Spitfire K5054 90th Anniversary Circumnavigation of the UK: PIREPS

[Melo965]

Spitfire K5054 TR9 Flight 9: Exeter Airport (EGTE) to Eastleigh/Southampton International (EGHI) Part 4

Whenever I have the wonderful opportunity to fly a warbird, I try to get in my signature maneuver of an Aileron Roll. To be perfectly honest I have never tried one before this low to the ground though.


Aileron Roll to the left - A


Aileron Roll to the left - B


Aileron Roll to the left - C !!

It turns out it is pretty difficult to fly the maneuver while also taking pictures of the event. My pullout in Aileron Roll - C bottomed out at 87 feet altitude. We only pulled 7.5 Gs in the process.


Climbing out to a safer altitude. The guy in the front cockpit said he does not want to fly with me anymore!


Base leg for runway 20 over town of Alresford with full flaps and canopies open. We are still quite a distance away from the airport to the North.


Very long final for runway 20.


Over the Numbers.


Touched down light as a feather, almost on the centerline.


Parked at Southampton International Airport (EGHI) at journeys end. We had 45% fuel left on board after engine shutdown.

The flight was 148 miles. The flight was completed in 53 minutes at an average speed of 146 knots.

I used 46.9 gallons of fuel on this flight. For this flight the Merlin engine used 53.1 gallons per hour.


Final cockpit view with engine off at the end of the successful UK Spitfire Tour.

The flight plan totals for this UK Tour were 1,625 nautical miles. I actually flew 2,162 nautical miles.

All nine flights were completed in 11 hours and 31 minutes total time. I took off and landed 10 times on the journey. (Remember the unplanned fuel stop at Wattisham Army (EGUW) during flight 1.) The average speed of the K5054 TR9 Spitfire was 162 Knots.

We used 531 gallons of fuel for the Rolls-Royce Merlin on these flights. The Merlin 61 engine burned an average of 45.8 gallons per hour.

It was a wonderful UK tour! Very happy that I was able to participate.

 

[bosspecops]

Great stuff Melo!

I used to have holidays at West Bay when Dad was in the RAF at Abingdon in the 50s. I don't think I ever saw a Spitfire fly past though.

I'm glad you ONLY pulled 7.5 g during that roll...............

 

[bosspecops]

After a totally manic week celebrating my eldest daughter's 60th birthday, going to a garden party with some old friends from way back and having an amazing afternoon and evening at my old school (It turned out I was the OLDEST one there!) I've finally managed to fly Leg 06 of the Tour!

Leg 06 (part 1)

For this leg I flew another Griffon engined Spitfire, the PRXIX, the fastest and highest flying variant built, and it was fully capable of lying to Berlin and back without external tanks, so it's fuel load was pretty massive, no thanks to what they called the 'Bowser Wings' which had internal tanks, and auxiliary fuel pumps under the leading edge.

Here I'm parked up at RAF Valley before heading down the Welsh west and south coasts on a 183 nm leg that should take a little less than an hour with 2000 hp in front of me.



Flying Active Sky and FSX Acceleration, with the full Just Flight VFR scenery package, I hoped to get some really good pics of the Welsh coast and countryside, but the weather gods had other ideas. A southerly wind had me taking off on Valley's shorter 19 runway, not that I needed all that length flying a Spitfire of course. I was soon wheels up and away across the south end of the Menai Straights.



Just across the other side of the Straights I passed almost o'head Caernarfon Airport EGCK, formerly RAF Llandwrog, and now the home of a very good aviation Museum too.



I planned on my usual 2000 ft cruise altitude as that took me just clear of the hills and mountains near the coast, and using a boost pressure of 8 ins. gave me a cruise speed of 285 kts. The PRXIX isn't too happy at such low altitudes as it was designed to fly at 40000 ft or more, and the fuel consumption down this low was horrendous, but when you have over 200 galls on board, who cares?

A few of the hills came a little close to my altitude however, and I was lower than the peak of this one!



