A Tempest from a shed in southern France

[gabor42]

Hi, Everybody,

I found this news recently. Great news, a great pilot, and a great warbird a Tempest will fly again. As I know, there is no Tempest Mk V in flying condition.

Kiwi pilot relives wartime heroics in restored Tempest - Story - NZ News - 3 News



and



Kiwi pilot relives wartime heroics in restored Tempest - NZ News - Video - 3 News




Cheers,

[Woolgar]

This is exciting !

I love this aircraft

Nick

[Thanatos]

Cool banana's.
I just love these Hawker birds.The predesesor of the magnificant Tempest MKII and Sea Fury,The Bristol Centurus Radial in these later marks has to be one of the sweetest sounding powerplants ever made,they just crackle.
Very very nice.
Thanks for posting.
Cheers
Dave

[Adrian Stevenson]

Very good.

[Paul B]

This particular ex-Indian Air Force Tempest used to live at Spanhoe airfield, not far from me here, until it went to France in 1996.

[Kiwi63]

Pierre Closterman's book, THE BIG SHOW, a must read for the enthusiast .... bouncing the Me 262's on their finals was the only chance of knocking them down,as the German Jets were too fast to catch in combat, referred to as "Rat Catching",... the Tempest's from Volkel would scramble 4 aircraft on readiness with the pilots actually strapped in and waiting ... in 8 minutes from "scramble" they would be at 10,00ft above Rheine/Hopstein, shooting down 8 "rats" in one week using that technique,.. the German's answer was conserve fuel to allow for a flat-out run home at ground level until they made the safety of their "Flak corridor" , a 5 mile long "lane" that sported 160 quadruple 20mm mountings in a double line, with 3 Tempests lost in a week they were eventually forbidden to get within a 6 mile radius of the German airfield ... the mind boggles


High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.


Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941

[kiwiwreckdiver]

I think it was Jack who wrote book called 'Son of a tempest Pilot' or along those lines could be a good read

[Kiwi63]

I think it was Jack who wrote book called 'Son of a tempest Pilot' or along those lines could be a good read

"Jack" is a member here kwd? .. cheers

Hawker Tempest


Tempest V Series 1 JN766 of 486 Sqn. April 1944. Pilot may be Flt Lt. William Miller of Invercargill.
Re-equipped with Hawker Tempests, initially in January - February 1944,[13] and later again in April. Although 486 Sqn was the first unit to receive Tempests, 3 Squadron was the first unit fully equipped. The unit was changed back to fighter defence after D-Day and claimed 223½ V-1 flying bombs, the second highest number of any unit. At the end of April 1944 the 486 squadron became part of 150 Wing, along with 3 Squadron and 56 Squadron. (the latter still equipped with Spitfire VBs and, later, Hawker Typhoons), under the command of Wing Commander Roland Beamont.[14] Beamont wrote about 486 Sqn.

"...an exuberant bunch of New Zealanders with a brilliant record on Typhoons and a rather casual approach (as I was soon to find out) to King's Regulations and Air Council instructions - and to "Pommy Bastard" wing leaders!" [15]

No. 486 Squadron RNZAF - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[kiwiwreckdiver]

Always good to meet another Kiwi,
Great video and great book.
Hamish

[Kiwi63]

Sure Hamish,

My brother in law has dived a few Pacific wreck's .... have to catch you up on one of your threads sometime, Im on the East Coast, Napier, and was a commercial fisherman most of my working life, the call of the sea huh?

Allan