Although I've been a beechtalk member since the early 2000's and read it at least three times a day, I seldom post however I thought this pilot report may be of interest to others entertaining the same idea. I am a long time World War II and especially aviation buff - I think I visited every aviation Museum of note in the US and Oshkosh a dozen times so when I had decided to visit family in the UK last week I thought was time to take something else off my bucket list and fly a Spitfire. http://www.FlyaSptfire.com is the organization offering flights and although there are multiple airports I decided to use Biggin Hill for its Battle of Britain significance and the fact that it's the organization's home base and you get a tour of their maintenance and restoration hanger. The big day - it starts off with a tour of their hanger where in addition to spitfires that have one of only two flying Messerschmidts in the world. I also saw a totally rebuilt Spitfire for a Dutch customer almost completed. The hanger contains various wrecked and rebuilt Merlin engines, a Wiley's jeep that Brad Pitt drove in the movie fury and other interesting paraphernalia. This is followed by a safety briefing which includes both forced landing evacuation and also how to use a parachute if necessary. I met my pilot- there are a number of them- my guys real-time job is flying an Airbus for British Airways as well as of course multiple types of war birds and doing aerobatics. You not allowed to take the phone with you instead one of the ground help takes it and filmed my takeoff landing along with numerous still photographs before and after flight. However there are go Pro cameras on board that film me from the front and the back and you get a copy of this after the flight. As Andy my pilot knew I had a pilots license I got a continuous commentary of what he was doing as regards start up, taxiing and power settings. It was a typical English day with early rain followed by low clouds which actually made the flight more entertaining as most of it was done at 1500 feet or less with clouds all around and the English countryside below made it feel very World War II-ish.

You wear helmets and David Clark headsets but no surprise it is ready really loud. After startup brief run up and taxi we were off. We flew towards the coast and off the clearing the airport and he gave me control. As I read before the elevators are very sensitive but the ailerons are just wonderful. Because you sitting in the rear cockpit you don't get a view of the wonderful nose of the Spitfire instead you really view in the lower part of your vison the front cockpit. The view out the sides and of course overhead are stupendous and those elliptical wings with the clouds just off them and the countryside below will be what I remember always. We were soon over the white cliffs of Dover and we flew along them ending with a wing over and as I requested a couple of barrel rolls or victory rolls as they call them. I flew most the way back with Andy giving me headings and in fact he only took over as we turned final , so i got to experience the effect of the landing gear and flaps on the handling. Most the time we indicated about 200 miles an hour but when we did the wing over and stuck the nose down for the barrel rolls the speed of course builds up dramatically.

It was about a 50 minute flight all in all and then it was all over apart from getting my video of the flight and signed certificate and more photographs. However all in all it was a wonderful experience and everything I could've wished for. I sure do envy those lucky members on beach talk that actually get to fly warbirds for real but this is as close as I'm gonna get and I'm grateful for that. on the airfield is a small museum and RAF Chapel , worth a visit. Amongst the exhibits are a number of pilots logbooks, one that I found particularly interesting was the one of a Hurricane pilot pilot where in the space of about six days he flew about eight times and was shut down twice!! His logbook notes - shot down hurricane destroyed!! . The total hours at that point of his career was only 200 hours, No wonder the attrition rate was really high for these young and relatively very inexperienced pilots

Great story and thanks for sharing!

Let’s see a photo!

photo

What an experience. Thanks for sharing. It’s on my bucket list one of these days.

FIFY


I can only dream, but without a major change in fortune, that's all it will be.

Thanks for posting this Dennis. I've wondered what it would take to do this. I noticed you're at CYKZ, I'm at CYOO and with the exchange rate for Canadian $ these days, that is an eye-watering amount for the 55 min flight experience!

Jeff

Thanks for posting this Dennis. I've wondered what it would take to do this. I noticed you're at CYKZ, I'm at CYOO and with the exchange rate for Canadian $ these days, that is an eye-watering amount for the 55 min flight experience!

Did the Britts have a two seat version for training during WWII or is that just a modification for civilian owned Spitfires?

There were no two-seat Spitfires during the war as far as I’m aware. However there were some two seat Spitfires constructed after the war ended for training. The Irish Air Force had a number of them, some of which I believe may have been used in the Battle of Britain movie.

TR8 was the 1st modified from a MkVIII, same as a late MkIX but with a retractable Tailwheel.
Done for the Irish.
All the mods today are based on the TR8 since it was already a past, proven design.

Thanks, Rich. I knew you’d have the answer! I knew the Irish had some but didn’t know the back story.

There is a good book about the making of the Battle of Britain Movie.

The books talk about how they found the various Spitfire airframes. Some were even gate guardians outside at RAF bases. Then the work to get them flying. The trained and had RAF enlisted pilots fly for the movie in the Spitfires. Some airframes were returned to gate duty after the filming. Others into private hands. There is an earlier book and a later one. Both were interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Britain-M ... 1399014757

https://www.biblio.com/9780330023573?sr ... Xs7LTHMaKY