Spits and 109's - Intersting reading

[Falke]

Spits and 109's - Interesting reading


Spitfire http://www.acepilots.com/british/spitfire.html


Spitfire http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php?t-72714.html


bf 109 http://www.oocities.com/capecanaveral/hangar/9378/flybf109.html

[engarde]

fron the first link:

"I should have mentioned earlier that one of our regular jobs was convoy patrols over the North Sea, on days with low cloud cover . On one occasion I was sent out to cover a `convoy', which turned out to be a lone battleship, The King George V, racing north on her own, presumably heading for the Home Fleet Base at Scapa Flow. On New Years Eve I was out three times covering a large merchant convoy plodding north under escort. I was in radio contact with the lead ship which I believe was a cruiser. On my last trip, with dusk coming on and my fuel getting low, I flew past the cruiser at bridge height and said `I must leave you now, Happy New Year'. There was no response, and I could picture them thumbing through the code book to see if Happy New Year might have a double meaning. I was half way back to land when they came back with `And a Happy New Yeeaw to you too'. Now all I had on my mind was getting back down and readying for the squadron's first ever New Years Eve bash in the mess."

I got a laugh out of this one, good read.

[Sutts]

Some GREAT reading there Falke, thanks for posting.:grin:

Some items of interest:

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"I was probably a bit nervous since the first guy to fly the day before had killed himself, taking off in coarse pitch, clipping the top of a hangar and crashing into into a paint storage building."

With real aircraft if you forget your procedures then you suffer the consequences. Wish sims were the same.

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"At the holding point on the grass I did my run up and check, winding on full right rudder trim. Traffic was controlled by Aldis lamp; having moved up to the `ready' spot on the grass, I lined up with a hangar on the far side of the field, the same one the fellow had hit the day before, and waited for a green, one eye on the rapidly rising coolant temperature, the other on the tower. On getting the green I released the brakes, and with the stick right back gradually opened the throttle to takeoff power, then carefully brought the stick forward to neutral. (Too far and the prop could hit the ground) Almost immediately the tail was up to flying attitude, and almost full right rudder was needed to keep straight. A few seconds later, with some light bouncing on the grass, it flew itself off. Sitting in that snug cockpit, almost on the trailing edge, and with that beautiful wing in my field of vision, it was hard to believe I was really flying it. With the speed building up I retracted the undercarriage, closed the canopy and climbed to a safe height over the training area."

Great commentary on take off in a Spit. I've read this time and again - even with full right rudder trim you still need almost full right rudder to keep the thing straight. I hope Oleg's next creation will model this more accurately as IL2 is much more forgiving than this.

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"After having straight-in finals from 500 feet drummed into me at earlier schools, it took some time getting comfortable with the recommended Spitfire approach, which was to combine the base and final legs into a continuously descending curve, to reach a point just off the end of the runway, at about 30 degrees off line, and ready to begin the round out. Then line up the left side of the nose with the landing path and round out to a few feet off the ground. All Spitfires, at least up to the Mk IX, would float a fair distance, even when brought in at the correct speed; this made landing easy. The unarmed Hawarden Mk Is were especially light, making the float even greater. Hold it level as it floats, and when it starts to sink, begin raising the nose progressively, until, with the stick back in your lap, it settles down like a feather, three point, usually. There is no tendency to swing after landing. ( Although over dramatized) The TV movie `Piece of Cake' has some great shots illustrating this technique. Once mastered, not only was it efficient, but it felt good, the runway was always in sight, and any excess height could be lost by simply slipping the turn."

Nice commentary on Spit landing technique.

[Falke]

I'm glad you noticed those parts in particular Sutts. People always seem to take the 'Il-2 flight models" so seriously when they are at best, only a close computer simulation.

I actually started searching for info like this after reading comments on different forums regarding flaps and/or combat flaps on early spits. As far as I can tell, the flaps had an up position and a “flaps down” position. Also, the comments in the articles about the Spit wanting to float in for landings reminded me of some thing I'd heard or read several years back that, at least on early spits, the so called flaps weren’t really flaps, they were more “air brakes” meant to slow the spit down while trying to land it. That’s something many folks don't seem to realize.

[Ploughman]

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"I was probably a bit nervous since the first guy to fly the day before had killed himself, taking off in coarse pitch, clipping the top of a hangar and crashing into into a paint storage building."


I seem to recall Douglas Bader pranged a Spit taking off in coarse pitch. Ended up in the station commander's office expecting to get a rocket and got promoted instead. Something like that.