Warbird Information Exchange

Tony,

Logically the two seat Spitfires should be fitted with a pair of the round type machine gun button grips.

These Dunlop manufactured items, made from high magnesium content aluminium alloy and covered with hard rubber sheathing, notoriously 'fizz' away and split the rubber.

In the restoration/Warbird era replacement cannon type rectangular gun buttons grips have been fitted.

They are very desirable collectors items now and you fit what you can find.

PeterA

Thanks a lot Peter A.
Was recently shown one at Baldonnel the owner claimed it was from the only Irish Air Corps Spitfire Tr (160) to crash . Would the Air Corps Seafire (cannon armed ) have that type of grip and round type gun button ? Bill Greenwoods Spitfire looks really great.
Best wishes
Tony K

Tony,

The Irish Air Corps Seafires would have been fitted with the rectangular gun fire button.

Look on the button as a pneumatic switch in an air line system.

The machine gun only Spitfires have have a 'feed line' and a 'fire line' to all .303 Brownings - Round Type.

The machine gun and cannon Spitfires have a 'feed line', a 'fire line' to the .303 or .5 Browning machine guns and a further 'feed line' to the 20mm Hispano cannons - Rectangular Type.

The rectangular gun button is a rocker switch. Press the top for machine gun only, press the bottom for cannon only and press the middle for both.

Here is a shot of one I keep close by for a future Mk 22 project.

PeterA

Thanks again PeterA
For me (a non technical person) it explains everything. What on earth would we do without having your Spitfire/Seafire expertise always willingly available to educate people like me ?
Very best
Tony K

Lynn Allen, the handle underneath the sectional chart is is the idle cut off or slow running cut out. Pulling this shuts off the fuel and that is how you stop the engine. The mixture control is automatic on Spitfires, that is the lean or richness of the mixture is automatically controlled by how much boost you are using, as the throttle is opened past +7 lbs or 44 inches, it moves into rich range, so it was one less thing to use do in combat. Early carburetor versions had a pull ring, later ones had a short lever that did the same thing, to stop the engine.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Bill, Roger that and thanks. You left Texas but didn't take these CB's with you. They were bigger than the ones we saw last year leaving Midland.
We came back from the Bahamas yesterday and had another see south Texas side trip due to weather and to clear customs in Houston.

Fly Safe,

Lynn

It was nice that Zane took a few minutes out of his day to drop by and meet me when I was sitting at Meacham watching the clouds. He gave me a hand adding some oil, and must have been a good luck as as not long after he left the clouds began to lift and I flew over to Breckenridge.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

And where would that be located Chuck?

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Warbird Colour - Authentic historic aircraft finishes http://www.warbirdcolour.co.uk

Me too, Chuck I have been looking for that baggage area for years. Some of the sngle seaters have removed the fuel tank from behind the cockpit and made a nice baggage spot, but nothing like the condo in the back of the T-6. As for me I'd rather have the extra fuel. If I had 25 more gallons it would give me a 2 hour cruise at low power and a good reserve.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK