1:1 Spitfire K9817 Cockpit Build

[Airframes]

Darryl, you probably already know this, but when the chute is not in use, leave at least one lug snapped into the quick release box, so that it maintains the tension. If left 'empty', the springs on the plungers can get 'lazy', and either not release, or be very slack, so that they won't lock closed.
BTW, the late war seat type 'chute packs were found in the lighter colour associated with post war, and the harness could also be seen in the 'biscuit' colour (which i guess yours is) instead of the earlier off-white. The major difference was the re-inforcing thread 'tell tale', that's the dotted line of stitching down the centre of each webbing strap, which was normally either a darker red, or black, compared to the earlier red stitching, and the slight change to the design of the quick release box and/or the turn plate on this.

 

[Tony Hill]

Glenn, cheers I hope it will be sooner than later!

Terry,

No I didn't know that, thanks for the tip. I had it laid out in situ but will keep it out of the cockpit and only unlock and put it in when ready to fly.

It is a 1968 as far as I can tell...black fittings for the most part and the late model QRB that works slightly different to the earlier ones as far as I can make out (a slight reverse direction rotation of the front plate is required to put the lugs into it.) Biscuit coloured webbing with dark red "tell tale".

The webbing is in slightly frayed condition in places and a little out of shape..I'd say it has been "jumped". The parachute was included, although I have had to remove this and insert a cushion..as I could see serious back problems due to my lack "bucket" in the seat. Even with the cushion in the seatpack and the K Dinghy rig (with an old pillow filling) it is still a VERY firm seat.

I can only reiterate now what I said after the Irvin tests...the cockpit is a damned small place!!

With WSD, Mae West, parachute and Sutton Harness on, you can barely breathe and bending down to get at some of the switches is a pain. God only knows how you would do it with an Irvin on as well.


Another nice little courtesy detail is the strapping in the nether regions......I have NIL desire to arrest a 120mph descent with this rig. The advice to keep it "well tightened" would be spot on but even so, I think cutting "escape boots" down would be the last thing on a pilot's mind. A nice little lie down and groan (about three days should do it) would be better.

I've looked at a bundle of wartime photos and am pretty sure I have it rigged right but I'll post a pic soon.

 

[Tony Hill]

I have been very busy in RL lately so not much done on the building front. A major update will follow at some stage in the near future hopefully.

In the meantime,since the last "blow by blow" was received well, I thought I would share with you the latest "adventure".

For those who are not familiar with A2A's Accu-Sim concept...it takes the engine and some other calcs out of FSX, redoes them and then forces FSX to use the outside figures. This delivers an incredible level of realism and means that the aircraft MUST be flown properly or you are in for trouble. Random failures also happen but rarely.


I believe that one of the most valuable possessions (if you like) that a pilot has is his "currency".

If you are not "current" in general or "on type" you are already one step behind the
play. That can, in real life, cost you that life but thankfully in a Sim, it usually just
leaves you red faced. Accu-Sim brings this all in to play.

And so to the whole sad story.......

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday 12th July 2011.

The previous flight in the Spitfire Mk II had been low level aerobatics and I had run
her hard...but she seemed to be in good shape nonetheless (Factor 1). I managed to implement Alex Henshaw's technique and can now roll at hanger height, using the fuselage as an extra "wing area" for parts of the roll. Great fun but stressfull for the normally aspirated Merlin. One feature of Accu-Sim is that the aircraft are "persistent " that is, next time you load up, the aircraft is in exactly the same state as you left it last flight, mechanically, fuel, setup, damage, wear etc.

After a lay off of a few weeks, I met up with Ron for some aerobatics practice and
formation flying out of Busselton. The warm ups took longer than expected for various reasons (but all checks properly done) and so by takeoff the Radiator was right on 120C. (Factor 2). Any higher (ANY!!) and it would have required a shut down.

Ron had drawn a fair way ahead and above me, so I expedited my takeoff and went gear
up, then immediately concentrated on closing the distance whilst still keeping her at
or below max temps (Factor 3).


Despite battling with the temps the gap was closed but, unusually, I did use the
rudder trim to keep me straight in the climb, something I never do as the rudder
forces on climb are not that great anyway and only have to be used sporadically and
only in a very steep climb. (Factor 4).

