A day of frustration and fun!

[Hunhunter]

Wouldn't you know it, the one time I go flying and dont bother taking my camera and what should turn up and land at our airfield? Only a P51D Mustang and a Spitfire PRXI!!!!!!

I had only been there 5 minutes when they called up on the radio to request landing instructions and ask if they could make a run and break down the runway. All other traffic in the circuit was unceremoniously shifted out of the way and the pair ran in tight formation down RW28 before pulling up into the circuit to land.

The P51 was one I have always wanted to see up close. It was 'Janie' owned by Maurice Hammond and is one of the most beautiful restorations you will ever see. I had a chat with him as I looked round his plane and I mentioned I was surprised to he he had the K14 gunsight fitted. He laughed and said "oh, you know your stuff then!!" He said the sight was in full working order and also said he had all the guns fitted complete with a full load of .50 cal ammunition!! The plane is about as original as it gets, everything in the cockpit (apart from the 2nd seat) is as it would have been during the war, absolutely stunning!!

The Spitfire was owned by Peter Teichman and was also very nice. It used to be painted in high altitude Pink and looked awful but its now painted in PR Blue. Both planes looked stunning parked in the Autumn sunshine.....whilst my camera sat at home

Anyway, I put a couple of links to pics of the planes below, sadly not mine
P51D Janie
http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/hangar/...ion/p51-01.jpg

PRXI Spitfire
http://frenchaces.free.fr/photos/highdef/988.jpg

Well, the fun part of the day was the flying. I went up with the flying club chief instructor to do spinning and spin recovery. Whhoo hooo....what a hoot!! "Full left rudder and stick hard back" he says. The plane pitches up, judders for a seconds before flicking to the left into a spin. Ok, now i'll tell you something here. I had a good idea of how to stop a spin before we even took off....neutalise controls, kill power & apply full opposite rudder, thats all great in theory, but to apply all that or even remember it whilst your being flung around in the cockpit is something else!! The first one took me 2000ft to recover!!! The rest were a lot better but the best way I can describe the sensation is its like trying to type a letter whilst riding a roller coaster....your trying to concentrate on a task whilst being thrown around all over the place!! Oh, and NO flight sim even comes close to reproducing this!! Lots of fun though and makes you respect the aeroplanes limitations a little more.

[adlabs6]

Wow, what a day!

It's the same for everyone, leave the camera behind, and you will see a bigfoot, lock ness, and aliens in the same trip. Since I switched to a small digital point and shoot, it's way easier to travel with the camera than it was in my 35mm SLR days.

Spins are tough from what I've heard. I'd wondered how rough the ride was, sounds about like a car on a bad road. Something I've seen in videos of spins is the way the sun and shadows run around the cockpit. No sim does that either... yet.

[Serval]

Sounds very good

[Aero_Shodanjo]

Sounds very good

The "I-left-the-camera-at-home-when-something-amazing-happened" part?

It sounds very frustrating for me

[Hot Space]

I had the same kinda thing when I was in Devon in June. We were gonna take the Cam-Corder, but we thought it might get nicked. Anyway, there seem to be some kinda Range around there as F-15 Strike Eagles were flying at god knows what speed and at very little height

Fun watching 'em, even the the wife wasn't bother by all the fun