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[annihilator]

BBMF flew right over my house yesterday afternoon tremendous noise but sadly didn't have a camera handy.
Looked it up on the interweb and they were on their way from a show in Lincolnshire to N.Ireland.
John.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Flew right over my work on friday... I had no idea! Bah!! Being where we are do sometimes get the treat of BBMF, or the Red Arrows, too, Scampton not being too far away.

[BazaJT]

Still nothing to match the sound of those Merlins I have heard that what was Waddington airshow[now no longer held there]is to be moved to Scampton,that'll be handy for me as it's so much nearer

[zirk]

Moons ago I was working in the London BT Tower, never worked for BT but had approved access as a Contractor, my Equipment was on Floor T35, cant remember if it was the one above or below the restaurant, but it was only a few floors from the roof. One day working with my back towards the window I could hear a build up of noise and vibrations from the floor, which quickly built up to an almost frighting ear bashing roar, turned around and there was this Lancaster Bomber surrounded by Spitfires, literary feet ftom the Tower, they were arround 2 floors lower than me so I was just about looking down at them, the Noise and vibration they made was incredible.

I later found out, they where on there way to a Fly Pass over Buckingham Palace, and some leader had decided to Buzz the Tower on the way. 

Needless to say, back in them days, no Mobile Cameras around and the annoying thing was I did actually carry a Camera in the Car, but left it there, never mind but its not something I will forget in a hurry.     

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Still nothing to match the sound of those Merlins I have heard that what was Waddington airshow[now no longer held there]is to be moved to Scampton,that'll be handy for me as it's so much nearer

Ooh, can't wait! See you there!

[Bigron]

Wow zirk, that must have been awesome! Indelibly etched on your memory, of course.
What a pity you couldn't have got a video of it, worth a fortune in sales, surely?

Ron.

[Kevin Wood]

A couple of years back I was talking to the engineer at the gliding club. During our conversation he took a phone call during which he said something along the lines of  "Look, I should be getting rid of this spitfire later today, then we can get it into the hangar and have a look, OK?"

Naturally, I quizzed him over this and he took me into the hangar where, it turns out, MH434 had spent the night. http://www.mh434.com/ 

So, I got a personal tour and a look in the cockpit. What's more, they needed some help getting her out and ready for flight.. did I have a few minutes to spare? Ermm. Let me think about that.

Very nearly didn't have the clearance to get her out of the hangar! Had to turn the prop and then shuffle left and right, turn the prop a bit more, etc. until it went through with an inch or two spare. Suspension had apparently relaxed a bit overnight!

Had a chat with the pilot while he was getting ready. If memory serves, it had a 100 gallon fuel tank in each wing in lieu of the guns, and 85 gallons in the fuselage. Good enough for about 3.5 hours flying with a decent reserve, based on a bit of cruising with a few displays thrown in, apparently. "..and that's about as long as you'd want to be there anyway" Not likely, they'd have to prise me from the cockpit, I reckon... In my dreams.

About 9 MPG in an "economical" cruise, apparently. Don't ever say the 3.2 is thirsty!

Got a brief impromptu display as he departed and again on his return.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Fabulous tale!

Nearest I got to anything close to that re: a Spitfire (and it could have well been MH434) was I was at East Kirkby one day, and for no reason whatsoever other than 'ah, you know, it's a nice day' there was an impromptu Spitfire air display, and because there was only about 6 people there that day a complete disregard for all flying safety regulations, so very low passes right overhead were the order of the day. A wonderful experience I'll never forget. Hugely jealous of your day with a Spitfire, though, Kevin! 



PS If anyone from the Civil Aviation Authority is reading this I must stress the above story is a complete fabrication. 

[Kevin Wood]

All perfectly above board.

"Permission to perform a low pass over the airfield? Reason visual confirmation undercarriage down."
"Permission Granted"
Low pass ensues with undercarriage up.. at about <cough!> 249 knots, naturally.

etc..

[Nick W]

We were at Rush Green a few years ago, when the phone rang. Clive hung up and told everybody to "Go outside and look up." A couple of minutes later his mate flew over the hanger and down the strip at about 200 feet in the DC3 he'd been displaying. This is under the Luton flight path


And two summers ago I was working on a car in Chalk, when a huge noise made me look up in time to see both Lancasters and a Hurricane escort on route to a low pass over the Gravesend RAF memorial. Which was cool, as I hadn't expected to see them at all.

[Kevin Wood]

Yes, the two Lancasters together were an impressive sight.