Phil Perry

I just posted a pic of a Gloster Meteor here,. . .was supposed to be fighting the ME-262 in 1945 but I can't find any stories about any dogfights between the two,. . .which would have been fairly evenly matched at the time. . .still looking. . someone must know summat about this. . Although, from March 1945, they only had two months to do it until the end of the war. . .

I hadn't seen that pic before . . .thankyou Birdy. Appreciated. . . .I troll through so many historical links that I have been known to miss the odd few ( hundred ) Doesn't explain why that particular aircraft was facing the wrong way around on that ramp pic though . . . perhaps it had failed some tests, and was being sent back into the shop for mods ?. . who knows.. . .all the peiple who knew are no longer with us and we can only go on what they left behind for us. . .

White-painted Gloster Meteor F Mark III, EE239 'YQ-Q', of No. 616 Squadron RAF Detachment is pushed to its dispersal point at B58/Melsbroek, Belgium. A flight of Meteors was detached from 616 Squadron to 2nd TAF to provide air defence against the Messerschmitt Me 262, being joined by the whole Squadron in March 1945. During the initial deployment, the Meteors were painted white to aid identification by other Allied aircraft.

Hey, no probs mate,. . I always post that stuff here when I find it. . . I KNOW what you mean about the rear turret though,. . .some years back, I crawled into the rear turret on a Lanc at RAF Fairford. This one belonged to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight . . my cousin was one of the retired RAF mechanics keeping it flying voluntarily. I sat there in that turret, where the poor blokes could NOT wear a parachute, without going back into the Fuselage to fetch it. . No wonder so many of them died when their aircraft became unflyable, and if the turret lost hydraulic pressure whilst it was turned to one side, you couldn't get out of it at all. . . WELL , YOU SORT OF COULD. . .but without your parachute. . .! . Terrifying thought. . .

'Just Saw' ( ! ) THIS tonight too. . .Mad Guy Martin. . .and his Merlin engine . . .this bloke is mad as a box of frogs and twice as funny. . .Met him on the Isle of man at the TT Festival 4 years ago. . .Brother ad I had a tinny with him. . .really ( mad. but ) down to Earth Mr. Nice bloke. I believe he got the idea of owning a Merlin after taking part in a TV show about restoring a Spitfire. If you Goggly 'Guy Martin - Spitfire' you should find that programme. . .

I saw this picture. and whilst I guessed the type correctly, I really couldn't figure out the 'Ramp' idea. . .and it isn't really explained in the link below either. I am thinking that it may have been to transport aircraft from the factory up to the test runway, but this would only be a guess, as the site at Longbridge Austin Car works near Birmingham has altered such a lot over the years. There is a note about the ramp under this photo in the link. . . but not Why it is there. . . L4935 was the very first Battle, made in 1937. http://www.austinmemories.c..

Bit of modified Photoshopping by Phil. . .not the best, but average. . .original pic taken at an airshow gone by. Re-posted after seeing comments from those who do not look at the 'Other' site. . . Doesn't really fit in with the 'Lest we Forget' subject, as none of these flying machines were around at that time. . .

I'm sure you are right Mr OK. . .and I love Australia too. . .please do not take any of my comments as a criticism of Australia's history in any way form nor shape. . SIr.

SAD FACE. . . . . I HATE drinkin' on meself by me own mate. . . . Next time mate,. . .if the demon Drink or a twattish airframe ain't killed me by then. . . . Next time you're in country,. . gimme a call. . my details are in the profile mate. . .