This PRXIX model is pretty good, and its performance equates quite well with the real thing, except it won't fly quite so high, 35000 ft being about its maximum. The model's shape ,is excellent however and captures the shape of this most elegant Spitfire very nicely.



The cockpit and panel are very much generic FSX Spitfire though, and while the 3D panel doesn't have a gun sight obviously, the 2D panel does. The 3D panel does have the correct curved windscreen however, all very proper for a PR aircraft.



Further south I passed just to the east of RAE Llandbedr EGFD, a GA airfield with a military overlay as they launch the target aircraft from here for the missile test flights operating from RAF Aberporth EGUC some miles to the south.



This coast has numerous rivers, both large and small, feeding it from the mountains to the west, and one of these was the River Dyfi. It has quite a complicated estuary as you can see.



From here on the weather got steadily worse, with clouds down to 500 ft which meant I was IFR for quite some distance, and any hopes of seeing the scenery were gone. I turned to the west a bit, to give me more room over the sea, and noted that this PRXIX model has a red tail beacon for some reason! Any Total Aviation Person knows that Spitfires have WHITE tail lights! I'll change that later on.....



After turning over the beacon at Strumble, I headed back south-eastwards and managed to catch a glimpse of Haverfordwest Airport, EGFE, through the murk.



Continued in Part 2.

 

[bosspecops]

Leg 06 (Part2)

The cloudbase was very low indeed and I felt it prudent to get down below it so I could see what it was I was likely to hit, and I dropped down to 500 ft. which was a bit scary at 280+ kts!



I'd hoped to see both Pembry and Swansea airports but there wasn't a sign of them through the murk and eventually I cleared the clouds just east of Swansea flying alongside the lovely Welsh beaches along this coastline.



Approaching St. Athan I came under Cardiff Airport's (EGFF) ATC and on learning what I was flying they asked me if I'd mind doing a low(-ish) pass down their runway, to which of course I agreed. So with the throttle on the firewall and the boost gauge on the stops I whizzed across the airport doing about 375 kts.



And I was pretty close to their Tower, as you can see.........



Turning back west I did the usual curved Spitfire approach to St. Athan and lined up with their only active runway, 07 in today's wind. I was a tad low on finals, but held her off nicely, and I could quite clearly see there were NO trees on the centreline! Surely some mistake on the scenery designer's part?



I managed quite a nice landing this time, for a change, and taxied off to the west to the only hangar I could see in this scenery package. In the RW there are LOTS more, so many that Aston Martin actually build one of their cars here!



The flight took me some 43 mins, giving an average speed of 255 kts, slower than I expected, but I backed off a bit during the IFR period.

I burnt 94 galls of fuel, giving me a burn rate of 131 gals/hr, which was quite awful, but then a PRXIX isn't meant to fly that low anyway.

I'll try and fly Leg 07 tomorrow, all other things being equal.

 

[Melo965]

Great flyby near the tower!

And a very fast Spitfire too. Much faster than I managed in my TR9.

Also it is great to see one of the BBMF Spitfires represented here on the tour. PS915 looks good.

 

[bosspecops]

I'm TRYING to fly Leg 7, but failing.

I had a particular Spitfire variant selected, a repaint of one I've already flown, and found that it has a totally black panel (and that includes the windscreen ) making an accurate approach darn nigh impossible.

And we're having new wardrobes installed just now too, so the house is in total chaos, loads of stuff everywhere where it usually isn't.

I may have to give Leg 7 a go with something 'ordinary' instead.

 

[glenfendel1]

guess the old adventures club is no more?

 

[lucb]

Old clubs never die

 

[Melo965]

Spitfire K5054 Flight 10: Eastleigh/Southampton Intl. (EGHI) to North Weald (EGSX) Part 1


Back when I flew the first leg of the K5054 TR9 UK Tour, I was disappointed that FSX did not show the Battle of Britain Memorial when I flew by that location near Dover. During this flight in MSFS 2020 I hope to see a better representation.

This flight is also giving me the chance to make sure everything flight simulator related is working well on my new desktop computer.

