Geriaviator
Your father would have been contemporary with mine at Halton, in fact it is likely that he taught him ( 39 Entry). Not surprising that their first hand experiences resulted in opinions that pretty much tally.
Cockpit fire was of course a nightmare for pilots of both Hurricanes and Spitfires (e.g. Richard Hillary ) and I think many of us can recall meeting and talking to survivors -some whom served on in the RAF until the early 70's.
" Did you see the 'Battle of Britain' film, Sir?"
" No, being in the play was enough for me."
Regarding reflector sight injuries such as suffered by Danny, these could be fatal on nose overs, particularly on Spitfires whose pilots ( particularly shorter ones) had loosened their straps to see round the nose on approach. Again, this is from listening to people who had been first on the scene to witness the result , not from any statistics.
Last edited by Haraka; 11th Dec 2015 at 03:53.