FOURTEEN SPITFIRES in the air together...........

[salmonriverjohn]

Man, water landings are blast too!
The "milk runs" up through the fiords in B.C. To fishing and logging camps in a 41 Grumman Goose will curl your toes and clamp your cheeks at times.
These are old school ladies that really sport no modern guidance other than a GPS.
My first flight started out in the back luggage cubby, second was in the co-pilots seat, much better view.

 

[tac]

Thanks etrain16 - now I find that I can't watch it, even here - it's blocked - 'Due to international licensing agreements, this program can not be viewed in your region - Sorry!'

Can't win, me.

Till, I only live 28 miles from Duxford, and I can go see this stuff any time for real.

tac

 

[ditchtiger]

This is one of my favorite "up close and personal" Spitfire videos. Hope this works.

Lower Than a Snake's Belly in a Wagon Rut Redux > Vintage Wings of Canada

 

[Provincial]

Thanks for starting this thread tac!

The Spit is hands-down the most beautiful fighter of WWII. I can't think of even an obscure model that even comes close.

 

[2A2Dend]

Guy Martin has a true passion

 

[jbett98]

This takes a little skill.

 

[tac]

Thanks to a friend in Ireland, I have the actual reflector gun-sight from Caroline Grace's two-seater Spitfire, ML407, removed on it conversion to a two-seater training aircraft for the Irish.

Her Spit, then in RAF service, was credited with shooting down the first Luftwaffe aircraft to fall on D-Day.

Read -
The Grace Spitfire ML407 was built at Castle Bromwich as a single-seat low level Mark IX fighter and served in the front line of battle throughout the last twelve months of World War II.

ML407 was delivered into active service on 29th April 1944 by the famous lady A.T.A. pilot Jackie Moggridge to 485 New Zealand Squadron at ALG Selsey to Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton with the Squadron code OU and the personal insignia letter of V for Johnnie's wife Vicki.

ML407 is in the colour scheme as she was when delivered to F/O Johnnie Houlton DFC who, on the 6th June whilst flying his Spitfire ML407 coded OU-V was accredited with shooting down the first enemy aircraft (a Junkers 88) over the Normandy beach head just south of Omaha Beach.

ML 407 did a total of 176 operational sorties, predominantly ground attack, amassing over 320 combat hours whilst in the 2nd Tactical Air Force (TAF) going from 485 New Zealand Squadron in December 1944 to:- 341 Free French, 308 Polish, 349 Belgian, 345 Free French,332 Norwegian squadrons returning to 485 New Zealand Squadron at the end of the War.

In 1951 Vickers Armstrong at Southampton was commissioned by the Irish Air Corps to convert 20 Spitfires to the trainer configuration - ML 407 was one of these - serving with the Irish Army Air Corps as IAC162 until 1960 with a total time of 763 hours flown for the IAC. ML407 then went into storage.

Nick Grace found this Spitfire in a museum in Scotland in 1979 and he set about his meticulous 5 year rebuild. The Spitfire took to the air again in April 1985 in Nick's most capable hands with Carolyn, his wife in the rear cockpit. Tragically Nick was killed in a car accident in 1988. He had been displaying the Spitfire for 3 years. His widow Carolyn decided to learn to fly their Spitfire to keep it operational with a Grace in the cockpit in memory of Nick in recognition of his outstanding achievement and for their two children Olivia and Richard then aged 5 and 4. It became known as the Grace Spitfire.

Sadly, I lack the $5000 needed to have a fly in it - as a passenger of course - but it is on my bucket list....

Pics of the gun-sight can be posted if required.

tac

 

[etrain16]

Lower Than a Snake's Belly in a Wagon Rut Redux > Vintage Wings of Canada

Interesting shots of low-flying planes!

When I was a kid, my brother, sister and I were on the Oregon coast at Gearhart with our family. It was a Sunday morning and we were out playing on the beach. We heard something coming toward us and looked to our right (north) to see 2 F4 Phantoms (presumably Oregon ANG) buzzing the beach at very low level (I would estimate 100' or less). They passed right over the top of us, one after the other, and shortly after pulled up and kicked the throttles to bug out of there. It was so damn loud that we all had a little bit of a hard time hearing for a while afterward. We were all scared to go back to the beach for a while after that happened.

 

[etrain16]

Pics of the gun-sight can be posted if required.

What are you waiting for??!

 

[2A2Dend]

Interesting shots of low-flying planes!

When I was a kid, my brother, sister and I were on the Oregon coast at Gearhart with our family. It was a Sunday morning and we were out playing on the beach. We heard something coming toward us and looked to our right (north) to see 2 F4 Phantoms (presumably Oregon ANG) buzzing the beach at very low level (I would estimate 100' or less). They passed right over the top of us, one after the other, and shortly after pulled up and kicked the throttles to bug out of there. It was so damn loud that we all had a little bit of a hard time hearing for a while afterward. We were all scared to go back to the beach for a while after that happened.

When was the approximate date this happened? Not that it matters, really, because I don't remember. Reason I ask is I was at the beach here in Washington with my parents. The sky was blue, no clouds, and very little wind. We also had IIRC F-4 Phantoms fly over us very low to the deck. They were heading South. The speed they were going raised the sand off the beach!

 

[tac]

Dunno, really. Most folks I know have substantially less than no interest in a piece of old aircraft junk. Caroline Grace herself expressed totally zero interest in it, prolly thinking that I was trying to make a few bucks when I'd actually offered it to her gratis back when I got it - same as when I advised her about a couple of spare Rolls-Royce-built Merlins from the same location.

Even worse, in my view, when Baldonnell Airfield - known as Casement Aerodrome, was being remodelled back in the fifties, they bulldozed a whole bunch of Hawker Hart biplanes into a handy ditch, and buried them. Now there is only one flying example left in the entire world - at the Shuttleworth Collection, about 30 miles down the road from us here.

Anyhow, NOW you've expressed an interest I'll just have to go and dig it out of my loading shed.
Watch this space, eh? Supper calls.

tac

 

[etrain16]

When was the approximate date this happened? Not that it matters, really, because I don't remember. Reason I ask is I was at the beach here in Washington with my parents. The sky was blue, no clouds, and very little wind. We also had IIRC F-4 Phantoms fly over us very low to the deck. They were heading South. The speed they were going raised the sand off the beach!

Can't give an exact date, would have been somewhere in the range of 1974-76 based on our trips at that time. No doubt, they probably enjoyed doing that more than once

 

[2A2Dend]

Ms. Grace actually snubbed you? Pity. One would think it would bring a smile.

 

[2A2Dend]

Can't give an exact date, would have been somewhere in the range of 1974-76 based on our trips at that time. No doubt, they probably enjoyed doing that more than once

That's sounds about right. My sister was in high school.

 

[tac]

Ms. Grace actually snubbed you? Pity. One would think it would bring a smile.

Not personally. Her hired help called me back and told me not to bother her again.

I don't know if he knew who I was, but if it's of any importance I was calling from my office at the DISC Chicksands, where I was the Chief Instructor of an Intelligence School, and not some kind of low-life crank.

I thought that was pretty sad, and kept the gun-sight, and the location of the couple of Merlin engines, to myself.

tac

 

[AirResq]

Great thread, Tac. Ditchtiger's link takes a while to get through due to volume, but it's well worth it. Thanks Ditchtiger!