Armortek

Today was the last day of the Flying Heritage Collection's fly days. I got to see a real BF-109E flying! It is one (if not the) only Battle of Britian BF-109E still flying. This one was recovered in Calais area after shooting down a spitfire and Blenheim in the B.O.B and then being itself shot down by a spit. The original DB engine sounds awesome. Sorry for the poor video quality, but the sound is great! There are many better vid's than mine on Youtube -sorry if they are repetitous. The 54ft take off of the Storch was impressive!

If you are ever in Seattle WA this museum is a must see. The amazing thing about this collection is all the planes are flyable and all are combat veterens. Including the ME263 and FW190D. The latter are too rare to even start however.

They have added a lot of cool stuff including two beautifully restored 88mm Flak guns. One of which was towed out and fired off a simulator round to start the fly day- Wow loud! A kettenkrad is used to pull the gun out for firing! Awesome!

I hope you find it interesting. -Bob


















































Video's:

Bob,

I will get directions from you while home.

The Museum on I-5 is actually on the military base at Ft Lewis, so you need special permision to access it. But they got tanks!!! I was to late to visit it last time I seen you, next time.

Jim

Excellent photos and videos Bob!

Call me crazy but the Storch has always been one of my favorite WWII aircrafts. Would love to have one of those some day as my own plane.

I guy can dream can't he?

Thanks for the post. Way cool!
Tim

Bob - you lucky man! Flying Heritage put a lot of money into their restorations to get them right.

The Storch is a remarkable aeroplane. Here's one in Russia in 1942:











And the same aircraft is now in Somerset:










Although I worked on a real Storch restoration a long time ago, I flew the British equivalent - the humble Auster. It could do most of what the Storch could achieve but was a lot smaller and easier to maintain in the field. It was in continuous service for 25 years in various forms and was on operations for every one of those years - a unique record.

This is a display we flew at the Shuttleworth Collection:






Thanks for sharing your experience. Stephen

Robert

There is also a Bf 109 Flying in Duxford (England)

Sven,
These "BF's" are spanish merlin powered HA-1112's (Hispano Aviacion) painted as German BF's for the Battle of Britain movie and others. They are handsome (and convincing) in their german painted livery no doubt. Not quite 100% true BF109 but gorgeous none the less. Flying B.O.B. BF "Emil" models are extremly rare. I was amazed how small the E is too. All business.

Tim, I don't think you are crazy at all. After seeing the Storch do its thing Sat - I have whole new respect for it. It seems like it would be hard to crash that thing! It would make a versatile and fun plane to have. I'd take one too! It looked like a dragonfly when it dropped onto the runway moving at what looked like only 20 mph!

Stephen, it took me several looks to realize that was a scale model! And a sweet model it is. Do you own it? Have you flown it? What scale is it? Someone did a superb job building it. The Auster looks a lot like a J-3 cub. I like the brown and green camo. Looks like a champ to fly too. Thanks for sharing your exp.

Jim we gotta hit the FHC fly days when you are home on leave. Really worth seeing. Nothing like the sound of a Merlin, DB, or big radial engine overhead! The Ft Lewis museum is cool too, I have some good photos of the Sherm there. Need to see it up close sometime. Keep safe.

Bob

Robert

I already thought there was something funny about the plane...
I liked yours more,just thought that the one in Duxford was another variant.

Tim

Everybody is a little crazy...

Regards

Sven