I got half of it on video, (not brilliant quality – my 1st go with a video I seem to recall – 95 I think – can check) the reason being that after a short while I knew I was viewing something “special” so I had to switch off and watch. I now kick myself when I view the “short” version of the display – there were vapour trails comming of the Seafuries wings as Ray pulled it around in his relentless persuit of Stephens Bearcat. On one bit of the tape Ive focussed in on the Bearcat nose down and going for it, in the blink of an eye the Seafury comes down from higher up, inverted, rolls out and jinks in right behind, you can almost hear the Rat-a-tat-tat as Ray zeros in before Stephen brakes away. Best “unrehersed” tail chase Ive seen.
Must look at it again tonight!

At major displays there is usually a safety committee, they are there to monitor each display in turn and, if neccassary “red card” a display. This is as well as a Flying Display director being able to terminate displays.

Im told by friends down that way that at Biggin the committie was sited away from the tower, the missed manovoure was spotted by them and they attempted to contact the tower to get the display aborted. Their link with the tower was a walkie talkie, unfortunetly the other end in the tower either had a flat battery or was not heard. The last resort was to try to use a mobile phone but it was all to late. I am led to believe that a land line phone link was installed some weeks later.
Not sure why the safety committe didnt work at Duxford, some people believe, allegedly, the safety committe missed the failed manovoure and whilst several respected display pilots saw it the display was allowed to carry on. No doubt there will be comment made in the accident report which will remove all the speculation.

Another point, military display pilots, I believe, get their DA’s from the CO or an appointed senior officer, the private pilot has to get his from an experianced Display Pilot who is working to a very strict criteria. Different standards?

Comment made on the carrying of passengers during displaying flying, in the private sector it is in the main not allowed – however as the BBMF and RNHF are military they have there own operating rules. (One comment heard at a show last year was that you can’t tell the military anything as they believe they know it all). Obviously there is a certain required number of crew on complexmulti engined aircraft, the Sally B is an example but the CAA do rule out the ‘observer passengers’.

Another area of knowledge on how to fly these clasic aircraft are “the old boys”. Unfortunetly their knowledge tends to die with them. One old boy I met a few years ago made the comment on the jet formations that were becoming popular that on no account would he fly close behind a Vixen due to the wakevortex disturbance behind it, nearly did for him once. Shortly after we lost the Vampire at Biggin.

A comment on currency, lets face it, Warbird type of aircraft are VERY VERY expensive to fly with limited life engines, astronomic insurance, inspections etc etc. Every organisation has to look carefully at the balance of gaining pilot experiance, maintaining currency and keeping costs within a budget, it will be a well funded organisation that has pilots starting a season with 10hrs on type for that year. Should there be a rule that a pilot can only display that type of aircraft when he has a minimum of what? 10, 20, 30 or more hrs experiance? Imagine the effect that would have, someone would need to fund an awfull lot of flying time before the pilot could appear in a show. Does the 90 day rule apply to military pilots? Even so it is, I believe open to some abuse, it is possible for a pilot to do his 3 practise displays (say a total of some 30-40mins) the day before a show and then be quite legal to display in the show – is that really being current? It is a very difficult ball to juggle especially for the Military with budgets always being reduced and scrutinised. At the end of the day there is a wealth of knowledge in the private warbird flying industry, maybe the Military should tap into and use some of that flying experiance.

I believe if you look back over the last few years there are many accidents that were avoidable if ALL the elements to safety in display flying had worked. We in the UK are I think still way ahead of European countries and the US in safety but that doesnt stop us all hurting when anyone is killed.

Believe Carolyns booked there as well, er isnt this going to leave the other venues a bit short on Spits? I forsee frantic dashing about from venue to venue – hope the weathers ok!

The vital bit here is that it was the crew who were the first to complete 25 combat missions. I read somewhere that the aircraft actually did 33 missions but it was viewed as very good PR that the crew went home in ‘their’ aircraft – the Memphis Belle.
I dont think that the US Air Force was all that fussed about which aircraft did 25 missions, the fact was they were desprite for a crew to make it as crew moral was ebbing away as no crew could achieve the magic number in order to go home, they just kept being shot down. Once the Memphis crew made it the ASAF could then justify the 25 mission target.
This latter went up to 30 as the odds became slightly better towards the end of WW2. A friend of mine (390th BG) who settled in Brittain had achieved 30 missions agreed to go one last time in order that the rest of ‘his’ usual crew would make 30 together. They were hit head on over Berlin by a Fw190 and were shot down in Dec 44. He was helped out of the ball turret (wounded in arm, elbow and leg) by the surviving waist gunner before being thrown out with his good hand wrapped around the D ring. He made it after spending 4 months in a German hospital but 5 of the crew were killed. So close to going home for Christmas but for 5 there was no home comming, ending up buried in a German Cemetary. Average age of crew – 22 .