Towards the end of our Annual General Meeting on April 24th at Duxford  I was encouraged, no, I was TOLD to leave the meeting quickly and don a flying overall to cover my portly body!

 

There was, it was explained, a Spitfire Tr 9 with the back cockpit reserved for me.

 

I was incredulous, to put it mildly.

 

A flight in a Spitfire?

 

Surely not!

On to the airfield and across to the Spitfire (a Tr9 serial PV 202).

 

Put your feet on the hinge line of the drop down access cockpit access door, I was told by John a pilot who had just had his first Spitfire flight.

 

Left hand on the top of the windscreen right hand on the large cockpit bubble canopy (will it take my weight?) - no problem.

 

Ninety degree turn and stand on the parachute that covers the seat base, slide your posterior down the seat back and feet down on two metal bars just short of the rudder pedals.

 

That was very easy and I am in and comfortable.

 

I note that there’s a very good view out with a surprisingly lofty view out over the wings.

That’s odd, when I look (up) at a Spitfire on the ground it has a presence and some size, these wings suddenly look very short when viewed from the cockpit perspective.

 

More surprises to come, no doubt.

 

Enough musing, and John it’s time to get the seat harness straps on.

 

“Sorry” he says, “but these are in a bit personal position”!

 

Do I care?

 

No, I do not!

 

Then the blue parachute harness.

 

“That’s the ‘D’ ring”, he says “you pull it like this” I know the pilot, he’s Cliff Spink a Spitfire Society Patron and he’s a retired RAF Air Marshall with years of knowledge and experience with many types of aircraft both modern and classic.

 

I am introduced to the handle to wind that enormous bubble canopy closed and the lever below it that elevates my seat so that I get an even better view out.

 

I’m handed the headphones set that is a canvas like helmet.

 

Now the head set is very interesting.

 

When they are in place they remove nearly all external sounds, I plug the lead in and the sound is very clear, there’s also a piece of electronics in the lead that removes more extraneuous noises.

 

I hear our captain very clearly and he explains the flight pattern.

After take off, we will circuit north of Duxford and formate on a Cessna twin engined aircraft for a photo shoot with acclaimed photographer Richard Paver doing some air to air shots for a forthcoming article in Aeroplane magazine about PV 202.

 

Then we will see a little more of the Cambridgeshire countryside and just maybe it will be possible for me to ‘feel’ the controls for a moment or two.

The 27 litre Rolls-Royce Merlin is started.

 

The headphones are superb, there’s just a little very muted background sound and no more.

 

In a way that is a disappointment but of course to hear the rich Merlin sound properly you need to be on the ground—not behind it!

 

We roll, many society members are waving and I give the thumbs up.

 

Duxford is quite bumpy but a Go-Kart on concrete is far worse.

 

There is a firm push in my back, everything becomes smooth and the undercarriage down indicators on the wing top surfaces fold away out of sight.

 

It really is silky smooth.

 

I’m up and away in a Spitfire, it is simply beyond words.

 

You must try this for yourself to understand what I am trying to express at this point.

A turn to the left (sorry, port) and whoops, that’s an experience to shake the senses!

 

Think of yourself as an inexperienced pillion passenger on the back of a very fast motorbike going into your first fast tight bend.

 

My personal gyroscope in the brain did not anticipate it!

 

There’s a sensation akin to falling and the natural instinct is to resist it!

No I didn’t and  no I can’t, there’s perfectly adequate harness straps holding me very firmly in my seat.

 

Gyroscope settles down, next banked turn there’s no surprise.

 

I’m used to this now, am I not?

Cliff finds the Cessna and we see Richard Paver doing his thing as we get up close and personal.

 

Cliff also notices that the lens cap is still on the camera lens!

 

Ah, cap’s off Richard’s working with gestures to put the Spitfire slightly below the Cessna, then level and then back down again and eventually we part company.

 

That was fun but it also displayed the mastery of the two pilots working in harmony for the photographer.

“David” says Cliff, “ put your hand on the joy stick and try a gentle bank but try to keep the horizon level as it is now”.

 

I have, but not for many years, flown as a glider pilot under initial instruction but whilst you might say it is a point of having once having learnt it, it is never forgotten but the sharp immediacy of the aileron response is startlingly instant with just a few degrees of stick movement either side.

 

The horizon has slipped slightly and I’m also aware of how surprisingly slender and narrow that Merlin seems to be, it acts as a very sharp pointer to the direction of our travel.

 

I hand back control very quickly, I want to absorb that lesson in case there is another chance to try it again.

We continue our progress and all manner of thoughts crowd the mind.

 

I’m sitting in the seat in which both David Green our Founder and Alex Henshaw had their last Spitfire flights.

 

John Romain was flying Alex back to Duxford on March 5th 2006 after a busy day on the Spitfire’s 70th anniversary of its first flight.

 

Alex had been interviewed non stop for some hours by the media.

 

After the celebratory flight over Southampton with four other Spitfires they had landed back at Southampton airport as Alex was to have flown back with his son in a private aircraft.

 

But Alex was tired and instead he elected to stay in the back cockpit and John told me he had snoozed all the way to Duxford in the Tr9. 

 

Why not indeed?

There are other thoughts too.

 

It is very comfortable in that cockpit, looking around through the surprisingly distortion free big Perspex bubble with a great all round view.

 

I feel very relaxed in that cocoon when Cliff asks shall we try a gentle roll? “ Oh yes” I say as I know my personal gyroscope is tamed.

 

So we head for the airfield lower, lower and I get brief glimpses of familiar people standing by the safety fence.

 

We sweep past and I wave at them and then the nose goes up and I’m aware of a little more engine sound as we gather more speed and the roll commences then my gyroscope topples!

 

I’ve never done this in a glider!

 

And I admit I am disorientated and it keeps on going further and further over.

 

At this point, and oh the shame of it, I shut my eyes!

 

Then just as quickly the senses are normalised and the undercarriage flags are out so we are coming in to land and that we do.

 

Twenty minutes flying in a Spitfire and I am overwhelmed.

I enjoyed it so much, I was utterly relaxed and fifty seven years of wondering what it would be like and now I know.

 

The Patrons of this society did this for me and I can never thank them enough.

 

When my feet hit the ground again I am asked for my reactions and all I can say is that I will put into to words and try to get close expressing just how it really felt and that is just what you have been reading!

 

 

 

The Spitfire Society Reg Charity:-299033
P.O.Box 202, Biggin Hill, Westerham, TN16.9DA
Telephone:-(Mobile) 07506 628434
E-Mail:-memsec@spitfiresociety.com

Header Spitfire image supplied by Stephen Fox
Visit www.foxaviationphotography.co.uk

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