Bf-109E Battle of Britain period use of gust locks

[Alte Hase]

Hi all.I was wondering, does anyone know if the Luftwaffe regularly fitted gust locks onto the elevators and rudders of parked Bf-109s during the BoB period? Was this a common standard procedure?

Reason being that I'm building the Eduard Bf-109E and it has no positionable elevators, so I'm thinking i could depict the aircraft parked with an elevator gust lock installed, but am wondering if this would look accurate for the time period?

If anyonehas a photo of said gust lock, I'd really appreciate it too!

Thanks!

 

[stona]

It's a very good question. Most RAF fighters used a control lock rather than individual gust locks externally on the control surfaces. I don't know what the Luftwaffe did with its Bf 109s, but I will endeavour to find out

I would say that many parked Bf 109s, with no evidence of a gust lock(s), have the elevators in a more or less neutral position which implies that with the control column in a neutral position there was enough resistance in the circuit to prevent them drooping. This would be confirmed by the evidence that some aircraft were parked with the elevators in an 'up' position, probably because the pilot pulled the stick back getting out of the cockpit.

I'd be surprised if any locks were used on aircraft at readiness.

Cheers

Steve

 

[bobbysocks]

they might have done something like wrapping the harness straps around the stick or some bungees.....

 

[stona]

they might have done something like wrapping the harness straps around the stick or some bungees.....

More likely they would have had purpose built control locks like Spitfires, Hurricanes etc but I don't know that for sure... still looking. The Fw 190 had external gust locks for the rudder IIRC, hence the dotted red stencil.

Cheers

Steve

 

[bobbysocks]

the answer would probably would be in the manual.....

 

[stona]

the answer would probably would be in the manual.....

You'd think so but I've had a look through all sorts of hand books, pilot notes and parts lists and either haven't found or have missed any reference to a control lock.

Cheers

Steve

 

[bobbysocks]

I looked too but couldn't find a reference either....although most of the stuff I was looking at was in german and I could have easily missed it. what do the E models that fly today use? and are they using the original set up or is it a late day mod?

you might email these guys...they have an E3 and may be able to tell you..

Flying Heritage Collection - Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3 (Emil)

 

[Alte Hase]

Thanks everyone! And thanks for the link bobbysocks-I'll get in touch with them and post the reply on this thread!

 

[von hahn]

Hi guys,

I know its been a long time but finally I found an answer at least to whether gust locks were present on airfields...this one is on sale at a militaria webstore (the messerschmitt logo was painted on by somebody post-war)...apparently it was found on the site of an airfield in France, suggesting therefore that gust locks were indeed used!