You didn't stand where I stood. I was ready to dial 999.

Close enough to see guns but not registration.

And knowledgeable enough to know whether somebody is an experienced display pilot, but not to check the NOTAMs.

G

Cannons are easy to spot - they break the line of the leading edge. No reg at all. As for NOTAMS, it would no more have occurred to me to check than it would occur to me to launch a battleship with no bottom (respect: WSC). It did not occur to me that this could be an official event.

I exceeded the speed limit in my car today DL, perhaps you would like to call the police?

Was it making smoke? Chemtrails definitely. Clever to disguise them as repro Spitfires.

@FleetFlyer

If you are one of those motorcyclists who used to hit trucks on the North Circular at a closing speed of 135mph back in the 50s, then maybe I should.
If so, maybe you should pm me with your details and maybe you won't end up embedded in the radiator of an 18 wheeler.

Ok, let's not get over excited here, and turn this into a personal squabble.

From what's been said already, it seems likely that this was an organised event, and it seems unlikely that anyone would perform an aerobatic routine, at an organised event, in an aircraft not approved for aerobatics. or without a Permit to Fly. (According to GINFO, there are no Isaacs Spitfires with a valid Permit currently on the UK Register)

I would suggest that the most plausible explanation, therefore, is that this was, in fact, a real Spitfire, and the sound of it's engine was, perhaps, distorted by the wind, or terrain. This should be easilly verified by a call to the phone number in the Notam.

Although I appreciate your concern DL, regarding what at least at a distance, appeared to you to be reckless/carless flying, I feel that a call to the nearest Airfield to voice your concern would have served your 'word in the ear' purpose better than an expose on PPRuNe.


MJ:ok:

That would have dropped him in it.

The trouble is that maybe that's what he needs.

Its hard to know what's best; often doing nothing is the worst thing one can do.

And sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.

An observer two miles away states the aircraft disappeared behind the trees and suggests he may have done a steep turn at 0 feet. This is downland, where aircraft can disappear from sight without coming dangerously close to the ground.

If his eyes deceived him, I would suggest his ears did too, because a couple of clicks gives every indication that the aircraft in question was the Kent Spitfire.

DL: do you fly anything at all? All I can find from your previous posts are some proposals for aerobatting Hercules and from your username, a suggestion that you might be advocating landing in the wrong direction, and some posts that suggest that your knowledge of avionics is rather limited. Nothing to suggest you're in a position to lecture experienced pilots on how they should be behaving.

Sounds like a perfectly normal display by an experienced display pilot in a real Spitfire and not one of those silly wannabee replicas. The original post strikes me as something the Daily Mail would publish looking for some 'shock horror' attention. It wouldn't be NOTAMd if it was an illegal flight now would it?

And your display flying experience on type (Microsoft Flight Sim hours not included) would be??



Move along please, nothing to see here.

Just one further thought
Seaford...
(very near Newhaven and home of a noteable anti as many on here will remember. Im just saying...)

Could we get the title changed to "Real spit doing official display and not breaking any rules"


Just a heads up to stop you starting another thread;

Beware if you're out flying in the south-east of England on Tuesday, 18 August... a full 24 WW2 Spitfires and Hurricanes will be in the air re-enacting flights made 75 years earlier on what's become known as 'The Hardest Day' of the Battle of Britain.

Rod1

Just reading elsewhere that it was a Spitfire V from Biggin (not the Kent Spitfire IX); the display was described as beautiful by another onlooker in the vicinity.

Now, can I slip out of work for a two hour lunch on the 18th and watch all those Spitfires depart Biggin...? ;)

So, as the OP said, definitely not a Merlin engine then :}

G