Dear Brenda, there has over the last 6 months been a lot of Spitfire and Hurricanes activity near us from Biggin Hill. I thought they might be practicing for the Queens Diamond Jubilee, but they were making a Documentary about the Battle of Britain with the actual planes that fought in it. The Documentary was on the T.V. for the first time yesterday and it was brilliant. The only flying Hurricane from the Battle of Britain was in it and it does not belong to the R.A.F Historic Flight at Duxford, it is owned by a private collector!
The film Star Ewan McGregor and his brother Ian who is an R.A.F. fighter jet pilot were in the program, and they were in for a shock.
Tony will know what I am talking about now. They told Ian the jet pilot that although he can fly a jet it does not mean he can fly a Spitfire and he would have to learn again. He started on a Gypsy Moth and had trouble with that till he got used to it. Then on to a Harvard trainer which he found easier apart from landing and finally got to fly in a dual seat Spitfire!
He made a lot of mistakes as he was too hard with the stick and on a Spitfire you only need to just touch it, so the plane was going everywhere. He got the hang of it in the end. They spoke to many veteran pilots of Hurricanes and Spitfires, and had to do a whole day in the life of a fighter pilot, which wore them out, and that was just one day!
The last day was Ian flying the Spitfire again, and suddenly they were joined by two other Spitfires and two Hurricanes. The surprise was Ewan his brother was in the back of one of the Spitfires as he is not allowed to fly it. He was stunned to see his brother there as he had never flown in formation before either. Then they went out over the English Channel, flew back over the R.A.F. Fighter Command memorial on the cliffs at Dover with thousands of people waving below. Then low over the villages of Kent and everyone turned out in the streets to wave. They landed back at Biggin Hill and were speechless, until they were taken to the old officers mess, had a few pints with the veterans, and sang some songs on the old piano that is still there.
It was wonderful to see them around here, and the program itself.
Neil.
