Spitfire flight
 

Hello all,

I understand there have been threads of this nature previously, I am looking to purchase my father a trip in a 2 seater spit for his 50th birthday. I know it ca be done in the US, but have had no luck finding a UK company that provides such a service. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Tupps

Please use the search function.
Unless your father has a PPL it's going to be difficult if not impossible.

As has been said, much easier with a License (I managed a couple of years ago), without, much harder. Apart from Boultbee, there is Spitfire Flights - this is the only setup I have seen that actually offers flights, (Boultbee still operates AFAIK doing conversions for already licensed pilots). There are also the Grace Spitfire and Anthony Hodgsons that you can enquire about (Spitfire Flights - Anthonys link on this no longer seems to work, not sure if it is wrong or he is no longer operating it).

Good luck

Thanks for the replies guys. With regards to the license, my father is an airline pilot, so I'm sure there isn't much of an issue with that.

tupps

For the uninitiated, why is it easier with a license?

The Spitfire doesn't have a standard certificate of airworthiness, so strictly isn't allowed to be used for passenger carrying on a commercial basis.

There is however an exemption that allows remunerated training to be conducted otherwise there would be no route for people to obtain the necessary training on type.

The fact that this 'training' is only used for a one off experience doesn't alter it's legal validity.

This exemption doesn't extend to ab-initio training of an un-licensed pilot as there are more appropriate certificated aircraft that are suitable for that purpose.

There are some routes for people to offer privately arranged passenger flights whereby they pay only a fair proportion of the operating cost. Some owners are willing to do this as it reduces their cost of keeping it flying and there is also a quite generous spirit amongst many of them in wanting to give people the opportunity to experience it. These private flights are essentially not advertised so that they are not seen to be offering it on a commercial basis.

The US-based Spitfire advertised here seems to be the one which was involved in a ground collision with a Hurricane some time ago, and which AFAIK is still undergoing repairs.

Ah, makes perfect sense. Thanks.