A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more adventures

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Killratio
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A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more adventures

Post by Killratio »

This is the one that I have had lying aside to edit for a good while, that I mentioned to Stygron. Today I have some time free of work and family but, sadly, away from my P3D computer, so, next best thing, I'll edit this up:

Bruneval low level Sortie.

As the east tries desperately to show some pale, pre-sunrise light, I settle into the cockpit. December mornings in Australia are clear, warm and start at somewhere around 0430. Here at Heston, west of London, not so much!!

-5C means that the Merlin gives more than a little trouble but after the 4th Cartridge is fired (upon reload), it finally bursts into life. Now the race to warm up the oil to 15C before the radiator boils, begins in earnest. The Merlin XII is supposed to be a step up from the poor aging Merlin III's but all I see is a "new" engine type, and a 78 mile, single engined, flight over water. We'll worry about the 78 miles BACK over the water when we safely have our photos. Oil 15C, Radiator 100 already...time to get going. Easy takeoff, gear up (ah, I DO like this automatic pump!) and we are away.

I start climbing and head for Eastbourne, from where I'll head 185 deg, give or take, for Bruneval. Hopefully the change of track from southeast to sou/sou/west will make it look to the German Freyas like I am looping back and by the time they work out that I am not just "lost" on a training flight, they won't have time to get an interception organised!

The first thing I notice about the Rotol is the increased climb rate. Not a lot better than I can do with my old faithful "Moody Blue" and her DeH PCP airscrew, if I keep busy on the "Bike Pump" . . .but much easier. Out of cloud at about 15,000ft and I can see no gaps at all below me.

Temps, pressures,RPM all good, all happy.

Soon, upon leveling off, I check behind for contrails : none. Good but will need to keep a watch out in case I start to leave one. It is now fully daylight at 20,000ft and as I test the Type 35 Controller and think about the photos, I remember that I haven't pulled the lever to drop off the mudflap covers from the camera ports. That will cost me some pints. It is the second time in as many flights that I have forgotten to drop them as I've lifted off..so that they can be recovered.

17 minutes from takeoff, Eastbourne should be sliding by beneath me and I reset the DG to the P8 before I swing around to 185.

OK, nice and accurate (yeah, right, on a P8??) flying on course and then we will drop out of cloud at the forecast 2,500ft about 3 miles from Bruneval. Old Fritz won't even have time to finish his coffee.

Uneventful cruise, calm air and a fast descent rate of 2,750ft per minute and as I get to right on 2,500ft . . . nothing happens. Typical! They couldn't predict rain in Ireland, even on a wet day. Ok, 500 feet per minute, curving down to try to make one circle by 1,500ft. No joy, still about the same visibility as happy hour at a Turkish Bath House. Let's do that again. I just hope the baro pressure hasn't dropped by too much, making the Altimeter read high.

Back on my heading, 500ft indicated and still in cloud. Then, a glimpse of ocean. Just enough to convince me to inch lower. 450ft above sea level and the cloud is clearing all around me. Just visible now is a thin stretch of beach straight in front, stretching out to my left and right. At least I think it is thin, I admit to my attention being briefly diverted by the sudden recollection that the CLIFFS at Bruneval are something over 300ft high!

There is, however, a thin strip of green at the top, just under the cloud..so I am above them. Even better I recognize the large hedged "La Presbytere" on my left. By some miracle I am heading exactly at the Wurzburg RDF site, my target, perched on the cliff top roughly half way between La Presbytere and Bruneval itself.

Close in, I make a hard right turn and snap a series of photos out of the left field of view. Time to go home.

Climbing power and RPM, nose up. Reciprocal course, back out over the ocean. Check temps. Ouch 118C on the radiator. I haven't been going that slowly, surely? Why so hot? Fuel and oil pressures OK, oil temp OK, in fact, cool? Radiator Temp gauge rising slowly as I climb...tap glass. No difference. Tap glass again, same. Some steam now out of the vent. Reduce to a reasonably calm climb power/rpm. Wait.

10,000ft and now the radiator is 137C I'm going to have to level off for a minute. Some white smoke now.

Power low, rpm dragged back, open radiator fully and wait . . . 140C, 141C, 142C..should drop any second now... 143C, 144C . . . that should about do it, any second it will start to drop . . . 145C, 146C, 147C. Oil temp starting to climb rapidly now.

