Flying a Spitfire:
Bucket List Ticked

If someone asked me what it was like to fly in a Spitfire, my reaction is simple… amazing – bucket list item ticked! End. But when I was asked to write about it for the club newsletter, I thought that I had better go into a little more detail about the whole experience.

When the Spitfire flights from Tatenhill were announced, the opportunity to combine a bucket list item with a significant birthday became too good to miss. So, a quick look at the Fly a Spitfire website and my flight for 15th August was booked, just a few days after my actual birthday.

When the day arrived, there was a real level of excitement but also a little trepidation. As with all things, would it live up to my expectations, would I manage to take control and would I even, heaven forbid, be sick in the air?

Thankfully, all was well and I was not let down.

Arriving at the airfield, the first port of call was the office for the briefing. The guys from Fly a Spitfire were great – a quick check on flying suit and glove sizes was followed by a sit down to watch a video on the safety elements of the flight; now this is where it starts to get real!

The Arc procedure: in the event of the problem, lower the seat, release the canopy, open the door, oh and if it doesn’t open there is a crow bar!

Parachute… ah yes… in the event you hear the instruction “Jump, Jump, Jump!” … do all of the Arc, release the safety harness and step out – don’t worry the static line will open the chute.

But let’s just hope none of this is an issue!

Once I was happy with this, a quick chat and then sign the usual paperwork before it was off to meet the PIC, and as I had hoped it was Jon Cooke, a fellow Tatenhill and ESFC member, who told me he has 1200hrs on the Spitfire.

I reckoned I was in good hands!

So where are you thinking about going he says? Well, I was thinking of flying over my house near Ashbourne, then over towards my hometown of Stoke, birthplace of Reginald Mitchell, then I suppose back to the airfield.

Well, as Jon reminded me, since the Spitfire does around 4 miles per minute we can go a bit further in the allotted time, so how about we head down to the National Arboretum and then some aeros on the way back?

Sounds good to me I say.

Now out to get in Lady Ellen III, as Jon tells me later the only remaining Spitfire prototype still flying.

Once again, the ground crew were great, getting me settled into the cockpit, firmly strapped in parachute and all, then canopy closed and it’s, “Clear Prop”!

The sheer noise and vibration as the Merlin engine fires up is visceral, but as this is the first flight of the day, we have a few minutes whilst everything warms up for Jon to take me through the controls and check list, boost, prop, revs etc.

Now we are getting some temperatures showing, so it’s a taxi to the hold for power checks, more noise and vibrations, a thumbs up in the mirror from me and out onto 26.

Jon opened up the Merlin and we accelerate quickly, tail coming up as we pick up speed, then we are airborne, smooth no fuss, wheels up, two clunks and climbing away, so stable we turn into the downwind leg before heading North.

It is at this moment that I look down at the airfield and see that famous wing, probably one of the most memorable moments of the flight.

That beautiful elliptical wing is holding us up, that same wing shape and silhouette that you see in all of the famous old films like the Battle of Britain.

I was seeing it first-hand and it dawned on me that I was now flying in a Spitfire.