Meeting BoB Spit pilot and Rigger
 

I am meeting a BoB Spit pilot and Rigger, both from the same Squadron, this Sunday. Does anyone have any questions you'd like me to ask. I'm thinking more from a technical point of view (e.g. could you hear the guns from within the cockpit, did you ever see a parked Spit rotate on the grass, how long would it take an engine to warm up from a cold start etc) so we can pass this on the the Devs, but really any and all questions welcome.

PPP

If the pilot flew early Spitfires, his opinion on the Merlin negative G cutout question. Was it so sensitive that it was a constant concern when flying normally or entering a modest descent? How severe a pushover was required and for roughly how long before it cut out. Was it a pain in the ass or just something to deal with in vigorous combat?

EDIT: Where are you meeting him? Just curious.

ask him about spotting distance.. how far away could he see aircrafts IF he was looking in their direction and the sky was clear?

also, ask him if he could hear other things from outside his cockpit while flying.. like his flight mates engines, or other aicraft engines; if he could hear when he was fired at by someone, or just bullets whinning while passing him, or only the sound of hitting ones; also ask him if he coud hear 109 engine's whines when they were getting close to him..

+1 and was it important was it to keep the canopy clean and in good condition? How much effort was placed in keeping it so?

Cheers

Refrain from asking about Spitfire rotating on the grass, you might get some awkward stares ;-)

good question.

Apart for spotting distance (it doesn't really apply in a standard manner to real life, since it's Eyeball Mk.I that does the job) I agree with all the other questions.

I would ask him about aerial gunnery, enemy behaviour in combat and fatigue.

How often did the fighters get washed and polished?

How was the quality of the Spitfire paint job? Did the paint flake off all over, or just the parts where it was stepped on?

How high did they fly before switching on oxygen? Was it done on command, or was it up to each individual pilot?

How often were the radios disabled by combat damage?

If all the oil leaked out, would the engine seize, or did the pilot switch off the engine before it got to that point?

Would the tower allow multiple fighters land simultaneously, or only one at a time?

Please ask him this: How far away could he hear the (engine) sound of another fighter, at his 12, 3, and 6 o'clock, respectively?

If you can show him sreenshots of COD, please ask him if the colour and brightness of the explosions of 20mm cannon rounds in COD are the same as what he saw in air combat.

In their weapon loadouts when they used .303 'Ball' did they use MkVII or MkVIII or both? (Though I guess this is more of an armourers Job)

Cheers!

I've just finished reading "The blonde knight of Germany.. Erich Hartman" in which there are some answers to some of the questions which are floating around here:

- Hartman talks in two places about zooming in from above, and then having the enemy aircrafts losing him and his katschmarek due to looking from above for camouflage painted 109's against terrain (one case is in winter, another is in summer)

-> pilots were really losing sight of an airplane against the ground

- he also talks about flashes in the sky: due to german aircrafts being camouflage painted, he indentifies some flashes he saw in the sky as Mustangs (ie probably the russian couldn't have been indentified as flashes neither), which had bare metal parts

-> camouflage painted aircrafts were not flashing in the sky

- he also talks a few times about his mechanical chief starting to clean his canopy as soon as he landed, in order to prepare the 109 for the next mission

-> canopy was constantly cleaned up before each flight

I would chime in on this. It reminds me of a recent discussion: the cockpit glass. Was it always in perfect condition or did it have tiny scratches and stains etc. at times?

Also I remember another heated discussion some had about the fuel. I think it was about how many Spitfires were really flying on 100 octane fuel and not 90.