March 3, 2006 at 9:45 am
Hi all,
Have heard some info re the Spitfire 70TH Anniversary flypast at Southampton this weekend. Apologises if this is old news to people.
Apparently 5 Spitfires (I don’t know which) are due to arrive around 1600 on Saturday 4th March at Southampton airport, will be night stopping and then doing a flypast Sunday and then departing Monday.
There is some good info on the flypast route on the Council’s website:
Lets hope it’s not SNAFU’d by weather!
By: Corsair166b - 7th March 2006 at 04:51
Actually saw a news story on the sunday night news on the event….HERE IN COLORADO….complete with footage of BM597 and the Irish Spitfire with Henshaw in the back and a flight of 5 going right to left….I was stunned that our local news would say anything at all! Nice to see that they did…really woke me up before I headed to bed!
M
By: Roobarb - 5th March 2006 at 21:26
IAC161 – John Romain + Alex Henshaw
SM845 – Rod Dean
TD248 – Cliff Spink
TA805 – Lee Proudfoot
BM597 – Charlie Brown
1747 “Taz” (Harvard camera ship) – Rats
All maintained at ARC I believe 😉 (the aircraft as well!!!!) 😀
By: stringbag - 5th March 2006 at 21:07
I thought I spotted Lee Proudfoot this morning, so quite possible.
By: The Bump - 5th March 2006 at 19:06
Maybe add Lee Proudfoot and Charlie Brown to that list??
By: Auster Fan - 5th March 2006 at 17:52
Gorgeous 😀
The Spitfires involved are
Mk.XVIII SM845
Mk.IX TA805
Mk.V BM597
Mk.XVI TD248 I think.…and TR.IX G-CCCA.
Who were the pilots? I spotted Rod Dean and John Romain. I assume CR-S was Cliff Spink(?).
By: The Bump - 5th March 2006 at 17:44
Isn’t it a shame that the late Ray Hanna won’t be around to celebrate the 70th anniversary?
I was thinking exactly the same thing whilst watching the excellent footage from the Harvard, I don’t think Ray would have had too many complaints about the formation.
By: Rocketeer - 5th March 2006 at 14:02
I would suggest that you keep BBC News 24 on.
10 mins ago lovely feature live from Eastleigh on the tarmac including an interview with Alex Henshaw in one of the cockpits, I can’t believe that he’s 93.
The BBC are hoping to put a live camera in the back of the a/c with him which should be interesting, I’m pleased to see that the BBC are making a big thing of this, and yes, where is RJM buried.
RJM is buried in a churchyard some 1000 yds off the end of the runway of Eastleigh on the centre line more or less
By: Auster Fan - 5th March 2006 at 13:50
Looking forward to this. Isn’t it a shame that the late Ray Hanna won’t be around to celebrate the 70th anniversary?
By: Pete Truman - 5th March 2006 at 13:09
I would suggest that you keep BBC News 24 on.
10 mins ago lovely feature live from Eastleigh on the tarmac including an interview with Alex Henshaw in one of the cockpits, I can’t believe that he’s 93.
The BBC are hoping to put a live camera in the back of the a/c with him which should be interesting, I’m pleased to see that the BBC are making a big thing of this, and yes, where is RJM buried.
By: Kenbo - 5th March 2006 at 12:42
WOW sounds great. I find it lovely that they would have flown over the great man himself’s grave too as they took off……………………
Out of interest (and forgive my ignorance) but where is RJM’s grave site??? 😮
By: Rocketeer - 5th March 2006 at 12:37
WOW sounds great. I find it lovely that they would have flown over the great man himself’s grave too as they took off……………………
By: Kenbo - 5th March 2006 at 12:30
G-CCCA (T.9 ‘161’) flew in yesterday morning with the harvard 🙂 i belive Mr Henshaw will be 161’s passenger today 🙂
By: stringbag - 5th March 2006 at 12:11
Gorgeous 😀
The Spitfires involved are
Mk.XVIII SM845
Mk.IX TA805
Mk.V BM597
Mk.XVI TD248 I think.
…and TR.IX G-CCCA.
By: Kenbo - 5th March 2006 at 12:02
To anyone who’s interested, you can listen to southampton tower on 118.200, and southampton aproach on 120.225 🙂
By: Kenbo - 5th March 2006 at 11:25
Hi all…….. all 4 of them came belting over the roof tops, box formation at exactly 10.30 😀 😀 😮 😮 i live only a short distance from southampton airport see, just on the edge of the eastern circuit, i get most of the traffic as it turns in to line up. Right over the garden they came bout 200ft made a hard banked turn north back towards the airfield, dropped down the the hill for a run and break 😀 then back round again a few mins later gear down 😀 Lovely!!!
By: Pete Truman - 5th March 2006 at 09:52
9:45, wow, one Spitfire just roared across the front of my window heading south, didn’t even have to move to see it, so where are the other 3 then, as I’ve said before I tend to be on the transit route from Duxford, I presumed that 4 would come over together, mind you, I’m honoured to have seen just one so low on such a special day.
By: merlin70 - 4th March 2006 at 23:06
The last Spitfire formation over Southampton Water that I can recall was in 2000. A formation of 13 Spits and a truly fantastic tailchase that seemed to go on forever 🙂 🙂 .
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=29493&highlight=seawings
By: stringbag - 4th March 2006 at 21:33
The Spitfire (G-CCCA/’161′) and Harvard did some formation flying over Eastleigh at around 1330hrs.
What a sound!
By: Propstrike - 4th March 2006 at 21:29
The Harvard and a Spitfire (unidentified) flew up and then down Southampton Water at 1250 hrs, went past Lee on Solent at about 1,200 ft.
By: stringbag - 4th March 2006 at 12:03
The Harvard has arrived. It rasped over my head about an hour and a half ago 😀