For your interest a pilot’s recount of his first flight in Spitfire MkVIII MV154, flying it in displays at Duxford Flying Legends and meeting with Mary Wilkins the ATA pilot who delivered the aircraft to the RAF. MV154 never flew in action, it was crated and shipped to Australia where it arrived too late to take part in the conflict. It was never even issued with an Australian Spitfire serial number such as A58-???. Before being sold to Robs Lamplough it was assembled by an Australian Technical School and used for instruction on aircraft maintenance but not flown. It’s original M70 was removed for use in an Australian built P51 Mustang. It was then purchased by an Australian who apparently hung it from the roof of a hanger.
In 2016 MV154 suffered an engine problem on it’s way back to Bremgarten and the engine had to be rebuilt. I only saw the wings on the hangar floor during my visit in December. I am happy to say that I saw the complete aircraft on static display in Bremgarten in June 2017, but it was not flown as the “new” engine needed to be ground run for a while before being cleared for flight.
In the pilots notes, of interest is the fact that one needs to prime the engine with oil before the start up procedure. Even in the most complex sim such as DCS, the start procedure starts with cracking the throttle open which also turns on the electrical system in the sim, so we are only doing about half of the normal start procedure.
All speeds are in knots, whereas the original instruments and flying notes were in m.p.h. If I remember correctly knots were introduced as standard once the Americans joined the war in Europe.
Link to article : http://www.pilotweb.aero/features/cockpit-report-spitfire-mk-viii-part-one-1-5300388
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