Did I mention I hate sharks?

Ok. Shut off the fuel and open up the throttle to drain the fuel lines (in case of fire). In short order the Merlin quits. Switches off. Temps quickly stop rising, then start falling.

10,000ft will give me 10-15 miles glide by my estimate??. Let's call it neutral head/tailwind component. I'm now a good bit more than that away from the French coast but probably still 60 miles from Eastbourne.

Do I want to drown trying to make landfall to be captured? Would I rather drown trying to get home? "Simulator" me is quite brave. Temperatures are going down now, altitude 5,000ft. Let's give it a go.

Is this cheating? Could I REALLY get away with this? Why not?

I have two cartridges left. I don't want to dive to pick up enough speed to restart the Merlin, so I wait for a few more precious feet to convert themselves to miles then try a restart using a cartridge. It works but with much black and white smoke and complaining. The temps immediately start to go up from their quite reasonable levels and it is apparent straight away that this engine will not let me maintain altitude without the temps rising too high.

The best choice is sometimes made when you have no choice. If I am going into the drink, I'm damned well going down fighting! So I open the throttle as wide as I dare, push up the prop and aim for 185mph in the CLIMB.

I watch the altimeter and the temp gauges both winding up. The engine is smoking still but it IS climbing. I'm at 8,000ft before the temps look too high to risk, so with the throttle closed, I pull the SRCO. This time leaving fuel in the lines to get her re-started quicker, with less loss of altitude or risk of flooding with the primer (but with the risk that if there is a fire, it will be more severe). I also convert a final bit of speed to a final bit of height and then lower the nose to best glide.

As I get down t 4,000ft again, I figure I haven't covered enough miles to risk wasting the last cartridge. So, biting the bullet, I lower the nose for some more speed and flick the mags back on. Directly I get a huge puff of smoke and the Merlin does its best to give some power. I keep the nose pointed down until the speed builds to 160 and then pull into the climb, increasing throttle to try to keep that speed.

This time, as I climb through 7,000ft, the radiator temp spikes to 150C and I need to shut down again. I need to use a higher glide speed to cool down a bit more but that will make me lose more height. Ah well. At least hypothermia will probably get me before the sharks find me.

Such is life for a while. Glide, cool, restart, climb, overheat, glide. On a shortening cycle of each.

Eventually at 2,000ft I break out of cloud. Unfortunately it all still looks very Ancient Mariner. So up we go again. By 4,500ft the temps are already threatening to set me on fire, so down we go again.

But this time, at 2,000ft, there is the slightest glimpse of Beachy Head. Nose down and as I hit 1,000ft the engine roars into some sort of life. Climbing back into the cloud I can only guess at how fast the coast is coming up but the temps are coming up, quickly, to 150C and by 3500ft I need to shut down once more.

A quick bit of mental arithmetic proves that if I repeat the same cycle this time, the engine will cool VERY rapidly, the sink rate will briefly arrest, then continue more slowly and my forward speed will be down to almost zero. On the plus side, any fire will be put out ;)

As I break cloud again, I see the coast is tantalizingly close. However many, many pilot's have frozen and/or drowned, a lot closer to land than this. The Spitfire does not ditch well and I have one final chance to bail out. If I attempt a restart, I'll be too low if it fails. BUT I will lose the photos if I go down in the drink and even if I survive, all will be for naught.

I reckon I need two more goes to reach the land. I have one Coffman left.

Not much closer and swim (probably drown), bailing out here. Not much closer, ditch (and almost certainly drown) if I try an air restart and it doesn't work. Halfway there, ditch (and almost certainly drown) if I use the Coffman and it works but an airstart doesn't. Finally, maybe make landfall if I airstart now, push it to the absolute max and then use the Coffman to get me over the line (but ditch and almost certainly drown if I don't make the right judgement as to whether or not I'll make landfall by the time I'm down to 1,000 odd feet or if the Coffman doesn't work).

I like the first part of option 4. So that is what we do.

After anxious seconds diving for speed and with the water barely 500 feet below, the Merlin starts but is not at all happy. I have to climb though, as if I don't, I won't get the cooling of the glide and the Coffman will be irrelevant. 140mph this time with a lesser angle. Still, I only just make it up to the cloud level before the temps are 145C and climbing rapidly. Shut down.

