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  1. #1

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    Message for Britain

    If there is anyone in England, who might be willing and able to send a message to me, I would appreciate it. There are two men in the news who have departed Goodwood with the intention of flying a highly polished MK IX around the world, quite a goal for a plane which is known to be short range, the standard Mk IX would have had 168 gallons U S internally in 3 tanks as a late war fighter ,or 140 gallons British.

    I don't have a phone number or address for them at Goodwood, but understand they are planning to come to the U S and if so I'd really like to buy them dinner, complete with room temperature beer, if it is convenient for them and of course offer any assistance that I might be able to. I'm pretty good at polishing oil or exhaust off also. And good luck to them, I think the odds are in their favor.

  2. #2
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    For those colonials who hadn't heard of this:

    https://www.silverspitfire.com/

    Ron "Wild colonial boy" Wanttaja
    Last edited by rwanttaja; 08-16-2019 at 01:36 PM.

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    Bill, looks like you're in luck. They'll be in Colorado Springs on August 23. They're flying the 2 place, same as yours.

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    Floats, as I read it they are in the polished silver single seat Mk IX, not the two seater. They have a support plane, I think a Piglatus. The schedule says they are going to be in Erie, just north of Denver on the 20 ,wish they were coming to Loveland where Ray Middleton has a shop, working on a Hurricane now, or to Boulder which is a fun town and where I used to base. Its 4100 ft long, at 5300 elevation, long enough for a Mk IX, but not a lot of room to float half the runway. Its so pretty there, and they can even find warm beer, or better yet ice cold.

    Id like to fly the part from Erie to Colo Springs, but that other part. looking down for hours at an ice cold ocean is not my cup of tea, Kind of like as the song goes. "Leave those Zeros to the other heroes." Especially since the RAF PILOT NOTES under the section on ditching says, Don't. To quote, "If at all possible abandon the plane by parachute as the ditching qualities are known to be very poor."

    You put your life in the hands of Mr. Rolls and Mr. Royce and those were two smart guys, along with a lot of others.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 08-17-2019 at 09:01 AM.

  5. #5
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood View Post
    Id like to fly the part from Erie to Colo Springs, but that other part. looking down for hours at an ice cold ocean is not my cup of tea, Kind of like as the song goes. "Leave those Zeros to the other heroes." Especially since the RAF PILOT NOTES under the section on ditching says, Don't. To quote, "If at all possible abandon the plane by parachute as the ditching qualities are known to be very poor."
    The biography of Robert Tuck references a Spitfire pilot with the nickname, "Green to Black." It comes from his description of ditching his airplane...."everything was a pretty green at first, but then it all turned black and I started to be concerned...."

    Ron "Glub" Wanttaja

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood View Post
    Floats, as I read it they are in the polished silver single seat Mk IX, not the two seater.
    In one of the pilot bios it said he and his Spitfire pilot partner bought a 2 seater at auction 10 years ago. I assumed or misinterpreted this to be the Siver Spitfire.

  7. #7

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    I spoke to the FBO at Erie and they said they had not heard at all from the Spitfire team. I am going to be near Erie Sat, and would like to meet the guys and see the plane. The live tracker shows them to be in Monroe , La. now, Thur afternoon which doesn't make sense and is nowhere near their planned route. Anyone know anything?

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