Warbird Information Exchange

We have all seen the films of Battle of Britain pilots jumping into their planes and immediately taking off when the call came in for them to scramble. I have always wondered, were these aircraft already preflighted or was that not a concern so much then?

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

They were almost certainly "On Alert", which means fully fueled, armed, preflighted, and with the engines started and warmed at the beginning of the day and possibly intermittently through the day.

The pilots tended to meet their crews earlier in the day and sort out the aeroplanes -- do a walkaround, double-check that the perspex was clean, set the altimeter, adjust and lay out the straps, that sort of thing.

During a scramble height and speed was a life-giving advantage, so sometimes they were in such a hurry that they were finishing up the strapping-in as they climbed away.

To tell you the truth, in a much smaller event-path, we still do it that way. When we have airshow displays in the fighters and other aircraft, we give it a good going-over long before we head out onto the flight line to start-up, conferring with the ground-crew. When it's getting near start-time we still do a walk-around to make sure someone hasn't tossed a coke can into a radiator intake, or poked a pen through a fabric surface, and to get our heads in the game, but the real prep-work is done earlier.

Dave

most informative, thanks guys

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

I'm quite certain they were. The pre-flight would be accomplished before the pilot would show up for flight. The ground crew would accomplish it and the pilot would come out and get everything ready to go, switches in the correct position, parachute ready, radio checked, etc. When I flew C-130s we sometimes had a "Locked and Cocked" C-130 on alert. It would be pre-flighted and ready to go, the door locked and a seal in place. The preflight was good for 24 hours. The crew would show up, climb in and go.

My father was a RAAF flight mechanic and he told me that it was very usual to be assigned an aircraft and conduct a full pre-flight including an engine run, radio check etc and that pilots in combat conditions simple manned their aircraft and took off. In the training or non-combat environment pilot pre-flights were often accomplished.

I agree. When we were the 'ready alert' crew on the old Skypig, we would do a complete pre-flight at 7:00 am and get the plane completely preflighted, fueled, loaded, and ready to go....and then just retired to the hangar to 'wait'. We could be wheels up in 10 minutes if we had to scramble.

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

EXACTLY! We would ALWAYS show up 2 hours prior to crew show to prep aircraft. The ground crews will ALWAYS have the aircraft ready (unless something breaks).

Scott

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Scott Dunkirk
AZGCLHU Inc.

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