An afternoon of Merlin engines

[MA_Moby]

I was due to do my first solo Navigation today for my PPL; Norwich - Sculthorpe - Wisbech - Littleport - Norwich.

The first clue that something was up was when I spotted a two seater Spitfire parked up next to the usual collection of Cessna 150 and PA-28's.

I checked the Notices for Airmen - the Battle of Britain memorial flight due to flypast Norwich airport, the Lowestoft Airshow, and the RAF Marham families day all meant the air traffic controllers would have their work cut out. All a bit too busy for a solo student to go wandering off into the haze.

So instead I looked over the Spitfire blimmim'eck I was able to touch the thing! I got some nice piccies of the cockpit layout. What surprised me was just the shear size of it's prop. It's massive! And that Merlin engine pointing up at the sky!

We went flying, some dual stuff - practice forced landings (it was too hazy to do anything else, at 3000ft the horizon simply didn't exist). After about 45 minutes of this we decided to head back to the field. On the radio we could hear the ATC talking to some planes with the callsigns, Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane. Hmmmm..... they were obviously lining up for a flypast.

We get in our calls and are cleared to land. My FI tells me to get it down quick, so we go for a flapless approach. I take it a little low and have to cover the last part of the approach at about 100ft, with a bit of power on to avoid losing too much height. I straighten up with rudder, aerolons into wind, then a gust catches me and I wobble dangerously about as we pass the threashold, then hold back, hold back, for what seems like an age, adjusting with small movements of the foot and wrist, and I'm down.

As we're taxiing back to the hangars the BoB memorial flight pass overhead. They break and come into land. First the Spit, then the Hurri, last of all the Lancaster. So in a way I lead the BoB flight in to land

The Spit and the Hurri taxiied back to the light aircraft park and I grabbed my camera for some more piccies.

It was only at this point that I realised the whole airfield had been watching the runway as I'd made my fluffed approach Oh well! It was well worth it to share the circuit with such illustrious company, and to get up close to those planes.

I'll post some pictures once I have them developed. I've still stuck with my old style cameras

[yamangman]

Nice story Mr Moby, I love the BBMF display . Infact, I'm off to Lowestoft tomorrow to see the world famous yak team

[Dakaras]

I adore the BoB flight, seen them more times than i can count and always a buzz...sound of that Lanc phoar

[MA_Moby]

we stopped the plane on the taxiway, set the engine to idle, and took off our headphones for the flypast. there's nothing like the sound of Merlins roaring overhead

edit: except maybe this http://www.btinternet.com/~javelin/javelins.wav

[MA_Moby]

As promised



Two seater spitfire (MJ627, a T.IX; a converted Mark IX. In it's original form it served with 441 RCAF and was credited with a bf109 kill,)



The front seat view



The rear seat view



The BBMF spitfire taxiing in

(edit: note the dwarf FW190 replica in the background. I'd heard rumours of its existence but this was the first time I'd seen it out of the hangar - God knows how anyone would fit in it!)





Followed by the Hurricane



And finally the Lancaster (it opened it's bomb bay doors to drop off some of the crew)

[Tumble]

good to see the Hurri.. but but.. is that the same one that pranged at Duxford???

[MA_Moby]

A different one I think ~

http://www.flyvintage.com/images/3529/