talbot
Senior Airman
Came across this from another forum and thought I'd re-share here, excellent footage
View: https://youtu.be/7a5tjhjVe5Q?si=WIE7CYcy9WtKQ9s_
View: https://youtu.be/7a5tjhjVe5Q?si=WIE7CYcy9WtKQ9s_
Luftwaffe Fighter Wing JG 77 & Bf 109 Operations (1939) - YouTube
- Thread starter talbot
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Crimea_River
Marshal
Nice find. Thanks for posting. Wish I could read the writing.
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- #3
talbot
Senior Airman
agreed, that certainly seems to be a bit of a lost art
Some interesting detail. If anyone wonders what some of the pilots appear to be doing with their heads rocking in the cockpits before start-up, as at time 21.00, they are pumping up fuel-pressure on a hand-pump lever and also, priming the engine on another small pump handle. For some reason, these pilots seem to make a real meal of it?!
Eng
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- #6
talbot
Senior Airman
yeah I thought that was quite cool, along with when the ground crew holding the 109 in place while running up the engine, or aiding with a turn
also donned on me the stark contrast of PPE such as eye or ear protection then vs today
also donned on me the stark contrast of PPE such as eye or ear protection then vs today
The Bf 109 had no way to lock the brakes ON, just the toe operated hydraulic brakes that released if released. I have done a lot of Bf 109 ground running and testing and it is quite tiring to keep the toe brakes hard applied for a long period, so it is usual to chock the wheels and use a tie-down point anchored to a bar passed through the lifting/tie-down tube in the rear fuselage for ground testing. I have never used groundcrew to hold the wings for a run-up, as this is risky, you can't push that hard at shoulder level and, the pre-flight run-up to 2100 rpm for mag-drop checks is easily held for a short period on the toes, with the stick held full-back.
The use of a wingtip man to hold-back a wing for sharp turns is common on taildraggers and is virtually essential if they have no brakes, so they often use a wingman on each wing in congested areas. With the Bf 109, we sometimes assisted with holding a wing tip for tight turns.
Incidentally, the Bf 109 has quite a heavy weight on the tailwheel when stationary on the ground and there is not a great tendency to tip forward, so much so, that the experienced pilot will find that it is possible at very low speed, to use forward stick, with a sharp burst of power and dab of brake to allow the tailwheel to skip sideways and get a tight turn!
Eng
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- #8
talbot
Senior Airman
Very insightful thank you
The closest i get is a simulation on the computer every once in awhile , so appreciate the real world context and sharing your experiences
Thanks,
I was very fortunate to have been deeply involved with genuine, flying Bf 109's. Some of the simulations are getting closer to accurate representations of the operation of the 109, but none are particularly close yet, particularly on the operation of the engine and propeller system. Of course, nothing is ever going to give the real feeling of the aircraft in the Metal! It has a very strong presence that gives you a visceral response, even if you are only going to run it on the ground. This is similar in other contemporary WW2 Fighter aircraft, and I have always found that the actual flying examples all feel dangerous, whereas non-flying or static versions always feel less threatening. To me, the closest comparison is getting on or in a real race Bike or race Car on the track, but the real Fighter aircraft is still more exciting than that!
Eng
Crimea_River
Marshal
The other interesting feature is this sometimes bluish-coloured supercharger intake. Heard this discussed elsewhere and not all machines in this video has it.
Yes, the Blue paint on the engine air-intake is interesting. There was a quite heated debate on the Britmodeller website about it in 2018. It is noticeable that the film seems to include
some close-up reference to this intake at about the time 5.27 on the film, but I don't know if the written captions mention it?
It is interesting that some aircraft have the blue paint, and some don't. Generally, Bf 109's don't have this blue paint on the intake.
The German aircraft did have strict painting instructions so, you would think that this might be covered in the tech paperwork if it was official. The colour coding of German aircraft systems was well defined, Blue was for "Luft" or Air systems, but you do not usually see air intakes marked like this.
Eng
Actually the front part of the filter could be of the different colour because it wasn't the part of the fuselage in fact. In the B&W images of Emils in the dark uniform it may not be noticed. But in the pictures showing the fusealge with the high demarcation line for the camo colours this can be seen better.
Yes, the "front" part shown, is the intake elbow with integral cascade vanes and is fastened to the supercharger. It has cascades because the air turns very sharply into the supercharger on these Bf 109 E intakes. The streamlined fairing behind the poorly matched joint shown in this pic, is just an aerodynamic form that is fixed to the rear cowling. This can be seen
on pics when the rear cowling is removed.
Eng