A One Seven Two ? ? ? ? just like driving a small bus. . . .Lovely thing to fly that. . .even without the 40 deg flap deployed. . . If I'm flying to the Isle of \man for the TT festival though, I always hire the Piper Arrow 3 ( Pa28R200 ) . . .it's a mite quicker. . . .and ONLY £10.00 per hr more. . . .but 142 KtIAS against the 172, means fewer minutes on the Hobbs. . .Last year we had a stonking Southerly tailwind and got to Ronaldsway ( EGNS) from FivePee Green, ( EGBO ) in 48 minutes chock to chock. . . . . ( 129 NM )

Now Come On,. . .don't eggagerate OK,. . . .the locals have only called it that for 40,000 years. . . the Earth had been around for 4.3 Billion years., SO,. . .Uluru is really just a New Rock on the Block Innit ? ?

Hi Grant. . .wonder which X'Air you've got ? Ten of us at our Club bought a 'Started' kit from the Widow of the poor guy who had died suddenly, and we all had a hand in building it. It was the early Mk1 version, with a Rotax 582 blue top oil injected engine. Most FUN aircraft I've ever flown. . .Easy to Fly,. . Almost unspinnable. .. a Defitintely good plane for complete idiots who want to fly Now. . . I'm not suggesting for One moment that you are within a thousand Kilometres of this category, just that it is a REALLY NICE thing to fly, with no vices that I could find, And I've been a complete aviation Idiot since 1957. . . Nice plane cobber. . . .Keep us all posted about how you get on with it. . . Phil. . .

Welcome W. . . .If you were in the UK,. . .I would suggest that you pop in to any GA repair agency, and ask if they have any ballsed up flight instruments, which have not yet been chucked into the skip mate. I saw a skipload of rejected clocks and dials at a local airfield not long back. . .BUT if you want 'Working' ones. . . ( ? ) then that may be a little on the expensive side ! ! ! You my well be able to find the 'Aviator's Six Pack' if you look around a little. . . The A.A.I.B. ( Accident investigators) in the UK have hangars and sheds full of busted airframes and panels,. . .I dunno what they do with them all after the investigation is completed, as the Insurance companies certainly don't want them. . .the possibilties are limitless. I used to own a Mini-Moke in the Mid 80s,. . .when I'd completely restored it to original spec. . . I was absolutely Gobsmacked with the panic that the FOR SALE advert caused. . .I had two guys ( One of whom had travelled from France ) fighting over it in my driveway and had to resort to an 'Auction' . . .I had asked for 'Sensible Offers' . . . Mind you,. . it was a bloody GOOD 'Un with a completely rebuilt engine and gearbox. . I got £400.00 approx above what I expected to get. . . . then bought another aircraft. . . ( as you do ) Good fortune with your project Sir. . .

Welcome Elwarra. . . .as Onetrack has mentioned, {Quote} Welcome to RF, Brad. I'm sure you'll find a wealth of knowledge here, there are some very highly qualified, highly experienced, and intelligent contributors here -{Quote} I'm here too, and know very little about battery technology BUT am Intensely interested in this subject mate.. . . Phil.

One of our Student pilots had his first solo last weekend at Halfpenny Green airport, - our Instructor Mad Mick was a little 'Peed off' because the aircraft concerned is a Sport Cruiser, which, in the UK is too heavy for Microlight max AUW of 450 Kgs. . . . Which means that a GA Instructor was required for eldest Son to use it for training (.His DAD keeps the aircraft at our field ) Dad said that since his Son was going to fly that plane going forward, that it was a bit pointless him learning to fly a Microlight ( Eurostar ) with different characteristics and lower inertia, for thirty / forty odd hours. . . then having to have a Microlight / GA conversion course onto a completely different aircraft. ( Sensible ) So Dad flew the machine to HG, then Son had his lessons there. ( In later training, his Instructor tried to land at Otherton but said it was waaaay too short for that aircraft to use safely ( Bloody Wuss. . .it's Based there. . . ) Anyway, going back to the title of this post,. . . .Young lad gave me a radio he'd bought off Ebay yesterday, and asked me ( As the Radio Guru on the site ! ) to prog in some useful local airfield frequencies. I had to inform him by phone this evening that this Baofeng Chinese hand held VHF / UHF radio unit is exclusively FM. He thought that at a cost of £16.90 delivered,. . . that it was a good deal. ( Kids eh ? ) Where it is indeed 'Possible' to 'Slope Detect' and Almost understand an FM signal when using an AM radio,. . .the reverse situation does not work. I suggested he look around for a VHF scanner,. . .these are quite cheap if you just want to listen to the banter on air band to get the feel of it. ( There's plenty of Banter around these parts. . .)

