Spitfire – Where and when?

Lovely shot G-ORDY, Mildenhall was it?

Yep

Lovely shot G-ORDY, Mildenhall was it?

Amusing to think she was only 28 years old when I took this photo 41 years ago !

I cannot remember in detail but I suspect an RAF Police guard was placed on it overnight as that part of Woodhall had no security, that was their hidey hole. BBMF had one of the hangars for storage and there was an engine bay for the Phantoms.
No gliding at that time.

Just a guess, I didn’t know about that incident. What was the caravan for behind it? Was Woodhall Spa in use for gliding at that time?

Woodhall Spa?

You have it 92fis!
June 1981 PM631 suffered an engine failure during a display over Woodhall Spa village. Quick thinking by the pilot allowed a dead stick landing on a taxi track on the old airfield at Woodhall Spa. The aircraft was tied down over night, hence the concrete blocks, dismantled and trucked back to Coningsby. This was the beginning of the end for the Griffon 66 power plants installed in the Flight’s aircraft. I think this engine had done 700 hours, twice the original war time life. Rolls Royce were tasked with manufacturing a single shaft reduction gearbox and other modifications to the supercharger casing to allow the Shackleton Griffon 57/58 to be fitted to the Spitfire XIX and XIV.

West Raynham

Bradwell Bay.

Have a guess why it was there?

Engine trouble, Kenley?

Woodhall Spa?

When you said close to home, did you mean present home or their home at the time?

Barkston Heath???

Mosquito’s operated from this airfield until the end of the war. Did BBMF let grass grow under their feet?

I will guess RAF Cranwell North grass runway. The mobile control trailer may be there from the gliders. PM631 does look to have been performing high powered engine runs. So did she encounter a problem and put down? Early 1980s?

A Mk XIX with a 4 bladed prop?

It’s the angle of the prop making it look like there’s only four blades.

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The ‘scissor jack’ you are seeing is a standard RAF chock.

Is that a camera tripod on the far side of the aircraft, seen just forward of the wing?

And a scissor jack near the wheel maybe?

That was PS853 & was iirc early 60’s.
This is PM631 & again iirc wore those codes from after filming of the Battle Of Britain film.

Random thought – was it around this time that one of the Spits was engaged in mock combat with a Lightning?

I can’t remember who we thought we might be tangling with…..

Doesn’t explain much about the photo, mind!

A Mk XIX with a 4 bladed prop? Tie downs to 120kg of building blocks? 2050 HP? I am not convinced.

It is a Mk XIX – I promise you.

It is PM631 – there are plenty of pictures of it in this scheme in the 1970’s with BBMF.

The OP was Chiefy at BBMF at the time.

The wing tie downs are less important than the tail one, but tell a story.

I’m thinking that perhaps it had a forced landing close to Coltishall (plenty to choose from round there), and it is shown about to undergo a ground run before being flown out.