nmacwarbirds

Dear S1/Moggy

I'm glad to see you boys have seen the Battle of Britain Film.
Nice to read quote's from it.

We had a chap come and give a talk on the Battle of Britain at one of our club meetings.
I can't remember what his views were on the big wing, but he did not have to many good things
to say about Douglas Bader. It was like waving a red flag to a bull, It is a good job I am British
and the stiff upper lip prevailed. For somebody to lose their legs in a flying accident, and then
still want to climb back in an aeroplane and fight for his Country. That is courage of the highest order. DB was based at RAF Coltishall (our flying field) during the early part of the BOb.
As you drive on to the base now, a Hurricane depicting the one he flew while at Colt is mounted
on a plinth.

The 2000 Bob display at Duxford was amazing, they don't normally allow the aircraft to fly over the crowd, they had to get a special dispensation for that. When they perform their mass fly pasts, they normally come in from the motorway end in elements of three and four aircraft. So everybody was surprised when they came in from over the hangers, wing tip to wing tip in the so called big wing formation. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I take it Moggy(Catamole) that you have taken your call sign from the Piece of Cake series, which is also your signature. (how do you get that part to work by the way).
That series was not very well received in this Country, I quite liked it my self.
The scene where the Spitfire flew under the bridge, which was real by the way.
The pilot who flew the Spit was Ray Hanna, the owner of the Old Flying Machine Company.
YOu might have seen the video where he nearly takes that commentators head off at Duxford.
Ray is judged by many as the master of the Spitfire display.

In the late sixties he led the Red Arrows in their Gnat aircraft, he is the only person to have
led the Red Arrows twice. He started flying the Spitfire in the early seventies, for the then owner, Adrian Swires the Chairman of Cathay Pacific.

He formed the Old Flying Machine Company in the early eighties with his son Mark.
Tragically Mark was killed in a flying accident in Spain in 1999 whilest coming into land in a Buchon (109 airframe with a Merlin engine, like the ones in the Bob film).

Ray led a four ship warbird aerobatic formation display team consisting of a P40, Spitfire, P51D Mustang and a Corsair. This ended at the end of the 2003 season when the sponsorship deal ended with Breitling, they were known as the Breitling Fighters. It used to be a fantastic display.

For this season they are hoping to put together a two ship team consisting of a Spitfire (the one that flew under the bridge) and a P51D Mustang.

Ray Hanna, is in his mid seventies.

Regards Phil G.