mosquito fans

[Rich46yo]

Outstanding Sherf. Thank you.

I never tire of watching Mossie Vids or pics. Im a tad bit mad for the plane, a remarkable chapter in aviation history.

Hey Rich:

The second vid in your second post starts with one of the 487 Sqn Mossies on the 9 October 1943 raid I referred to earlier in the thread.

I think the fjord raid is at Nordgulen, certainly this photo at the Australian War Memorial site would suggest so:

http://cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/SUK13677

That link has the raid being undertaken during January 1945, however I believe it was actually 5 December 1945. The Banff wing strikes (including Nordgulen) are described in some detail on this site:

http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/sorties.html

This German site describes the damage caused:

http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/44-12.htm

The translation for the Nordgulen attack is: "34 Mosquitos of the 143. , 235. and 248. Sqn. RAF (” Banff Strike Wing “) attack the 1st northbound part of the convoy BE-1075-AL in the Nordgulenfjord and damage the freighters Tucuman (4621 BRT), Magdalena (3283 BRT) and the ammunition transporter Helene soot (993 BRT). Protection by flakships V 5102, V5305 and V 5306."

As I've not spammed the thread with "stub exhaust" pics for a while, here's another. Caption speaks for itself (a "Noball" was an attack on a V-1 site).

(Image removed from quote.)

The squadron was at the time flying about 1/3 of its sorties in daylight, hence the *cough* stub exhausts (dead horse flogged).

The Australian National Archives have done an amazing job of digitising WWII-era records, including squadron Operations Record Books. Here's the relevant page from the 464 Squadron ORB. CHL Foster, the gent mentioned in the pic above, flew on this raid in LR383 (if you right-click and save as, then zoom in, it's actually quite legible, despite the way it appears here):

(Image removed from quote.)

Karnak - I still have to check the charts re: your question - can't remember off the top off me head again which was the "dog" aircratft, and what condition it was tested in when.at what weight. I think the drops accounted for around 5 mph or so.

[Scherf]

whats the mossie like at roping people?

thrila told me once that was his favourite move in the mossie.

Then again, he could a) fly, and b) shoot, in stark contrast to myself.

[mechanic]

Thrila was flying an expert mossy years ago. I remember one fight (over 4 years ago) I was in a typhoon and could not believe i was beaten so quickly by his mosquito. It's huge for heavens sake, how good could it be? Thrila's inspirational mossy flying got me interested only to discover thrila was a massive dweeb! What an uber aircraft! It was love from then on, thank you thrila 

[Scherf]

And now, so far as I know, he's "gone navy". Can ya believe it?

I mean, rum, sodomy and the lash.

Maybe he's just after the rum.

[thrila]

haha cheers for the kind words guys.  I haven't flown the mossie as my main ride for the past couple of years, i felt like a change and switched to something very different- the 109-g14, since then I regressed back to my spitdweeb days.    I'm currently flying the tiffie a fair bit in anticipation of the update.  When the mossie is updated i can guarantee that i'll be flying it as my main ride for a long time, it'll be just the excuse i need.

I'm still here scherf, my entry date has been pushed back to the sept 7th with my medical on july 1st.  I think the lash is gone the way of the dodo, but at least i get to look forward to the other two.

[Scherf]

Heheheh

 

[Plazus]

haha cheers for the kind words guys.  I haven't flown the mossie as my main ride for the past couple of years, i felt like a change and switched to something very different- the 109-g14, since then I regressed back to my spitdweeb days.    I'm currently flying the tiffie a fair bit in anticipation of the update.  When the mossie is updated i can guarantee that i'll be flying it as my main ride for a long time, it'll be just the excuse i need.

I'm still here scherf, my entry date has been pushed back to the sept 7th with my medical on july 1st.  I think the lash is gone the way of the dodo, but at least i get to look forward to the other two.

I sure hope they update the mossie real soon. Its a great plane, and its due for a serious update.

[Scherf]

Been a while since I spammed the thread with ejector exhaust pics, so here's another one.

According to Sharp & Bowyer's "Mosquito", the Mossies of 2nd TAF wound up their major daylight operations on 26 May 1944 (having started on 3 October 1943), they'd flown 155 daylight operations, totalling around 1,600 sorties, with a "Failed to Return" rate of a shade over 2%.

