Alex James, the bass guitarist of a British rock band who has been a pilot for over 15 years, called it The most beautiful handling airplane Ive ever flown (link to a gorgeous video in the first comment, below). Yet few pilots have asked me, How did it fly, Tonet? I guess most boys dream of becoming a pilot. And it used to be most pilots dreamed of flying a Spitfire. Iconic hero of the Battle of Britain. One of the most aerobatic, responsive and graceful fighter airplanes in World War II. The only aircraft operational at the start of the war, and at the end. I always wondered what it was like. Never mind that it is THE fighter pilots fighter airplane. Or that it delivered the So much owed by so many to so few. Its that that so few are left, and that very few boys lucky enough to become pilots become even luckier to fly the Spitfire. Thats what really got to me. It was a rocketship. We hit close to 300 knots. At one point I saw the vertical speed indicator hit 4,000 feet per minute. I have flown six Gs many times with Meynard in aerobatic training. But I never had to grunt the classic Hook, Hook, Hook! mantra to keep from blacking out. Gavin had told me we would limit ourselves to three Gs in the Spitfire. Yet as we bent the airplane up into one of the most tightly wound loops I have ever flown, my vision started graying out into a colorless tunnel. Hook, Hook, Hook!! We were SUSTAINING three Gs throughout the maneuvers. No float at the top of inverted flight, no straining against the 5-point seat harness and parachute straps. No, I was mashed into the seat the entire time as we pulled sustained G forces throughout two loops, a barrel roll, an aileron roll and a full Cuban Eight. I swear the old veteran airplane was laughing for joy, back in its element, doing what it was DESIGNED to do. When I had the airplane, I caught myself overcorrecting in pitch, feeling Gs as I tried to keep level in a turn. It had a fast roll rate, as expected from a fighters wing, sure. But that pitch, man! All you had to do was THINK of nudging the stick back and WHAM, you were in a 30-degree climb. It really was the most wonderful flight Ive had. And like Alex James in his video below, I was in tears most of the time. It wasnt just the here-and-now joy. It was the entire little boy dream, 50 years from model airplanes in my lolos house in Kamuning to the cockpit of a Spitfire rolling over the green cliffs of New Zealand -- all crammed into 40 minutes of aviation heaven. If youre a pilot, think you are one or dream of becoming one, put a Spitfire flight in your bucket list. There is far more to flying than droning along on rails, pushing buttons or logging the same hour 15,000 times. For heavens sake, just go do it. Quickly because there are so few left. Slowly because you want to prolong it as much as you can. And when you do it, and you get the wings vertical sky-and-ground in a 90-degree bank, if you find yourself hunching down JUST a little bit behind the armor plate, waiting for Gallands 20mm shells to hit, then you are getting it. You have wound the clock back. You are one of the Few.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:45:28 +0000