Sunday at Duxford was another visual and aural delight. The second flying day of Flying Legends is probably a day you want to attend if you couldn’t make the Saturday. It lacked the fantastic Red Arrow display of the day before and dare I say it, “only” 12 Spitfires flying instead of the previous 15. And thus we get spoilt!
All 5 of the Buchon Me109’s were out and, together with the Spit’s, were weaving entrancing figure S’s across the sky to the delight of the crowds. They would come diving in from behind, presenting fantastic photo opportunities across the crowd line before zooming up into a wingover to do it all again. Fantastic! I will post photos once I have sorted through the 600 odd I took over the the two days 🙂
I had arranged with Steve and Terry Arlow of Simply Spitfire to bring along my VR kit and gave them and their crew a little demo flight in the DCS World Spit. I think they really enjoyed it 🙂 I was also given the opportunity to sit in their MkIX cockpit. It really looks stunning and they have done an amazing job. Not only that but I believe there is also a MkII on the way! Now all they need to do is couple up some basic controls and allow visitors to sit in the cockpit and fly in VR… That would be something!
Tore Larsen contacted me on the Saturday evening to let me know his two sons would be there Sunday and it would be nice if we could meet. Tore has a fantastic MkIX cockpit he has built in Norway and finished it off with an HFS Malcolm Hood. It was really good to be able to meet up with them and have a bit of a chat. I told them that they should not mention it to their father, but from what I can see, his sim could really use some of our HFS components… hehe 🙂
I set off for Manston airfield near Margate today to meet up with Robert Westbrook of the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum. Not only do they have a beautiful static Spitfire and Hurricane there, they also have a really nice Spitfire cockpit set up.
It is ideal to provide the broader public the opportunity to experience flight in a Spit. The controls have all the required functionality and are nicely harmonised. Best of all, Jerry who is a WWII veteran pilot with many aircraft types in his logbook, provided me with instruction. I felt extremely privileged to be able to spend time with this man who is in his nineties yet as spritely as they come. After having made a bit of an “arrival” on landing their sim ( I managed to stall it in three point attitude while still 5 feet above the ground) Jerry was very kind to mention that any landing you could walk away from was a good landing 😉
Next I set up my little VR demo for their team and all found the experience amazing.
Who knows, there may be an HFS sim flying there some day to provide a more advanced type of experience to those who wish it. I would be thrilled. As it is, I think Robert and his team are doing an amazing job!