Bear in mind that Night-Fighter squadrons had been sending radar-less Mosquitos over the Bay of Biscay from December '42 onwards, and over occupied Europe from February '43. (The first daylight "Intruder" I've come across was by a 23 Squadron aircraft on 8 December '42). These all pre-dated the FB.VI, so were flown on F.IIs.

So, this time, it's a Coastal Command aircraft. Coastal Command (apart from the recce squadrons) received FB.VIs starting in February 1944, beginning with 248 Squadron. Try as I might, I can't find a picture of anything other than the 6-lber Mk.XVIII "Tsetses" from 248 Sqn from this period.

So, this particular Mossie is HR118 of 235 Squadron, on 18 July 1944. The aircraft itself was flown by F/L Noel Russell, who would on 11 January of 1945 claim two 109s shot down in a daylight battle at low level over Norwegian waters.




Note the *cough* ejector stubs for the daylight operation. *cough*

Don't have access to the 235 Sqn Operations Record Book, however here's one from the same period from 235's sister Squadron, 248. Note the times stated - more of those *cough* daylight ops again.

*cough*



Karnak - still owe you an answer, just want to compare a couple of data points, but I'm tending to a shade over 350 flat out for the ejector craft at nil feet.

[Karnak]

I was thinking about this today while at work.  As best I can tell, the climb rate for the AH Mosquito VI is about right.  The flight model feels about right.  The only thing off is the speed and it seems that plenty of evidence has been supplied to show the speed should be in the 350-355mph range at sea level.  I would think that HTC would be able to model that with the data now.

[Scherf]

Heya:

I mentioned earlier, I think the initial climb is about 300 feet / min too low, for the same weight.

Also, the drop tanks seem to knock off 10-12 mph at zero feet, which is about twice as high as it should be, though the speed loss was about that miuch at higher altitudes.

[Scherf]

Tried again, can' get beyond about 2,530 feet per minute for initial climb - should be 2,850 at full weight and bombs (same as I tested) on Merlin 25s.

Also, there's an AFDU report on Mike Williams' site which says the Merlin 25 Mossie could accelerate to full speed from 250 mph to full speed in 1.5 minutes - ours takes closer to 2, indeed it's still accelerating at around 3 mins, though only just..

That said, the E6B says we're getting +14lbs on WEP, not the +18 which the Merlin 25s developed.

So, I dunno. Quite apart from the saxophone exhaust issue, the AH Mossie still strikes me as a touch asthmatic in the climb etc.

Ah, one more thing. In the previous post I inidcated that 248 Squadron was the first to get Mosquito VIs. I see on clower examination that 333 Squadron had VIs by December 1843 at the very latest, so at least 3 months earlier than 248. Used them aggressively too, of which more later.

[bozon]

So, I dunno. Quite apart from the saxophone exhaust issue, the AH Mossie still strikes me as a touch asthmatic in the climb etc.

Do you also feel that the elevators are very anemic? or is it just me?
My guess is that they were tuned with the wrong center-of-gravity of previous versions and now that the CG was moved forward, it is harder to pitch up - to the point that you can pull full deflection on the stick without stalling, almost like with stall limiter on (it is off). We have asthmatic and anemic mossie. At least it didn't catch Herpes.

I see on clower examination that 333 Squadron had VIs by December 1843 at the very latest, so at least 3 months earlier than 248. Used them aggressively too, of which more later.

Now that is impressive. The mosquito was really ahead of its time. 

[Scherf]

Heheheh, good catch.

Going through some old files for a mate who needs to refer to them - mind-bogglingly depressing (all that work, for nuttin', I tell ye, nuttin') so trouble concentrating...

 

I really don't know about the elevators, I manage to stall / black out fairly regularly....

[moot]

Bozon I think I'd asked you already but.. Does it still feel wrong to you when you trim the elevators?

[thrila]

I agree bozon, to me it feels as if stall limiter is enabled.  I can trim elelvator full up, enter a loop at 200mph and pull the stick all the way back into my stomach to perform continuous loops.   moot, do you mean that even with full trim it feels like full deflection of the elevators can't be achieved?