Alan came round my place Monday night again and answered all the questions asked by us in this forum. In fact he had typed out answers...
I got him to read the answers into a recording device and prompted for extra insights to each question as well.
2 hours flew by....
I intend posting the replies somewhere as text and possibly as an mpeg recording (once I get it converted). There is over an hours recording!!!
Lots of very interesting war stories and insights on the spit to come...
To the guy who asked for infor re Tony Jonsson. Alan contacted a fellow old pilot here in NZ who remembered Tony well and is available to be contacted if required. Tony died not long ago unfortunately but I believe his son is still living here in NZ.
Contact me for further info.
couple of snippets of info from the 2 hours:
1. Alan NEVER used or trusted the rear view mirror on the Spit. It was slightly concave and gave a false impression. Trusting it or another pilot using it was a recipe to die!
2. He never saw a jap pilot bail, and in fact was unaware till I told him that they didnt generally carry chutes...
3. There were definitely 'monday' Spitfires. ie: a Spit that despite being checked out a technically exactly the same and to spec as all the other spits, just didnt feel right. You should hear what he did to one of these to make sure it couldnt be used!!!
more to come....