When it came time to form up on Ron's starboard wing, we exchanged temps, rpm, boost
setting and airspeed, as per normal. (in this case 2300rpm at +2 and Ron had 232mph
indicated). Ron was running Radiator at 113C and I had mine down to 100C but my oil
temp was 5 or 6C higher than his and not too far south of 90C).

I quickly found that at these settings, I could not maintain formation. I put this
down to the previous low level aeros having pushed the engine a bit hard, a suspicion
that seemed to be confirmed by the RPM surging a little more than usual. Or perhaps
having strained the govenor?? Any how, Accu-sim models things differently, so my
Monday Morning Spitfire was just being difficult, obviously.

After that the formation took our attention for a while and the lower boost and cruise
speed let the temps fall back a bit. Our radiators pretty much syncronised at 100C but
my oil temp was still 5-6 higher. By this time I was watching the temps intently on a
regular basis, looking for early signs of trouble. (Factor 5).

When the fuel level dictated, we turned back to Busselton, by this time some 40-50nm
away. It was at this time that we decided on Ron forming up on me. He saw it immediately.

NOW all the pieces fell in to place: Sitting there, nicely perched about six to eight inches
from closed, was the port undercarriage leg, just open enough to disrupt the airflow into
the oil cooler!

Damn that Undercarriage Indicator "UP" Light, it shouldn't be on!!! Go to tap glass
(my standard response to any instrument problem).....it ISN'T on.

You know that sick feeling when you realise that you have done something REALLY stupid
and obviously so??.... I realised that in my haste to "get off", I had not actually
VISUALLY confirmed that the "UP" light had come on.

So, humbled, I flew back towards Busselton and thought long and hard about
undercarriage failure drills, visual indicators, the unfairness of it all and how I
was going to stop Ron broadcasting my stupidity to the world

In the end, we diverted to Bunbury, as that was closer and, as my home field, I am
very familiar with how everything should "look and feel" on approach. Once near the
field, I attempted to lock the wheel back up by inverting the Spitfire. No good. So
next I lowered the gear to see if it would go down and lock. The right gear deployed
normally but the left wouldn't budge. So next I tried the Emergency Undercarriage
Cylinder...no joy either. At least the right gear still retracted, that was something.
So, resigned to a belly landing, I checked the gear lever WAS in the UP position (in
case the right leg extended for some reason on approach, it would at least collapse on
landing), established a normal circuit but a couple of hundred feet high and aiming,
eventually, at 1/3 down the strip, opened the canopy and when turning onto final, shut
off the fuel and electrics, checked the Sutton was tight and disconnected the R/T
leads. At 100 feet I realised that I had been so intent on lining up for 1/3 of the
runway, that I was still aiming for the bitumen, not for the grass to the side, which
was my intended target.So I eased the nose over a bit and made a very good belly
landing (as adjudged by Ron) pulling up quickly and doing hardly any damage apart from
the airscrew and radiator.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So...what went wrong? Well, as usual, no single problem leads to an aviation
"incident", there is always a chain of events that conspire. My assessment is
below but I am also keen to hear from any other pilots who have an opinion
on it (apart from one that says morons shouldn't be allowed to fly Spitfires!!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Whilst past events MUST be taken into account, current problems should be judged on
their merits and without preconception. (assumed substandard performance because
engine tired)

2. The lack of recent flying makes everything much more of an effort and therefore
effectively multiplies any normal workload. Should there be a problem occur (high
temps, lateness ) this can lead to "standard" procedures being skipped or missed (Not
checking U/C Light).

3. Attention needs to be paid to the WHOLE panel, not just a segment of it.
(concentrating on engine instruments on the right to "catch up" without overheating..effectively ignoring the left of the panel where the U/C Light SHOULD have been showing). The Spitfire has the U/C Light AND physical indicators in the wings and yet because my attention was on the gauges to the right, I missed the leck of UP light AND the small portion of red U/C indicator pin still protruding through the wing.

4. Currency builds consistency. The rudder trim, once dialed in, was left there, effectively concealing the drag caused by the protruding U/C leg. This went unnoticed as I "never use it".

5. Persistent unexplained rise in oil temp should have raised questions as to what other possible causes there could be, rather than an assumption of "bad day"...particularly as radiator temp was around normal. Watching for things to get worse is all very fine but it should NOT preclude further checking for the source of the problem.

What went right....?

