The SrG and T_K Spit Tour Adventure: Flight 2
After a plane swap at Coningsby we set off again. This time Rob was flying the Spit and I was in Rick Piper's Hawk T1. Here we are just after take-off and getting into formation.
We found a good balance between the two was about 200 Kts or so. Here we are crossing the Humber at Hull.
We had decided at the start to make a quick detour to Newcastle airport so that we could swap planes, this time I was going to fly the Seafire and Rob was going to fly the Phenom T1. It would turn out to be a bad decision for both of us! We got to the airport OK and the approach was nice and easy with clear skies and good visibilty.
We touched down safely and as I was applying the brakes to slow down there was a mighty CRAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!! that was so loud that it made my wife jump who was sitting at her desk in the adjacent corner of the room! It turned out to be the left toe-brake pedal on my Saitek/Logitech rudder pedals snapping!
I have had these pedals for at least 10-12 years and possibly more! A little research showed that this is in fact a common problem with these pedals and I had done well to last this long without them breaking (Rob has gone through two sets of the same pedals in a similar time frame). Apparently the return spring is so strong that eventually the plastic part the spring attaches too just fatigues and breaks. I did some more research and found out that replacement 3D printed parts on Amazon and Ebay were not worth the money as many reports said the part broke as soon as they tried to attach the spring. I did find a 3D printer file on Thingiverse that is supposedly stronger and it is full thickness throughout whereas the original has a varying cross-section in order to save weight and costs. I asked my Son-in-Law if he could print it on one of his printers and he said yes and he could even print it in a stronger filament than the one recommended. The kids are making a 10-11 hour drive to visit next week-end and he's going to print some off and bring them to me .... Whoo Hoo!
I decided I could get by with a floppy left pedal so we got set up for the next phase of this flight. Here we are ready to leave Newcastle with me in the Seafire and Rob in a Phenom T1 but as I don't have that plane I stuck him in the Hawk I had just vacated.
It wasn't long after take-off that Rob started to have issues with his Phenom. It seemed that every time he put the nose down even slightly the aircraft was so slippery it would start to accelerate and with no speed-brakes it went into over-speed in seconds and POOF the flight was over and he had to wait to reload at the starting airport again. Then it was a case of take-off and then hit warp factor 4 to try and catch up to where I was. This happened a couple of times between Newcastle and Edingurgh and started to get very annoying!
While Rob was fighting his over-speed demons I cruised up the East coast until the Firth of Forth came into view.
As Rob was still going through the reload the flight then catch up only to explode again ritual I decided to turn left and fly down to do what you have to do when this close to Edinburgh.
You guessed it! A fly-by under the Forth Bridge is a 'must do' thing!
Rob eventually got his issues sorted and we managed to get into formation again just before getting to the destination.
We did a high approach towards Leuchars before diving down and 'buzzing' the field.
This was followed by the obligatory Spitfire curved approach so that you can actually see where the runway is!
We made it down safe and parked up for the night after a very eventful leg for both of us!
After a plane swap at Coningsby we set off again. This time Rob was flying the Spit and I was in Rick Piper's Hawk T1. Here we are just after take-off and getting into formation.
We found a good balance between the two was about 200 Kts or so. Here we are crossing the Humber at Hull.
We had decided at the start to make a quick detour to Newcastle airport so that we could swap planes, this time I was going to fly the Seafire and Rob was going to fly the Phenom T1. It would turn out to be a bad decision for both of us! We got to the airport OK and the approach was nice and easy with clear skies and good visibilty.
We touched down safely and as I was applying the brakes to slow down there was a mighty CRAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!! that was so loud that it made my wife jump who was sitting at her desk in the adjacent corner of the room! It turned out to be the left toe-brake pedal on my Saitek/Logitech rudder pedals snapping!
I have had these pedals for at least 10-12 years and possibly more! A little research showed that this is in fact a common problem with these pedals and I had done well to last this long without them breaking (Rob has gone through two sets of the same pedals in a similar time frame). Apparently the return spring is so strong that eventually the plastic part the spring attaches too just fatigues and breaks. I did some more research and found out that replacement 3D printed parts on Amazon and Ebay were not worth the money as many reports said the part broke as soon as they tried to attach the spring. I did find a 3D printer file on Thingiverse that is supposedly stronger and it is full thickness throughout whereas the original has a varying cross-section in order to save weight and costs. I asked my Son-in-Law if he could print it on one of his printers and he said yes and he could even print it in a stronger filament than the one recommended. The kids are making a 10-11 hour drive to visit next week-end and he's going to print some off and bring them to me .... Whoo Hoo!
I decided I could get by with a floppy left pedal so we got set up for the next phase of this flight. Here we are ready to leave Newcastle with me in the Seafire and Rob in a Phenom T1 but as I don't have that plane I stuck him in the Hawk I had just vacated.
It wasn't long after take-off that Rob started to have issues with his Phenom. It seemed that every time he put the nose down even slightly the aircraft was so slippery it would start to accelerate and with no speed-brakes it went into over-speed in seconds and POOF the flight was over and he had to wait to reload at the starting airport again. Then it was a case of take-off and then hit warp factor 4 to try and catch up to where I was. This happened a couple of times between Newcastle and Edingurgh and started to get very annoying!
While Rob was fighting his over-speed demons I cruised up the East coast until the Firth of Forth came into view.
As Rob was still going through the reload the flight then catch up only to explode again ritual I decided to turn left and fly down to do what you have to do when this close to Edinburgh.
You guessed it! A fly-by under the Forth Bridge is a 'must do' thing!
Rob eventually got his issues sorted and we managed to get into formation again just before getting to the destination.
We did a high approach towards Leuchars before diving down and 'buzzing' the field.
This was followed by the obligatory Spitfire curved approach so that you can actually see where the runway is!
We made it down safe and parked up for the night after a very eventful leg for both of us!