Battle of Britain 81st Anniversary Flight

[Grossman56]

Everyone remember to fly their Spitfires today?
Had mine up for two flights before we got hammered with a wind, beautiful day up until then.
Post your Spitfire pics if you remembered...


Grossman56

[Gilatrout]

Gorgeous Spits. I'll fly my HE111 tomorrow when it's a little safer for it to fly.

Meanwhile
the Eurofighter got some new paint for the anniversary.

[kallend]

Oh yes!

[406PIlot]

If I had one I would of.... I need to get a spitfire added to my hangar.....

[davegee]

Everyone remember to fly their Spitfires today?
Had mine up for two flights before we got hammered with a wind, beautiful day up until then.
Post your Spitfire pics if you remembered...


Grossman56

I was out early yesterday morning, but the north wind was more than I was willing to fly in, lest I wreck it. Glad the wind died down later for you to fly. To honor the Day, I'll post an earlier pic of my Flightline 1600mm Spitfire, painted in the colors of Witold "Lanny" Lanowski, then with the 302 Sqdn.. Lanny was a fierce fighter pilot, flew with the Polish air force before the fall of Poland to the Nazis in 1939, then flew with the RAF (as my plane is painted up as) and later P-47s with the American 56th Fighter Group in England.

[Grossman56]

Great job guys, I should have got on this a little earlier but there's always next year. I got two good flights with the Spitfire in and one with my P51D Big Beautiful Doll. Wind came up so I played around in it with P-1, got close to hovering in it, then called it a day. Pretty good conditions this morning, had three novice flyers out and was giving them a hand, I love helping others learn the ropes, feels good to give back.

Grossman56

[kallend]

Great job guys, I should have got on this a little earlier but there's always next year. I got two good flights with the Spitfire in and one with my P51D Big Beautiful Doll. Wind came up so I played around in it with P-1, got close to hovering in it, then called it a day. Pretty good conditions this morning, had three novice flyers out and was giving them a hand, I love helping others learn the ropes, feels good to give back.

Grossman56

Interesting bit of history: The first RAF squadron to be equipped with Spitfires was No. 19, based at Duxford, just south of Cambridge, UK, in August 1938. Duxford based aircraft played a pivotal role in the events of Sept. 15, 1940, generally considered the turning point of the Battle of Britain (which lasted over 3 months, from July 10, 1940 – October 31, 1940).

Subsequently Duxford was turned over to the USAAF as a base for 8th Air Force escort fighters. The 78th fighter group was based there late in the war and the C/O, Col. John Landers, flew as his personal aircraft the P51D WZ-I (Big Beautiful Doll).

[Grossman56]

Cool, a salute to Duxford as well! Now, if I remember right, wasn't it Duxford that was used as a field in the movie The Battle Of Britain as well, I'm pretty sure that was where they blew up that hangar.

Still waiting for an ME 109E or Buchon....

[kallend]

Cool, a salute to Duxford as well! Now, if I remember right, wasn't it Duxford that was used as a field in the movie The Battle Of Britain as well, I'm pretty sure that was where they blew up that hangar.

Still waiting for an ME 109E or Buchon....

Yes, the Duxford hangar was blown up for the movie. I was a grad student at Cambridge at the time and we would see flights of Spits and Buchons flying over regularly.

[Grossman56]

Man, that must have a cool time, seeing them and knowing they posed no danger, the world's best airshow!