Flying the 109e

[Dai Fledermaus]

Luftwaffe pilots really had their work cut out flying the 109.

**LINK**

Edited By Dai Fledermaus on 01/04/2018 20:17:34

[Josip Vrandecic -Mes]

Fantastic Link (pics)....thanks a lot Dai.

[Colin Leighfield]

I enjoyed reading that, might have seen it before. It clearly wouldn’t do you much good if you had an off day or were exhausted after hard combat to be flying one of these. You had to be on top of your game for every second of the flight. If you were you could get the best out of it and a lot of the top notch Luftwaffe fighter aces clearly did. It has always interested me though that a Spitfire Mk1with about 100 bhp less than a 109E and a wing with an area nearly 50% greater had a similar top speed in level flight, depending on altitude. Clearly the aerodynamics of the Spitfire were a lot better and that explains why it was able to be developed to the extent that it was.

[Trevor Crook]

Ah well, if the weather ever improves and the field dries out I'll get a very small inkling of what it's like when I maiden my Durafly 109E. The method of applying power very gradually is one I use on my DF Mk1 Spit, and that lifts off quite nicely when I get to about 50% power.