Spitfire SL633 is alive!!!

[spookythecat]

Saturday at our Cascade Warbirds meeting we had John Sessions as a guest who spoke about his new Spitfire which was recently delivered by crate and was being removed from them as he spoke. He invited anyone who was interested to stop by Historic Flight Foundation and watch the progress of it being rebuilt. I made it up Sunday afternoon and found a very complete looking aircraft. The crew from Duxford in charge of the re-assembley made quick work of things to the point of a test run Sunday night. More detailed info on this aircraft can be found here---> http://historicflight.org/hf/collection ... backstory/



















More shots can be found here---> http://www.flickr.com/photos/spookythec ... 138338154/

[Holedigger]

Interesting gun sight, I like that "Select your target" dial!

[Lynn Allen]

Thanks Al for your time and sharing the photo's.....

[Al Moore]

That is a beautiful restoration!! Great photos. Thanks for sharing them.

Do you know when the first flight will be?

[Matt Sharkey]

Nice shots.

[Bill Greenwood]

Al, thanks for the great photos, sure looks nice and newly painted. Is it a Mk IX?
If you have a phone number for John Sessions would you send it to me as a PM?
Thanks

[BenG]

Thanks for posting your photos Al!

Bill: yes, it's a Mk.IX (actually one of the three recovered in the late 90's by David Gouldsmith from Myanmar).
All details will be available soon "in the book"!

Last edited by BenG on Mon Oct 11, 2010 12:45 pm, edited 4 times in total.

[spookythecat]

Sounds like, weather permitting, the first flight will be Thursday.

Bill: It's a Mk IXe. I don't have his # but you could try calling Historic Flight Foundation and i'm sure they could get you in touch.

[PeterA]

First noted in Mandalay, Burma, in 1984...sporting a Harvard tail unit.

Six pages devoted to its complete history in 'the book'.

PeterA

[Bill Greenwood]

I think that I may know the tall, handsome fellow working on the prop hub. I think his name is Bill ( aren't all Bills tall and handsome? well, maybe not all, there was William Bonny.
But anyway notice the S 100 spec painted on the oil filler door. For some reason in England they like to use 100 grade or 50 weight oil, while virtually all U S Merlin owners use some form of 120 grade or 60 wt. I use 25 w-60 or when not available use 120 w. The 50 seems to work ok, but some of the engine builders here say the 60 wt is better than the 50 for the supercharger. I am not sure what Rolls Royce says or said. Some planes in England are still using mineral oil which almost no one does here anymore. I get the impression that they don't fly as many hours over there as here. All the way from the top of England to the bottom is only about the distance across Texas and they can practically hop from Duxford to North Weald. We have to go from Oshkosh to Midland to California or the NW, etc.They have to be a little braver to fly in some of the weather that I have seen there. I twice sat at Duxford waiting to fly and the weather would not allow it. I did get to fly a Tiger Moth there which aside from being freezing cold was classic fun.
The Brits may be a little strange in some of their ways, who else like their homes cold and their beer warm, but they do know how to land an vintage plane. Duxford is both long, wide and open, but Old Warden is not at all and they fly in there.

[John Dupre]

Is the current paint scheme accurate for that serial #? I assume that it came to Burma from Israel and likely then to Israel from Czechoslovakia. What are the plans for repaint if any?

I also love the photo of the windscreen with the Union Jack framed in the mirror. Was that a conscious composition or just a lucky accident?

[Taylor Stevenson]

Knowing Al, it was a conscious composition. He's got a good eye for unique shots.

[PeterA]

Is the current paint scheme accurate for that serial #? I assume that it came to Burma from Israel and likely then to Israel from Czechoslovakia. What are the plans for repaint if any?

The livery is 100% for the aircraft.

It was meticulously detailed using period photos of SL633 taken post WWII in Czechoslovakia.

I would like to think that a repaint was not on the agenda.

PeterA

[JohnTerrell]

An extremely handsome scheme when the aircraft is all buttoned up, too - very nice to see original markings applied to her, especially for how nice a scheme it is.

Thank you Al for the excellent photos of its arrival at Paine! Recent chatter seems to indicate you may have an opportunity to do the same with a certain Fw-190-A5 coming to the FHC, sometime soon.

[JDK]

I also love the photo of the windscreen with the Union Jack framed in the mirror.

Me too. Nice one, Spook!

Taking time to figure out and make compositions like that is what sorts the people who think flash kit will get them the killer pics, and those that strive to make it happen for them by using the Mk.1 eyeball.

Good one.