Spitfire with clipped wings today :-)

[GreatGranny]

Came over my house ( 2 miles from Cranwell) very low. Banked over and shot off again.
Sounded superb.
Is it part of the Battle of Britain Flight?

[dr_gn]

GreatGranny said:

Came over my house ( 2 miles from Cranwell) very low. Banked over and shot off again.
Sounded superb.
Is it part of the Battle of Britain Flight?

Could have been the BBMF Mk. XVI - dispalying at Flying Legends (Duxford)?

[aeropilot]

dr_gn said:

GreatGranny said:

Came over my house ( 2 miles from Cranwell) very low. Banked over and shot off again.
Sounded superb.
Is it part of the Battle of Britain Flight?

Could have been the BBMF Mk. XVI - dispalying at Flying Legends (Duxford)?

Almost certainly was, as it did indeed display at Leg-Ends today.

[GadgeS3C]

Was at Wittering on Saturday at 3ish.

[12v3pot]

aeropilot said:

Almost certainly was, as it did indeed display at Leg-Ends today.

Was it one of the 16-or-so flying in formation late afternoon?

Thanks to pure serendipity, I got a lovely bonus to a great day out. I was on my way back from a car show and driving past Duxford on the M11 yesterday afternoon. Ahead I'd just seen a biplane doing some aerobatics and was hoping to get a better view as I got closer, but then he went high and flew away. Felt miffed for a second before this mass group of Spitfires, Mustangs, etc flew very low (East to West) directly over my car and over Duxford.

Fantastic sight and sound although I was too agog to register the other planes in the formation.

(I'd been out in a convoy with an F50 and I'm not sure which sounded most gorgeous.)

[dr_gn]

12v3pot said:

aeropilot said:

Almost certainly was, as it did indeed display at Leg-Ends today.

Was it one of the 16-or-so flying in formation late afternoon?

Thanks to pure serendipity, I got a lovely bonus to a great day out. I was on my way back from a car show and driving past Duxford on the M11 yesterday afternoon. Ahead I'd just seen a biplane doing some aerobatics and was hoping to get a better view as I got closer, but then he went high and flew away. Felt miffed for a second before this mass group of Spitfires, Mustangs, etc flew very low (East to West) directly over my car and over Duxford.

Fantastic sight and sound although I was too agog to register the other planes in the formation.

(I'd been out in a convoy with an F50 and I'm not sure which sounded most gorgeous.)

The biplane was a Gloster Gladiator, which was doing a routine as the main 'Balbo' was forming up and yes, there were around 7 Spitfires in the flypast.

[aeropilot]

12v3pot said:

Was it one of the 16-or-so flying in formation late afternoon?

No, there were no BBMF a/c in the massed formation.

[dr_gn]

This clipped-wing MkXIV (TFC)was in the Balbo, towards the back, so there were at least two around at the weekend:

[12v3pot]

Thanks Dr - were you there? I did find a YT clip, which was pretty much as I saw it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R49JsYahex0

Not seen a clipped wing Spitfire ever. Do their displays capture the advantages of the clipped wing mod?

[dr_gn]

12v3pot said:

Thanks Dr - were you there? I did find a YT clip, which was pretty much as I saw it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R49JsYahex0

Not seen a clipped wing Spitfire ever. Do their displays capture the advantages of the clipped wing mod?

Yes I was there on Sunday. The Spitfire displays are fairly tame (understandably), but still fantastic to watch and hear. I don't think many spectators would notice much difference in the performance of the variants though.

There was a formation display by "The Horsemen" who flew Spitfires yesterday (previously Mustangs). TBH it was a bit crap - firstly it was set to some terrible music which drowned out the engines, and secondly they seemed to be displaying to people about a mile away from the crowd line. Hey ho.

[yorkieboy]

I was there also! Yep I thought for goodness sake man, turn that crap music off. The planes make their own music!!

[12v3pot]

Thanks. I was wondering if a clipped wing Spitfire could roll faster and if that would be discernible in a display. Seems that it's more of an on-the-limit difference, perhaps?

