Kent.

Spectacular photos. What an experience

Adam

_________________
Slowly building up the skills to create finer and finer sawdust..........

Would tell your wife that my birthday is in September!

Roy.

Wow! What a fabulous experience, and what aviation junkie wouldn't drool over the chance to do that. I'm not jealous at all.

_________________
Regards, Roger
www.roomatlas.com

Of all the machines man has created for war , by far the prettiest. Genius design, function ,elegance. The Spitfire was iconic as well as effective. It gave a lift to the heart to any who saw it. Mind you that does not include if you spotted it behind you and firing, matter of perspective there. Lovely photos , thanks for sharing.

_________________
Mike
Attempting to make sense of my web of interconnected events

Wood and fabric ?, incredible pics chrrrqqq:Roger:chrrrqqq : over

_________________
Experts built the Titanic - an amateur built the Ark.

Indeed, there's some argument to suggest that the Me109 was a better fighting aircraft at the BofB in some instances. It's open to debate, but for sure the Spitfire is the prettier. A little Googling will open a whole kettle of worms - Rob

_________________
The Blokeblog

Looks like a good time was had by all. Certainly beats socks & underpants, that's for sure.

OMG! Amazing photos and I am sure the experience must have been increddible. I've been lucky enough to fly in all manner of aircraft primarily to fall out of them, including a 1930's Tiger Moth, but a flight in a Spitfire would top it all I think.

I hope you've got at least one of those photos poster size somewhere (3rd one is my fave).

Chris

The real genius of the Spitfire was that it was so easy to fly. Guys could do 20 hours on Tiger Moths and then go straight on to the Spitfire and it wouldn't turn around and bite them . Pilots would say that you only had to think "turn" and it would go around as though on rails. I believe the ME109 was faster, but was a real handful to fly, and would definitely bite the pilot if mishandled. It was a 109 that killed Mark Hanna, son of Ray Hanna - one time Red Arrows leader - and he was a very fine and experienced pilot.

_________________
Regards, Roger
www.roomatlas.com

What a present lucky man!!
We used to see a Spitfire flying over our village very often until the Pilot Charles Church tragically got himself killed.
The sound of the Merlin engine is very memorable.

Rod

I'd quite like to see a German documentary (translated!) about the battle of Britain. From a German pilot's POV, it must have been hell, and taken tremendous courage to fly those missions.

BugBear

_________________
What business have people to be sharpening chisels all
night long in a gentlemans's house. It's disgraceful!

-- Mrs Spraggle, A Tangled Skein by Albany Fonblanque jnr, 1864

One of the only problems then was that is was almost all metal and more difficult to make and repair. But for all that a wonderful aircraft. The Hurricain was the last of the fabric jobbies really and did more damage to the Germans. Partly because there were more of them.

Another problem, mainly for todays flying, is the undercart is a bit delicate and it doesn't like side winds. No problem on a grass airfield because you just change takeoff/landing direction into wind, but with runways they can be difficult to turn

The Merlin was a cracker and the sound unique. The later Griffon was more powerful, but had a much harsher crackle by comparison. Murlin = music to my ears!!

Lucky man Roger

_________________
John.
I have discovered that wine really does get better with age.
The older I get the more I like it!
http://jonzjob.hpage.com/
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/

It's worth reading patrick Robinson's 'Battle of Britain' where he does cover this to some extent. Reading this book really brings it home to you just how close it all was. None of the Gung-Ho as epitomised by the film Battle of Britain and Reach For The Sky.

At the time of the BofB, the Merlin was equipped with a carb which meant that in a dive (I think) it could loose power though later on this was cured I believe by the addition of Mrs Shilling's Orrifice (sp) As the Me109 had a relatively sophisticated fuel injection system it didn't suffer from this effect. Also at the time of the BofB, Spitfires were armed with 8 Browning .303's which were (apparantly) like pea shooters when compared to the Me109's cannon. The aicraft in Rog's pic ( which he's not flying if you read it correctly...though he might be?) isn't a BofB vintage machine as the sticky things poking out the wings are canons which later variants were fitted with to replace the Browinings. There was a very recent programme on the telly where the presenter was definitely of the opinion that the Me109 at the time of the BofB was a better fighting aircraft and was superior to the Spitfire, though as with all these things it's very much a question of debate and opinion - Rob

_________________
The Blokeblog