Glenn M
Supporter
It was realise a dream day yesterday as Tammy presented me with an all time bucket list high of flying a Spitfire.
Despite days of teeming rain we had blue skies and fluffy white clouds with hardly any wind. Absolutely perfect.
As chief photographer, Tammy’s ride was a Harvard T6 of similar vintage and painted bright yellow just for her as it’s her favourite colour….. well, okay maybe not just for her!
They took off first but we rapidly overhauled them whereupon we flew in close (wingtips single figure feet apart, close!) formation for some pictures.
Pictures done, we peeled off and coming from behind went past them like they were standing still as we headed for the Battle of Britain Memorial at Dover. The Harvard turned back home performing loops and barrel rolls on the way and giving Tammy the biggest of grins.
For me it was an incredible sensation playing with the clouds, looking along that iconic elliptical wing at a beautiful and lush Great Britain, savouring just where I was sitting and mulling over how much we owed these wonderful machines. Once at the memorial we did a slow and very emotional victory roll over it and headed for home. Unbelievably, at this point it got even better as my chauffeur told me ‘you have control!’ and proceeded to tell me to do a series of turns of increasing levels of bank and tightness. WOW! Such performance, such agility and all requiring, quite literally, finger tip control. As I began to level out after the last one he told me to look in his mirror where I could see his hands were on his head, nowhere near the controls! A truly awesome experience.
Having taken back control we headed back to the airfield which, of course, had to be beaten up and victory rolled over!
Safely back on terra firma, but head still in the clouds we took a barrage of pictures, including some with the GT40 which we had gone in. Gratifyingly the pilot wanted to have his picture taken in it!
As we got home the heavens opened again, but we had had our day and what a day it was!
Despite days of teeming rain we had blue skies and fluffy white clouds with hardly any wind. Absolutely perfect.
As chief photographer, Tammy’s ride was a Harvard T6 of similar vintage and painted bright yellow just for her as it’s her favourite colour….. well, okay maybe not just for her!
They took off first but we rapidly overhauled them whereupon we flew in close (wingtips single figure feet apart, close!) formation for some pictures.
Pictures done, we peeled off and coming from behind went past them like they were standing still as we headed for the Battle of Britain Memorial at Dover. The Harvard turned back home performing loops and barrel rolls on the way and giving Tammy the biggest of grins.
For me it was an incredible sensation playing with the clouds, looking along that iconic elliptical wing at a beautiful and lush Great Britain, savouring just where I was sitting and mulling over how much we owed these wonderful machines. Once at the memorial we did a slow and very emotional victory roll over it and headed for home. Unbelievably, at this point it got even better as my chauffeur told me ‘you have control!’ and proceeded to tell me to do a series of turns of increasing levels of bank and tightness. WOW! Such performance, such agility and all requiring, quite literally, finger tip control. As I began to level out after the last one he told me to look in his mirror where I could see his hands were on his head, nowhere near the controls! A truly awesome experience.
Having taken back control we headed back to the airfield which, of course, had to be beaten up and victory rolled over!
Safely back on terra firma, but head still in the clouds we took a barrage of pictures, including some with the GT40 which we had gone in. Gratifyingly the pilot wanted to have his picture taken in it!
As we got home the heavens opened again, but we had had our day and what a day it was!
