I’ve recently seen some in cockpit footage of Andy Sephton flying the Spitfire at Old Warden, I believe from 1997 or ’98. Excellent stuff. Also, the RNHF video has some excellent footage of John Beattie doing a Sea Fury walk around and flight.

Mr. Jones shot some video of our trip in the Sea Fury to Texas. If you come to the Duxford showing of BoB I believe Robbo is going to have a copy.

If you visit Bill Reinschild’s website at http://www.unlimitedair.com and look under media there are some video clips of Bill taking his Sea Fury “Bad Attitude” around the pylons, as seen from the backseat.

I’ll try and put something together for next season. These small “lipstick” cameras that they have now are incredible. When we did the L-39 tape for National Geographic they wired the planes in no time at all.

Hi Andy,

I know that this airplane is a Baghdad Fury, and that it was originally restored somewhere in Texas. I know it has hydraulic brakes and a US style panel, but I believe everything firewall forward is original (engine, prop, hydraulics). That was not uncommon when parts were more available than they are today.

If the engine is not using too much oil, and all the power checks, pressures and temps are good you can probably get away with not tearing it down and doing a major overhaul. However, I would not fly behind an engine that had not been apart since Harry Truman was in office.

Steve

Everything I know of The Great War I learned watching the last season of “Black Adder” 🙂

Documentary
1. RNHF Sea Fury video, obviously. Excellent display at Portland by John Beattie.
2. Any and all of the Legends, Old Warden, OSH, Wanaka, Reno, etc. airshow videos. Just like being there when the snow starts falling.
3. Roaring Glory Warbirds, by Steve Hinton and the late Jeff Ethell. DVDs and some videos with I believe the P-51, B-17 and B-25. The first half of every show is a walk around and cockpit checkout, followed by a flight. The second half is a lame drama with some kid sitting in the airplane making machine gun noises. A must have series, with excellent footage.
4. Night Bombers. The story of a Lancaster bombing mission. This is to the British what the “Memphis Belle” wartime documentary is to the Americans. Stunning footage (in color!) of the work up and execution of a bombing mission over Germany. It does not get any better than real.
5. The World at War. Especially the episode “Whirlwind” which includes interviews with Sir Arthur Harris, but they’re all fantastic and memorable.
6. The Fighting Lady. The story of the USS Lexington. Wartime color footage of carrier ops.
7. Frozen in Time, the story of the Kee Bird. Darrel Grennemeyer’s recovery of a B-29 from Greenland.

Drama
1. Battle of Britain. For my American friends get the PAL version, with all the goodies. You can buy a DVD player on Ebay for $100 that will handle all the different regions and PAL/NTSC conversion.
2. Piece of Cake. Just so I can quote lines back to Moggy. I enjoy Piece of Cake, even with all the “leaps of faith” one must make to accept Spitfires in the Battle of France. Well made, with good actors and a decent screen play.
3. The Dambusters. Excellent film, with a politically incorrect black lab.
4. Reach for the Sky. The story of Douglas Bader, with Kenneth More.
5. Sink the Bismark. Any war movie with Kenneth More is a good thing.
6. The Bridges at Toko-Ri. Any war movie with Grace Kelley is a good thing. Also, the F9F Panthers footage is excellent.
7. 12 O’Clock High, with Gregory Peck. One of my absolute favorites, I can watch this over and over (as Mrs. P will attest).
8. Band of Brothers. Hey, it’s got C-47s! I got this for Christmas last year and watched it straight through. Captivating.
9. Saving Private Ryan. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg need to make aviation movies.
10. A Bridge too Far. Is it Neil Anderson in the Spitfire?
11. The Right Stuff. The scene near the end of the F-104 takeoff is one of the best surround sound moments you can experience. The rest of the movie doesn’t suck.
12. The Blue Max. Not my favorite, but a must have.
13. Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. Just before a visit to Old Warden, viewing this is a must.
14. 633 Squadron and Mosquito Squadron. Oooh, bit dodgy. Cliff Robertson’s British accent is as bad as **** Van Dyke’s in “Mary Poppins” .
15. The Great Escape. Not much flying, but a classic.
16. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo. Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson are superb.
17. Dark Blue World. I really enjoyed this, and my wife even watched and approved of the love story element. As someone else pointed out, if you can get past the mountains in Kent this is extremely well made with a strong story line.
18. Strategic Air Command. Jimmy Stewart flies the B-36 and the B-47. It’s in color, and you can always fast forward whenever June Allyson is on screen.
19. Lawrence of Arabia. A Perfect Movie.
20. The Bridge on the River Kwai. Excellent cast. Also, David Lean never made a bad movie, so watch Dr. Zhivago while you’re at it.
21. Das Boot, the directors cut. Watch this and be thankful for the Air Force.
22. From the Earth to the Moon. The real story of the Apollo project.
23. Conspiracy. This HBO movie, with Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci should be required viewing in school. Opening sequence has a Fieseler Storch.
24. Tora Tora Tora and Midway. The war in the Pacific.

