Spitfire due at Middle Wallop Tuesday, 11am

[S10GTA]

See here

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Deerfoot]

Luckily I work at MW.

Unluckily I`ll be spending some time in the hell-hole of a Bell 212 tomorrow morning sorting out a hydraulic leak.

Hopefully I`ll still get a look in.

Thanks for the update.

[speedtwelve]

Some pics of the Mk9 Spit and Harvard at Middle Wallop this morning. They'd come in from Biggin for fuel before displaying elsewhere. Thanks to the Spit pilot for the friendly chat. He reckoned the Chipmunk was better than the Harvard as a lead-in trainer for the Spitfire!

[S10GTA]

[fathomfive]

S10GTA said:

Exactly.

Ruddy gorgeous thing that Spit

[Eric Mc]

Nice cockpit shots.

[speedtwelve]

Cheers Eric. I had to resist the temptation to climb in and borrow it for half an hour! The chap flying it had fun getting it started, with some impressive flames from the exhaust stubs after a good bit of priming.

I had a look in a Seafire cockpit while down at Yeovilton once and was surprised how different it looked to earlier RAF Spitfires. It was more like an early single-seat fast-jet inside, similar to a Sea Hawk in places.

[Eric Mc]

The cockpits evolved over time as the aircraft changed. I'm building 1/72 models of a couple of Griffon powered Spitfires at the moment so have been investigating Griffon powered Spitfire cockpits for a few days.

[speedtwelve]

Yes, it was a late post-war Griffon-engined Seafire I had a look at. Had the chance to sit in an F4U Corsair, P51D and F8 Bearcat at Duxford once; it was interesting comparing cockpits designed only a handful of years apart. Other than the piston-engine controls the Bearcat cockpit looked more like that of a Sabre or Grumman Panther than those of the earlier WW2 fighters.

[Eric Mc]

The F-86 and Panther were pretty early jets so their cockpits were coming directly from the design teams who had only a year or so earlier been designing cockpits for Bearcats and Mustangs.

[Deerfoot]

Well I managed to get a good look at the Spitfire and have some photos similar to the ones above.

The hydraulic leak is sorted as well so all in all a good day.

[Mark_S_24]

Top Pics, Life is hell :-)

Wanna swap jobs?
no?
oh, ok

Mark

[speedtwelve]

Mark

I reckon the blokes who fly these 1500hp+ V12 fighters have the best deal. Swap with them!

(Besides, I wouldn't have the first idea how to do your job. Computer stuff? Haven't a clue... )

[Eric Mc]

2,0000 hp in the case of the Griffon engined versions.

[speedtwelve]

...and there are Sea Furys, Bearcats etc being raced at Reno running up to 4500hp in race trim! Fitted with tweaked and nitrous oxide-injected Skyraider engines. They often don't run at that power for long; some of the Reno pilots have become quite good at forced-landings from the glide...

[Eric Mc]

And we all know what happened last year

[speedtwelve]

I suppose the overall safety record for crowd and participants at Reno has been good considering what they do. The Mustang crash was unfortunate, but IIRC not the first time a P51 has suffered a trim-tab breakup.

[EarlOfHazard]

fathomfive said:

S10GTA said:

Exactly.

Ruddy gorgeous thing that Spit