Was this a research trip for the next model build?

[dr_gn]

12v3pot said:

Thanks. I was wondering if a clipped wing Spitfire could roll faster and if that would be discernible in a display. Seems that it's more of an on-the-limit difference, perhaps?

Was this a research trip for the next model build?

I think that was the idea, but you'd never tell.

No, not really a research trip - I just like Duxford and from what I've heard this is one of the best airshows in the world. We went to the Spring Airshow at the end of May too, both were fantastic days out with perfect weather. When there's a foot of snow on the ground up here, these July days seem a long way off, so I thought why not go and enjoy it?

[dr_gn]

yorkieboy said:

I was there also! Yep I thought for goodness sake man, turn that crap music off. The planes make their own music!!

Strangely enough, the music for Steven Grey's Bearcat routine at the begining of Sunday's show seemed to work quite well.

I wonder if his retirement is the begining of the end for Flying Legends? After all he did seem to be the driving force behind it. I really, really hope not, but I got the impression attendance was a bit down (even perhaps on May's Spring Airshow?) and the aircraft numbers in the Balbo seem to get a bit less each year I've gone...

[aeropilot]

dr_gn said:

I wonder if his retirement is the begining of the end for Flying Legends? After all he did seem to be the driving force behind it. I really, really hope not

I guess it depends on how the funding for TFC is setup more than anything. Son, Nick is involved with TFC enough to keep momentum going from that side being an equally accomplished display pilot himself.

dr_gn said:

I really, really hope not, but I got the impression attendance was a bit down (even perhaps on May's Spring Airshow?) and the aircraft numbers in the Balbo seem to get a bit less each year I've gone...

I think numbers seem down as only certain a/c types with similar performance are allowed now, especially after the Spad-P51 incident a few years ago.

[GreatGranny]

Don't remember it being camouflage, more of a sky blue/grey but I didn't see it for long.

I heard it come over really low and pretty quick it then did a turn almost overhead and I just manage to catch it heading south westish. I could make out the pilot as he banked over.
Weird really, we normally see them either going or returning from a display if they in the battle of Britain flight.
he either got lost or was doing private flypast.
I witnessed this last September while camping in Woodhall Spa. there was a large family group camping near us having a big BBQ and suddenly a Spitfire came over us very low, did a couple of tight turns each time flying over us and then flew off. The group next to us started cheering and the old boy started thanking everyone and there were shouts of happy birthday. Great treat for him.

[Eric Mc]

The blue/grey scheme was the scheme carried by the photo recce Spitfires which invariably were operating at high altitude and therefore tended not to have clipped wings. Certainly, the airworthy Spitfires currently flying on PRU blue schemes all have standard wing tips as far as I am aware.

Now somebody will produce a photo of a clipped wing PRU blue Spitfire.

[dr_gn]

GreatGranny said:

Don't remember it being camouflage, more of a sky blue/grey but I didn't see it for long.

I heard it come over really low and pretty quick it then did a turn almost overhead and I just manage to catch it heading south westish. I could make out the pilot as he banked over.
Weird really, we normally see them either going or returning from a display if they in the battle of Britain flight.
he either got lost or was doing private flypast.
I witnessed this last September while camping in Woodhall Spa. there was a large family group camping near us having a big BBQ and suddenly a Spitfire came over us very low, did a couple of tight turns each time flying over us and then flew off. The group next to us started cheering and the old boy started thanking everyone and there were shouts of happy birthday. Great treat for him.

Are you sure it was a Spitfire? There was a pale blue Yak 9 in the dispaly too:

[Lurking Lawyer]

Dragging this thread up from the depths rather than starting a new one.....

Other than the BBMF one, does anyone know whether there are any other clipped wing Spits flying in the UK?

One flew overhead today, on its own - Warrington area at around 12.45pm. Brightened my day considerably!

[FourWheelDrift]

There's -Spitfire LF Mk.Vb EP120 (G-LFVB). owned by The Fighter Collection and based at Duxford.