Spitfire flying hours

Try 100 landings!
Pintlel bolts out and off for crack testing and alignment check – as with all things Spitfire not a cheap operation.

Yes – you are right (but you can’t spell pintle) 😀

Try 100 landings!
Pintlel bolts out and off for crack testing and alignment check – as with all things Spitfire not a cheap operation.

Good point Cees – there have been incidents of failures caused by ‘fatigue’, ‘stress’. etc. There is now a mandatory check which has to be undertaken on the pintle studs (the long bolts that secure the pintle to the wing spar) on all CAA registered after a certain number of landings (250 I think). However the point remains that the Spitfire airframe does not have an overall fatigue life in the way more modern types do.

IIRC there was an accident with one of the Schreiner target tug Spitfires at Texel during 1957 where an undercarriage pintle sheared due to fatigue. Ever since the Dutch RLD considered the Spitfire to be an “unsafe” type.
The airframe was tired by this time having been flown for over a decade.
This was one of the reasons that MK732 was first registered in the UK.

Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Cheers

Cees

It isnt.

Bex you are thinking about later RAF aircraft. No Spitfires were retired through ‘fatigue’ as this was not a recognised problem in WWII and no fatigue measuring process was in place for this type.

You make an interesting point Mark V, do you know what the position was with Spitfires operating with other Air Forces into the fifties and sixties, excluding shortage of spares of course?
Tony K

So if Spitfires dont have fatigue index, how is fatigue measured? Especially I was under the impression that part of the reason for an aircrafts retirement was down to fatigue? Bex

It isnt.

Bex you are thinking about later RAF aircraft. No Spitfires were retired through ‘fatigue’ as this was not a recognised problem in WWII and no fatigue measuring process was in place for this type.

So if Spitfires dont have fatigue index, how is fatigue measured? Especially I was under the impression that part of the reason for an aircrafts retirement was down to fatigue? Bex

Just out of interest, do Spits have a Fatigue Index as per Chippys/Bullodgs?

No.

Just out of interest, do Spits have a Fatigue Index as per Chippys/Bullodgs?

Even with it being grounded since 2000, I would think MK923 would have quite a few hours on it. I know Jerry B racked up alot of hours when it was in his care.

Dave C

Grace Spitfire hours

Had a conversation with Carolyn grace last year, in which I think she said her spitfire was limited to a max of 50 hours and this was connected with the plane’s insurance policy. If that helps.
She also said it takes her over 40 hrs of paperwork each week to keep it in the air, every week outside of the display times, something which is worth knowing and appreciating.

I was privilaged to be shown around G-RRGN two years ago. I spent about 2-3 hours at East Midlands taking detailed pics of the aircraft for a modelling project.

According to the guy who showed me around (sorry his name eludes me at the moment but a top chap) she is the most original flying Spitfire having never gone through a major restoration.

In places you can still see the original wartime paint, which is a very differant blue to that which she wears now.

Either way though she is a stunning Spitfire.

That does not suprise me as she was one of the origional BBMF fleet. But from what ive herd from a freind who flys from the same place as she is based she does not seem to fly often.

I was privilaged to be shown around G-RRGN two years ago. I spent about 2-3 hours at East Midlands taking detailed pics of the aircraft for a modelling project.

According to the guy who showed me around (sorry his name eludes me at the moment but a top chap) she is the most original flying Spitfire having never gone through a major restoration.

In places you can still see the original wartime paint, which is a very differant blue to that which she wears now.

Either way though she is a stunning Spitfire.

G-RRGN rolls royce 1263

Didn,t she have a couple of “off” seasons due to engine gremlins?

I can only think of one in the past few years… anyone else?

IIRC

Didn,t she have a couple of “off” seasons due to engine gremlins?

113 hours in the past 20 years???? :confused:

Hmm – something seems not quite right there. I would have expected more like 600 + hours in her current post restoration life, but then I am only guessing.

Thats why I asked!
Tony K

Ah – you want to know how many hours she flew last year! 🙂
Not many UK warbirds doing more than 50 so it will be interesting to find out.

1195 as at the end of 2005 (see post 10).

Thats why I asked!
Tony K

Perhaps Carolyn could tell us the present number of hours.

1195 as at the end of 2005 (see post 10).