Derek,. . .I vaguely recall another team called the 'Yellow Jacks'. . .I'll have to look them up on WikiWorld I guess. . . .

That poor old JP ! It's seen better days. A lady I know has offered to tidy it up free of charge, if I make all the stickers, and the 'Green' management pay for the paint etc. . .she's been a volunteer worker at Cosford museum for around 25 years, along with her Hubby Wilf, who sadly died a couple of years back. Be nice to see it in replacement 'Fresh' livery. She's still waiting for a reply from HG, I don't mind doing the graphics. . .be an honour. t would have to be done in-stu though, so it would be a spring /summer project. You mentioned 'The Other Day' are you back in Blighty for a while mate ? . . .have to arrange a pint of Holden's ( Or Banks's ) best if you are. . .!

Dunno how true this is Mick, but an Ex-RAF mate who occasionally flies into our site, we call him 'Red Seven' ( guess why ? ) told me a story about the Red Pelican team, where, following a display, an enthusiast asked one of the pilots 'Why do you fly so close together when you're taking off ?' . . . the alleged humorous reply was. . .'Because we Can. . .' !

It's been a long time since I've seen so many men wearing suit 'N' tie. . .! Nice to recall the 'Red Pelicans' aerobatic team too.

Nah,. . .already banned from all those other places Mate ! The Last one for swimming as Prince Hal in Henry IV part 1. . .after mine own Heir - apparent Garters slipped a bit and exposed my codpiece. . .

I resign from this forum due to me being a Bad INFLUENCE ON THE LADY MEMBERS, and frightening them all off.. Thank you for highlighting the problem Geoff.

I ignored that Peter,. . .as I KNEW what they meant,. . .sloppy editing again by the Daily Fail. . . .

Peter, I'm sure I posted a short video clip not long ago, showing a Vampire taking off from EGBO Halfpenny Green Airport, near Wolverhampton UK, ( Gareth Lacy Country ! ) and tearing up large pieces of tarmac as it accelerated along Rwy 10. . . if I didn't,. .. then I'll try to find it. It was early 2017 at a 'Wings and Wheels' event. . .but with time dilation,. . it Could have been 2016 !

Peter, I've no doubt that any of us here could have collated, edited and constructed that article in a far more professional manner. . .and we're only Amateurs ! I had to giggle a bit at the 'Descriptions' of photographs which you are looking at anyway, good for those unsighted readers I guess. . .'Here we see a smashed up plane on the ground on fire with it's tail intact,. . Er, yeah, . . .I can See that mate. . . but at least Sometimes these DM historical pieces are quite good, with the people in the photographs actually named, which needs a bit of research and good editing. But others,. . .well, after all, this IS an advertisement for a Book release really,. . .perhaps the author didn't bung them enough ? . . . The most thought provoking part I thought was the mention of the two Vampire collision at an air show, where Both pilots ejected, but the Navigators didn't or couldn't. . . and were helpless witnesses to their own doom. . . Very Sad that. Some more black and whites for my Archive anyhow. .

The article has a few editorial errors regrettably, in subject and syntax. One sayng that the Acceleration was not that good, and following this with the statement lower down the page saying tht the Acceleration was 'Generous' ? ? The worst 'Boo Boo' being the video at the end showing what is purported to be a DH Vampire, but is obviously a USAF Propeller driven Lightning. . . They do not seem to have any aviation savvy copywriters at the DM. OR, they slapped it together in a hurry ! Some nice pictures though. Pictures show iconic British fighter jet the Vampire | Daily Mail Online