The Fighter Collection

Category: spitfire-mkXIV

  • Catching Up

    A  few    pictures to  help  tell  our  story for the  last  week.

    While  our  Mk XIV was  displaying  over  Duxford at  last weeks airshow  (photo  credit  Pete  Collins)  …..

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    ….Our  hardworking sales team in the tent  were taking a few  minutes  of shut eye…

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    ……And finally, our   MK Vb and P-40F  safely in the  hangar after  displaying at Church Fenton yesterday.

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  • XIV out today

    We   have a  catch up  from last week still to post  but   here we go with today’s activities: The XIV was out for a spin for a display today, with the usual suspects in to help.

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  • How Time Flies

    With all the  activity   around our  Mk XIV Spitfire today we  were reminded  by  Gareth that it also  did a  pretty  mean display back in the  day, 1992 to be  precise, and he  had the   video to  hand to prove it, (as you do).  SG in the driving seat then.

     

  • June Desktop

    Well another month another desktop! In this month’s image we have highlighted the advance ticket deadlines for Flying Legends 2015  – technology eh?

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  • Hangar update for end of May

    This would usually   be  part of the  Online Fighter  Log update available to Friends of TFC- it answers a lot of “which aircraft was  where and when this week end” type questions so here you go:

    A busy weekend in May…. The Hawk75 and Gladiator made our first European outing of the 2015 season with Stephen and Patrice at the controls for the trip to La Ferte Alais. The transit necessitated a brief stop-over at Abbeville for fuel before flying on to LFA were TFC engineers Roy and Paul were waiting for their arrival having departed Duxford at 5am Thursday morning via Folkestone. With some quite complicated logistics Nick who was due to fly the Gladiator in the show made the transit to LFA from Geneva on Thursday evening. Operating away from base is always a challenge particularly when your tools and spares provision needs to fit into a modern family saloon!

    The VE Anniversary show at Duxford was combined with the departure of three TFC aircraft Spitfire V, P-51D, Corsair) to the Oostwold Airshow , Groningen, Holland. EP120 was able to make the dash across the channel on Friday (beating the weather) at the hands of Alan Wade as it was not required for the Duxford show; regrettably the MkXIV wasn’t able to depart for the show due to an as yet undiagnosed over-fuelling issue with the carburettor.  With the weather closing in on us the P-51D and Corsair weren’t able to make their planned slot to leave Duxford on the afternoon of the Sunday show and finally left at 08:20 local time Monday morning (another lay-in missed !).

    All aircraft made the recovery back to Duxford on Monday, with the Hawk75 and Gladiator first to arrive in the late afternoon and our Dutch contingent finally returning 18:45 local time. All in all a very successful weekend both here at Duxford and across our European  commitments. Many thanks to those of you who visited us in the Friends area and had a close up look at the Bearcat.

    And finally…. ‘A little knowledge is dangerous’…..on occasion we have to respond to inaccurate information placed on public forums and disseminated as factual. We were recently made aware of a thread running on one such forum suggesting the Sea Fury FB11 needs a new centre section! You might imagine that as Chief Engineer these are things I would normally know a little about, particularly if one were actually needed (which it isn’t).

    To be absolutely clear; the Sea Fury hasn’t fallen off jacks; it isn’t on jacks simply because it doesn’t need to be on jacks. However, there is a small area of damage to the lower spar boom port side were a bolt was incorrectly orientated in the landing gear retraction mechanism and which on retraction test (some years ago) caught the underside of the boom flange. The damage is repairable and a scheme has already been identified in accordance with the aircraft repair manual and our resident design organisation, therefore no one need worry that the aircraft is not being currently progressed for the absence of a replacement centre section. Our priorities are set by the Principals and Chief Engineer dependent upon our developing workloads, Inspection Programs and ultimate goals; suffice to say we have not forgotten about G-BUCM and its time will come….shortly…..

  • We are getting dressed again

    A quick  view of the  hangar with  more bits  being put  back on the aeroplanes  than taken off since the last  update.

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  • Photos from today.

    As promised here are some photos of todays action:

    IMG_0143VE6S0009VE6S0022VE6S9943 VE6S9978

  • Wednesday Headlines

    It was a little bit too breezy for much flying but still some excitement with the the P-26 and Spitfire Mk XIV both having engine runs. Elsewhere in the hangar general checks and maintenance after the early part of the weeks flying activity. Pictures later.