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.

Did all fighter sqns, Spit and Hurri, have 100 octane fuel for the Battle of Britain period?

Thanks in advance.

Please see http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...26&postcount=1

PPP

http://twitter.com/#!/brianlanedfc

Would the ground crew already have had the engines warmed up by the time the pilots arrived saving waiting before scrambling.

I would be geateful to know if the spitfire was a difficult bird to maintain in wartime conditions, and what the most simple and most complex maintenance and repair task. Also, how often would main tyres be changed if operating from concrete? Also, would rearm and refuel occur simultaneously, and how long would each take?

Finally, enjoy and remember the experience. I'm jealous.

What sort of force was needed to move the joystick under normal conditions, and also under combat/aerobatic manoeuvres.

What were the specific jobs done by a rigger? How many planes did they look after at any given time? How long would they spend maintaining the planes?

Cheers!

Oh, this I forgot to put in front of the question: 'when flying a Spit with his cockpit closed'.

PLEASE...why dont you ask him to come to your place and play some cod??...u could record it on video and see what he thinks about it..then post abck in here...it would be very interesting i remember something like that (an interview with a former wwii pilot about his impressions on clod, the only thing was that there was no video).. :)

fantastic question.

+1

Good question to ask IMO

O_Smiladon

For the rigger:

A couple of days ago I saw a entertainment documentary about the delivery of a Spitfire (later modell with invasion stripe markings) to the US. A British pilot did the last check and tuning flights with the Spit in the US before handing over the keys. One of the tuning work done was to slightly bend the left corner trailing edge of the right aileron upwards (using a pre-formed wood block that the pilot held with his left hand on the upper side of the aileron where the bending should take place and with his right hand he held a hammer and thus hammering the bottom of the aileron trailing edge of the Spit and thus incurbing this part slightly upwards). The objective was to modify slightly the airflow there so that inflight the airstream would timidly pull the aileron from neutral position down thus countering the right roll tendency encountered otherwise. The pilot said this was described as a procedure in the handbooks. I would like to know more about this. Can this be confirmed by the rigger? What where the commonly applied procedure?

~S~

Would You be able to ask him what was top altitude they ever flown in early spit versions, was it really hard to fight against 109's at celling alt? How hard was spit in controls manners at high alt?

Thank You in advance...

I wish there were a post here from Luthier saying "ask them if they want to work with us as consultants". I thought the developers had some veteran consultancy.
What a nice oportunity PPP, we're waiting for your post about the meeting.

A very big +1