Below the cloud again and the coast is right there. I can almost smell the hotel breakfasts!

I glide lower and lower, each moment bringing me closer to the safety of the land. As a bonus, I'm already heading towards a flat area, away from the cliffs. Now I have to decide at what height I use the Coffman. It shouldn't take too long to catch if it is going to. The temps have come down a bit and at 500ft I give it a go. With enough smoke to be impressive, the Merlin gives me its final effort.

There is one last decision to make. Do I climb a bit to enable me to bail out or do I stay level and get more distance?

It looks like I can just make it to land. Level it is then.

As I make the beach, the temps are off the charts and I am sure the fire will start any second. So it is shut down, best glide speed and head for the flat, clear bit. No wheels down, flaps at the last moment and with a distinct lack of dignity, she scrapes to a halt.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As best as I can work out, this was a random failure of the coolant system. The tank was bone dry and I've done hundreds of flights under much higher engine load etc where not much has burned off at all. In a combat sim I would attribute it to a stray bullet in the Radiator. It is nice to be able to say, for once, that I didn't cause it and it was largely knowledge and experience that got me out of it, not dumb luck.

I harboured a doubt as to the feasibility, in real life, of pulling this off and for that reason wrote up the story but put it aside until I could do some checking. This was about 4 years ago. Recently, I was reading an account of a sortie over the Continent by a pilot who was hit by Ack Ack at 20,000ft on the French Coast, holing his radiator. To my great surprise, he did exactly what I did (with the exception of having an electric starter, not a Coffman, on the Merlin 45). He actually coaxed the Spitfire back to a coastal airfield and made an acceptable wheels down landing. So, once again, Scott's engine physics deliver an absolutely plausible result!

{edit: couple of spelling errors that slipped through, some tidy up and clarity}
Last edited by Killratio on 09 Mar 2020, 03:07, edited 4 times in total.
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Jacques
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Re: A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more advent

Post by Jacques »

That is just an amazing feat...and one hell of a story, Darryl! I don't hesitate pointing people to your posts because...for one, they might get a ripping good story. They WILL learn something about the Spitfire- history, technique or technical....or all three. And finally, they will see through your posts exactly WHY Accu-sim is such an amazing addition to the flight sim experience! Excuse me...I have to go fly now.

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Killratio
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Re: A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more advent

Post by Killratio »

Thank you Jacques! Hope you enjoyed your flight?

It all sounds very dramatic but, as we all know, this would get "old" fast if stuff like this happened all the time. Many hundreds of hours have gone by, planning, flying to a target, taking my photos (screenshots) and returning to base with the most interesting thing happening being a bounce on landing, a gust of wind on takeoff or, nothing.

On still other sorties, things happen which are a challenge, fun, but that make no "story" at all. Like the few times that I got all the way to target, only to find it in cloud down to ground level, and fly back home. Or coming down out of cloud in PNG to find yourself in the wrong valley but with no idea how close the right one is and no alternative but to climb up and go home. I usually turn on AI traffic, airliners and react to any contrails I see as potential fighter interceptions but, again, no riveting stories there.

I'll certainly write up anything else that happens that I think people would be interested in.

regards

Darryl
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Lewis - A2A
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Re: A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more advent

Post by Lewis - A2A »

hahaha great read as I ate my pizza for lunch hehe 8) You do have quite the way with words, love the post flight story/analysis.

Annnnd,...
Or coming down out of cloud in PNG to find yourself in the wrong valley
Isnt this standard PNG or otherwise? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Paughco
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Re: A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more advent

Post by Paughco »

Piece of cake!
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Killratio
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Re: A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more advent

Post by Killratio »

Paughco wrote:Piece of cake!

:) :) :) :)
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Killratio
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Re: A quick Photo Recce trip and home for tea .. more advent

Post by Killratio »

Lewis - A2A wrote:hahaha great read as I ate my pizza for lunch hehe 8) You do have quite the way with words, love the post flight story/analysis.

Annnnd,...
Or coming down out of cloud in PNG to find yourself in the wrong valley
Isnt this standard PNG or otherwise? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Seems to be, yes. At least the headhunters have just about died out ;)
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