Some GREAT reading there Falke, thanks for posting.
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.