Last night I watched a two hour program on TV entitled; "The Real Battle of Britain" where-in actor Ewan MacGregor and his older brother, currently an RAF Tornado pilot, undertook to try to more fully understand circumstances that pilots went through in the BOB.
His pilot brother went through a quick lesson on the Tiger Moth, then the Harvard then flew a two seater Spitfire and lastly Ewan went for a flight of two Spits and a Hurri for a BOB memorial flight over Dover and along the cliffs. Spectacular!!
They covered in some detail the aircraft and focussed on the pilots who had little training before being thrown into battle. Two of the pilots who took part (now in their 90's) were interviewed and one of them was the original pilot of prettly well the last Hurricane still flying and it was in that flypast and part of the production. He and the the two hosts stood in the middle of the grass airfield and the Hurri did a high speed low altitude (50 ft or less) past them. It was interesting to see the original Hurri pilot watch his aircraft sweep past them and then do mild aerobatics.
OK, so I digress - the purpose of this post is to comment on the aerial views taken from the show when filming shots from the Spit cockpit or in a camera ship filming the aircraft. The fields below were patchwork - similar to the COD SIM - BUT - they were georgeous shades of deep greens, emerald greens some beigy yellows here and there - the predominance was deep and emeral greens. Britain is a WET country to say the least and even in mid summer (spring in North America
) there is enough moisture to keep things green. There was a good deal of high contrast in these pics and the cloud formations were spectacular. Reminded me of the poem "High Flight" -
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
I would like the devs to take another look at how beigy-yellow they have the countryside and rethink the colour pallet.
Cheers All.