That’s all I could think of while sitting in my office…

Thanks John for posting, and I’m glad you had such a wonderful holiday. After following your adventures and seeing some of the photos you and others have posted I feel that the “Full Setter” is now the mac daddy tour of them all. Two full weeks, you must be a bachelor.

As for Sea Furies, Tempests, Bristol Centaurus, Dowty Rotols, Wright 3350s, Hamilton Standards, and Aero Products, and all the ensuing debate that goes along with any conversation that includes one or more of these words I can only say what I’ve always said…”warbirds are only fun when they’re going fast and making noise”. But to your point, I am anxiously awaiting the donation of a newly overhauled “proper” engine and 5 bladed propeller for my airplane to make everyone happy. Anyone interested in making such a donation can PM me for the shipping details, care of the Steve Patterson Benevolent Warbird Trust.

Of course a “proper” Sea Fury wouldn’t make much difference here in the good ‘ole US of A anyway, as most of the people I meet have no idea what a Sea Fury is. “Is that a Spitfire?” is an oft heard phrase. Only thing worse is the L-39, which I’ve taken to calling a MiG-39 at airshows, as most Americans couldn’t find Prague with a map, a GPS and large red arrow saying “You Are Here”.

Again, glad you had such a wonderful time, and I anxiously await your full report. Please have it posted and on my desk by tomorrow. 😉

Steve

Very nice pics. Makes me wish I still had mine. The guy in the first few photos is Ralph Glasser (aka Skydoc) out of Illinois. Ralph has the T-28B (with a D wing) with USAF down the fuselage, and he is one of the lead organizers for the T-28 formation flights and training weeks before OSH and Sun N Fun. A good stick, and all around great guy.

Here are some photos from when I last flew with Ralph, at Sun N Fun a few years ago. The T-28 is a wonderful airplane to fly, but the maintenance was pretty high. Much more complex, from a systems standpoint, than the Sea Fury.

Stop it! Stop it! This is nothing but a silly thread, full of silly posts.

Come on now, back to discussing the serious aspects of historic aircraft.

Move along…move along there, nothing to see here but silly posts…

…a native was eating a coconut, but that’s not important right now.

Chuffer, confused by the total lack of a plot in this godforsaken story, decided to take matters into his own hands.

“Where the hell am I?”, thought Chuffer to himself (not to mention this author), as he shook himself back to reality. Looking around the cockpit (yes, he’s back in his Spitfire where he belongs) everything seemed in order. But now a feeling of dread set in as Chuffer realized that he was very alone in the sky.

Chuffer heard the muffled sounds “TWHUMP TWHUMP TWHUMP” as cannon rounds began landing on the outer edge of his starboard wing. Instinct now took over as he threw his Spit first knife edge, then hauled back in as tight a turn as he could pull. As the blood started to drain away from his head Chuffer’s vision started to close in, as if looking through a soda straw. His world began turning black and white, until finally all color was gone. But, even as he was close to blacking out, he knew that he must turn inside this opponent. “Must hold a second longer…” he thought to himself. Flying by instinct Chuffer continued the turn, as his world turned black and all vision was gone. He knew now that unconsciousness was only moments away, and as he felt his Spit start to shudder, in one swift movement, Chuffer relaxed the back pressure on the control column, reversed his direction with a derry turn, and saw…