1. Practice emergency procedures, have them burned into your brain so that they become automatic. At least once things WERE discovered, the solutions/precautions were pretty much automatic to me.

2. Know your aircraft.... glide approach speeds, where everything is in the cockpit to shut down quickly, what you can and can't turn off or the order that it should be turned off (no good shutting down electrics if your flaps are electric and you need them..etc etc).

3. Burn off fuel. Easy in this case as we were RTB because of fuel anyway...but don't belly land with full tanks.

Yet another Accu-sim experience that is ONLY available from A2A. Thanks guys!


Ron gives me the "good news"

Attempting to lower my gear.

Barely visible here but all too obvious AFTER the gear problem was found..the U/C tab extended a fraction above the wing.

The U/C leg still in jammed position after the belly landing.

Darryl

 

[Airframes]

Great description of a fraught flight Darryl. That system sounds very realistic !

 

[Tony Hill]

Thanks Terry,

Yes, she is pretty much hi fidelity modelling. To give some indication, I would estimate that inviting me onto the late alpha/beta team cost Scott two months!! Once I got going on systems stuff, there was no stopping me and to their credit, every single suggestion I put up was thoroughly investigated and in all but a couple of minor cases (to do with actual dates vs features) were put into the model.

To give an example, most people had never seen a landing light lowering unit. I managed to get pictures from a kind soul and that went in..later I tripped across the fact that the Mk I had a BALL handle on the dipping lever and Mk II had a rectangular lever. I put that up and fully expected to be told to .........

But a day later the two cockpits had their appropriate handles!!

 

[Airframes]

That's what I call attention to detail! Great stuff !

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

WOW!! Talk about time consuming!

 

[vikingBerserker]

Now that's impressive!

 

[Tony Hill]

Thanks Gents!!

 

[CORSNING]

WoW Tony, sweet. Can't wait to see the finished product. I could get into big trouble with the wife on this one. You have inspired me to do the same with an SBD cockpit. I'm going to install it around the toilet. My wife will never see me again. Bombs Away!

 

[Tony Hill]

The only really expensive part was the Gauges.

Oh, and the controls,

Well, the computer as well,

Ah to hell with it..tell her it's a midlife crisis thing...worked for me

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

 

[vikingBerserker]

 

[Tony Hill]

Ok, a while since I had anything concrete to show (and I have actually been doing a bit on the F-16 again in between) But here is the latest:

Vent Control added under starboard coaming, Oxygen Stopc ock added, (also added a "Cockpit Heat" control which actually controls oxygen flow height) and an undercarriage warning horn cancell switch...all functional. The wires for these are all hidden in the pipework so everything mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic or cabled appears to work like that and not by electrical toggles, pots, encoders or limit switches as they actually do.

Relasered some gauges (notably the AH) , added all the pipework (mostly from aluminium but some polyethelene and some brass), added proper gun button (thanks again Tony!!) all to tighten up on the details...

Added a couple of PRU specific items (mudflap release on starboard , Amp and OAT gauges next Landing Lamp Control)


And also some general tidy up work, fuse boxes and the start of the Mk V modifications..(fuel pump switch, Oil Dilution Pushbutton and guard)

I have a ground/air switch here but I am still trying to confirm whether they were actually on the Mk V originally or have been added to the modern restorations.

Anyway, enjoy...

 

[Airframes]

Bl**dy nice work mate !

 

[Rocketeer]

wow! That is awesome!!! gis us a go!!!!!

 

[Tony Hill]

Thanks Gents, appreciated!

Wow, 40,000 views....unbelievable how many people can be obsessed with someone's obsession!!
An original budget of $2,000 for a Spitfire FRIX has gone on to be a little overbudget , has changed to a Mk I then to a Mk II and will now end up as a Mk V and has taken three years longer than planned.....all this after the F-16 gave me the experience to know better...oh well....


Thank you ALL for your continued support, encouragement and interest. What a place!!!!!!



And the result of some hardcore fossicking and horse trading (a pair of Mk IVb's on the way to match the Mk IV's too! )

A Sefton Type B helmet and Type D mask also in transit.

Sefton early D Hlemet and external loom also coming for the E type mask I have.


cheers again.

.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Daryl. What about the silk scarf ?!!?

 

[Tony Hill]

Good stuff Daryl. What about the silk scarf ?!!?

On back order

 

[Airframes]

Got one spare if you need it !!