Flying Legends 2017

[Micdrow]

Sweet and thanks for the confirmation Terry.

 

[rochie]

Good stuff Dogsbody.

Will try and rescue some of mine on sunday afternoon when this working week from hell finishes !

 

[Old Wizard]

 

[Gnomey]

Great shots Terry!

 

[Gnomey]

Great shots Terry!

 

[turbo]

The Spitfire duo provided their usual elegant performance of close formation aerobatics. Again, fairly mediocre photos.
Next selection, tomorrow, will feature the Hurricanes and Blenheim formation.


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Spotted one of those Spits in the Dunkirk movie trailer.

Looks like they've used some special effects to replicate the same plane.

 

[Airframes]

A MkV and a Mk1 in that last pic. But that rather poor replica cockpit for the close-up shots has given me real doubts about this movie. The production crew obviously went to some length constructing that, so why the heck didn't they get it at least a bit closer to the real thing ?

 

[Airframes]

Three Mustangs made up the aerobatic performance of 'The Horsemen', with new arrival 'Frenesi', 'Miss Helen', and the Norwegian, RAF camouflaged example.
Again, the pics are divided between two posts.

 

[Airframes]

Second set of 'The Horsemen'.

 

[Micdrow]

Great shots Terry keep them coming

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Paul. Whilst they're reasonable, they're certainly not as good as they should be.
After the roar of Merlins, the 1930's racers took to the air, rather gracefully, although not at full power, with the Cosmic Wind 'Ballerina', the former Alex Henshaw Percival Mew Gull, the Travel Air Mystery Ship, and the lovely DH Comet, as shown in the next two posts.

 

[rochie]

I did enjoy seeing that DH Comet.

 

[Airframes]

Second set of the 1930's racers. Norwegian Dakota coming next .............

 

[Airframes]

The DC-3 from Dakota Norway was originally built as a C-53 'Skytrooper' in 1943, and performed its usual dramatic display, being thrown around the sky more like a fighter than a transport aircraft.

 

[Crimea_River]

Very good shots Terry.

Our London trip concluded today and we are preparing to fly back to the home country Sunday morning. I've still not had a chance to organize my pics but have done a preliminary binning of the ones that were pure rubbish. Most of my flying pics, if not all, will not beat Terry's as I tend to shoot at a lower speed to get more prop blur. In doing so, I get a lot of pics taht aren't sharp and this year, the aircarft were further away than the last time I was at Dux. I'll post up the ones that I have that appear to be a bit different starting Monday or Tuesday.

Meantime, here's one for Terry.....

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots guys!

 

[Jimbob]

Of six Mustangs originally listed for the show, P-51B 'Berlin Express' lost her canopy and couldn't fly on Sunday, and P-51D 'Moonbeam McSwine' was withdrawn, presumably due to technical problems.However, there were still four on Sunday, with the first slot showing the Norwegian Historic flight's camouflaged example, along with 'Miss Velma' and 'Miss Helen', the latter an original survivor of the 352nd FG, 'The Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney'.
The fourth P-51D is a new one on the airshow circuit, operated by Commanche Fighters, and is painted as 'Frenesi' (from the wartime song 'Free and Easy'), of the 357th FG, and this formed part of the display by 'The Horsemen', later in the show. Sadly, at the end of the show, 'Miss Velma' force-landed in a field alongside the M11 motorway, but the pilot was OK, and the aircraft didn't appear to be too badly damaged, being the right way up, with the canopy jettisoned and prop tips bent. It's not known if the the gear was retracted before landing, or even if it was still down, as the Press photos show the aircraft in very tall crops.
Press reports 'quoted' eyewitnesses as seeing a vintage fighter 'crash' in a field, in a big cloud of dust, after hearing 'a loud bang'.
Well, Karl spotted 'Miss Velma' doing a very steep and 'hot', curving approach, gear and flaps down, and alerted me. I jumped up (ish !) in time to see her level out and veer off to starboard, with gear down and very obviously under control, before she was lost from view behind the ARC hangar. No 'loud bang' was heard by any of our group, before or after the eventual landing, and any 'cloud of dust' could only have been from the tall, standing crops in the field where she landed, after extremely rapid reactions and a skillful piece of flying by her pilot.
But back to the first Mustang display, with sols slots by all three P-51Ds, and the formation with resident B-17G 'Sally B' with the Norwegian example, in RAF camouflage, the pics being split between two posts.


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[Jimbob]

Pilot put the gear handle up to prevent the aircraft from flipping over onto it's back. Good move on his part to lessen damage to the aircraft and injuries to himself.

 

[Wurger]

Great shots Terry.

 

[Airframes]

Andy - Grrr!
Bl**dy tractor with planks ! (But it put on a splendid display, which I'll feature in the next post tomorrow .... er... later today !).

Thanks for the confirmation Jimbob - I'd guessed the pilot had got the gear up in time. One of the best bits of flying skill I've seen in a long time - and I've been around aviation since Moses was a Corporal !!