Warbird Information Exchange

Lynn you missed the 2 in front of the Kelly crowd, should have read 250,000 screaming banshees. As you remember even ropes couldn't keep em off the planes. Their adoring parents telling little Johnny it OK to climb on that fabric airplane after all he pays his taxes. The only thing that kept them from doing pull ups on the Storch pitot tube was at 10 feet they just couldn't reach it.
Thank goodness for shows like Brackenridge where we had a more friendly crowd, but even that was beggining to get out of hand (but what a great airshow and great people)
I PM you the other stuff on the corsair and bearcat that didn't come thru on the website.

Re: ground overheating. Planes that have a center mounted radiator in the prop wash, P-51, etc. tend to get better ground cooling. Spits have the rads out under the wings. Through Mk V, they had only 1 rad, then 2 rads for the 2 stage Merlins, then larger, deeper rads for the Griffons which can ground run longer. Other factors are how new(clean) are the rads & of course air temp and headwinds, & especially is the engine a cold start or already flown. I shut down at 110 C and cool off to avoid leaks, and on landing I delay flaps till final. The good side is Spit cockpits are pleasant in the air, a P- 51 is like an oven as are many radial fighters. A Spit engine cools down as soon as the gear is up, even in climb and high power cruise. Ist start on a cool day I might be able to taxi 25 min, on a 95F Osh day 2nd flight, maybe 10 min. My MkIX has a ceiling of 43,000' and no cockpit heat! That sheepskin would be vital!

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK