Re: Where Eagles Dare question

Originally posted by Moggy C
Question: Were these genuine airframes or not?

If genuine, it seems a bit wasteful.

Wasting perfectly good, lovely old aeroplanes never seems to bother films luvvies though does it. The sight of those Mosquitoes being crashed and burned in 633 Squadron still almost kills me everytime I see it. 😡

Yeah the Gnat’s nice if you like toys:D , but that real aeroplane in the background is more like it 🙂 🙂

I watched the programme last night and found it fascinating.

The three things which really struck me were the incredible amount of wood and other materials needed to build the tunnels, the sheer ingenuity of the prisoners in manufacturing items from almost nothing and, above all, the guts and determination shown by the tunnellers in digging through such dangerous ground.

I’m not especially claustrophobic but I certainly wouldn’t fancy it!

Well done Channel Five. BTW the programme on Hitler’s Bunker immediately before it was interesting too.

Originally posted by Eric Mc
… The problem is that once this happens, the yoke is no longer useable – the presumption being that the pilot will not be around to want to use it once he has decided to eject.

Great story and you’re right, the yoke certainly isn’t useable afterwards. There is an explosive “snatch unit” (ooh, er!) fitted to the elevator control tube which actually breaks the tube allowing the yoke to be ‘snatched’ forward, and away from the pilot’s legs, under the pressure of a (strong) spring. So even if you could overcome the pressure of the spring and pull the yoke back you ‘d have no elevator control anyway.

I’d always assumed aileron control was retained though – although the yoke would be jammed against the instrument panel making it a bit tricky to use of course! Maybe someone else (LesB ?) can confirm/refute my assumption?

Me too!

OK, this is an extract from the “Handling” section of the Attacker F.1, FB.1 & FB.2 Pilot’s Notes. Paragraph iii id the most relevant to the original query I suppose and does seem to illustrate the difficulty in raising the tail on such an aircraft…

“Take-Off
(i) Taxy forward a few yards to straighten the tail wheel and engage the tail wheel lock.
(ii) Open the throttle smoothly to take-off r.p.m. There is no tendancy to swing but should it be necessary, small changes in direction may be made by careful use of the brakes until the rudder becomes effective at 50-60 knots. Note – If it is necessary to check any of the engine instruments, this should be done against the brakes prior to take-off.
(iii) The elevator forces to raise the tail are very heavy, but this may be done at 75-80 knots. With full internal and external fuel, the aircraft may be flown off at 105-110 knots. At maximum take-off weight the aircraft should be flown off at 115-120 knots.
(iv) Brake the wheels before raising the undercarriage which, to avoid the risk of damage, should be locked up before the speed reaches 190 knots. Slight lateral trim changes may be felt due to one leg retracting before the other.
(v) Raise the flaps a few degrees at a time, retrimming carefully. There is a very strong nose-down change of trim on raising the flaps. This is particularly strong if they are raised at high airspeeds.”

Hope this is of interest.