For my final UK Tour event I am flying in MSFS 2020. Using Active Sky FS for weather and Little Navmap for navigation. I was also testing my new Tobii Eye Tracker 5 for head and eye movement tracking in cockpit, but I turned that back off for this flight. (Still needs some calibration and fine tuning.)

Flying the Aeroplane Heaven "Supermarine Spitfire The Early Years" Airshow version of K5054. This is a MSFS 2020 native aircraft, although it was also tested (by Aeroplane Heaven) in MSFS 2024 and works Ok there as well.


Starting the flight at Eastleigh/Southampton Intl. (EGHI) as before. My route is along the southern shoreline of England most of the way during this flight.

Where to land for this flight was an easy decision for me as it makes sense to land at North Weald (EGSX) where I can hopefully taxi over to the Hangar 11 Collection and maybe spot my favorite Spitfire of all. The Mk XI Photo Reconnaissance Spitfire PL965!


Here is the Aeroplane Heaven K5054 with covers off so you can see the Rolls Royce Merlin engine. The engine fitted for initial trials was a prototype Merlin C 990 hp with six stub exhaust ports just protruding from each side, driving an Aero-Products Watts two-bladed, wooden fixed-pitch propeller. In the above picture you can also see the external battery cart that was used to start the engine.


Here is the cockpit of K5054. Instrument placements in the cockpit are somewhat different, compared to the later standard arrangement on operational Spitfires. And the most difficult control in this prototype was the landing gear mechanism. Pilots operated a long "wand"-like lever on the starboard side of the cockpit to manually build hydraulic pressure and retract or lower the undercarriage. It took me some time and a few test flights to master the landing gear system on this aircraft.


All covers back in place, ground battery cart removed after engine start, and ready to taxi out to runway 20 for takeoff.


Lined up for takeoff on Runway 20.


Leaving Eastleigh/Southampton Intl. Got the gear retracted Ok and on the way.


Flying past where the Supermarine factory used to be. See the flying boat ramp that is still there.


Flying along Southampton Water.


Passing Portsmouth.

Continued in Part 2.

 

[Melo965]

Spitfire K5054 Flight 10: Eastleigh/Southampton Intl. (EGHI) to North Weald (EGSX) Part 2


Cockpit view in flight.


About to go "feet wet" near Selsey Bill. That was an unusual name so I looked it up. The name Selsey Bill combines Selsey from an old Saxon phrase meaning "seal's island," with "bill", an old geographical term for a sharp headland or nose of land that looks like a bird's beak.


Flying along the Sussex Coast. Some clouds nearby, but still a magnificent day to be flying.


Approaching Beachy Head.


Passing Beachy Head.


Another cockpit view. A great day to be flying along the coast.


Banking left at Dungeness. Before this I did some aerobatics because that is what you do in a Spitfire! Did not capture a screenshot though.


The Battle of Britain Memorial is below. Glad I flew this flight in MSFS 2020.


Came around for one more pass over the Memorial.


Passing the White Cliffs of Dover.

Continued in Part 3.

 

[Melo965]

Spitfire K5054 Flight 10: Eastleigh/Southampton Intl. (EGHI) to North Weald (EGSX) Part 3


About to turn West near North Foreland.


Heading West toward London.


Flying near Eastchurch.


The River Thames is ahead.


Changed course and flying North West toward North Weald.


Curved approach to runway 02 at North Weald with gear down and full flaps.


Short final for runway 02. The runway is made so cut power to idle right after this screenshot. An easy landing with plenty of room to spare. It took a few minutes to taxi where I wanted to go.


Parked alongside the Hangar 11 Collection Hangar.


Success! Spotted Spitfire PL965 here at the airfield.

Had some MSFS 2020 technical issues during the flight so I don't have an accurate time of flight or exact distance flown numbers. My Little NavMap flight plan estimate was 190 Nautical Miles. A rough estimate of flight time was just under 2 hours. But I landed with 19% fuel remaining, so no issues there.