Spitfire XI PL965 back home!

Bummer 🙁

Thanks for the info, Stieglitz. Hopefully, one day, we’ll get the two of them flying at Legends – maybe with Taifun’s Taifun for a strafing run 😉

I heard that she has structural problems in the tail section. It was booked for Wings and Wheels in Ursel Belgium in August but this has been cancelled. 🙁 The owner doesn’t seem have a permit to fly the Buchon and he didn’t inform the people who are planning Wings and Wheels. So only one month before the show, the plane was cancelled. I am sad about this. I don’t think the Buchon has flown recently.

J.V.

I thought OO-MAF WAS airworthy? I seem to remember there being work carried out on the engine before, though. :confused:

Take al the time you need on that Buchon. The most important is that the rebuild is done with great care.

It will be nice to see the shape of a Me109 (buchon) in the air again. Here in Belgium, the rebuild of the Buchon OO-MAF has some ‘sudden’ technical problems and there are doubts that it will fly this year. Shame! 😡

Keep up the good work there at Breighton and thanks for those updates davski.

J.V.

davski – wouldn’t worry about it, we’re probably all glad to see PL965 back in the UK where she belongs, and she and the Hurricane will have plenty of fun ganging up on the Buchon! 😉

How do you pronounce Buchon, anyway? BuKon, Buschon??

The Buchon is progressing pretty much to plan. The missing cowlings, panels undercarriage doors etc are all at Breighton now – dummy machine guns too. Work was halted temporarily whilst the Spitfire was being reassembled (we don’t have the level of manpower that similar outfits enjoy) but the project is now back on and, when the job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right – which means that we won’t compromise quality just to get all three fighters hooliganising above Breighton at the same time!
The mistake with the paint on the Spit’ was an unfortunate oversight which slipped through because everyone else was up to their necks with putting the aircraft together in time for the inspection – it was picked up very quickly but there was little time to do anything about it. I guess that if we ran Breighton behind closed doors in the same way that some restoration companies do, the ****-up wouldn’t have made it into the public domain. However, we don’t and it did! Rats!

If only all problems associated with operating aeroplanes of this kind were that simple to rectify!

Hmm, true. Is RACo running into any troubles then? Would it be anything to do with the Buchon? How is she progressing anyway?

If only all problems associated with operating aeroplanes of this kind were that simple to rectify!

Shushh.

Ozzerwise it were a Fronch warbirde Mon Ami.

Salut

They sorted out the fin flash then.

Yay! There’s my girl! 🙂

Took the picture on Sunday evening – I’ve placed a couple more on RAC’s website on ‘The Bugle’ and there are more to come when I get organised. The Spitfire looked and sounded wonderful…

Davski,

Great news, British air beneath her wheels 😀

Thanks for posting, I take it this is today ?

She flies at home once again!
News from our intrepid Breighton reporter, Davski, direct from Avi8.com…

“Spitfire PR Mk XI (PL 965) made it’s first ‘post-reassembly’ flight from Breighton aerodrome this afternoon (Sunday 27th June) – no problems reported. Happily the test flight coincided with the Hurricane’s return from its appearance at Goodwood, culminating in a paired run and break across Breighton’s hallowed turf… not a dry eye in the house! The Spitfire sports it’s original all-over PR blue with additional invasion stripes and looks fantastic. All three Breighton warbirds briefly shared the ramp – photo’s on the RACo website when the films are back from Boots (still on emulsion I’m afraid – sorry!). Attention now turns back to the Buchon – hopefully the fingernails will have grown back by the time that aircraft begins it’s flight test schedule!”

Congratulations to the Breighton team and thanks to Davski for bringing us the news almost immediatly every time.
Lets wish them good luck in completing the Buchon and returning her to the air once more.

Have ’em shot! 😉

Oh no don’t do that, not until the latrines are prepared, some of us may need them.

Have ’em shot! 😉

Tch! Modern apprenticeships! The guilty party has no doubt been set to task digging latrine ditches for the forthcoming Classic fly-in on July 24th/25th! Did you see what I did there…?!

Mark, no I didn’t do a photo-shop wind-up… Here the original thread where I downloaded the photos:
http://www.airshows.co.uk/board/ikonboard.pl?;act=ST;f=3;t=1272

MK959,

Thanks for that.

Nice higher res image there. I like to capture these little anomalies for the record.

I am sure the fin flash will be corrected.

Mark

Hope they fix the flash prior to flying – unless the originator of the photos has ‘shopped them himself?