“Good shot!” shouted the instructor enthusiastically from somewhere over my shoulder.
Secretly I was really pleased with that shot too.
I’d been approaching head on with the target who was about 1000 feet below and slightly off to my left in the 11 o’clock position. As we converged I’d rolled hard to my left and pulled over into a diving attack and strafed the Messerschmitt 109 from above raking the target with fire from my guns diagonally across the fuselage.
Time for a victory roll or two!
I’d first heard about Ace Squadron a couple of years ago when my mum bought me a Spitfire tour for Christmas. Unfortunately, this was right in the middle of the pandemic and so I’d had to keep putting off attending. However, now, nearly 3 years later, Kaz and I had travelled down to do the tour and had also booked the Spitfire simulator too.
Shouts of “Tally, I’m in.” rang through my ear…
I mean, who doesn’t want to try their hand at flying a Spitfire, and in a combat situation?
We’d not had too early a start as we’d opted to make the most of the trip and journey down the night before, staying in Shakespeare’s backyard and enjoying a rare meal out together, or ‘date night’ as it now seems to be universally known. Pulling into the Enstone Flying club car park we were greeted by the sight of Jaguar XX764 which is privately owned and being restored to display condition, as was explained to me by the father of the owner, who chatted with me and Kaz later that day.
We signed in at the clubhouse entrance and then settled ourselves in to a warm and welcoming club environment ready for the ‘tour’. I’ve put ‘tour’ in inverted commas as its not a tour per se, more of a talk mixed in with some history of how the squadron has come to be, the notable people involved in the project and also where they are up to right now with the project to build a squadron of modern Spitfires. You can read more on the Ace Squadron website but even though its not what I thought it was, it was a fascinating and very enjoyable talk presented by an engaging, amusing and clearly enthusiastic and motivated host.
Oh and by the way, everyone connected with the squadron is called Ian! (even if your name isn’t Ian, you end up being called Ian…)
Before he wrapped up he asked “are there any pilots in the room” – Kaz and I both duly raised our hands – which as I did it, I realised was a mistake, as I was due to fly the sim later that day…
After the talk, we relocated to the hangar to look around the two Spitfires they have over there which have been built so far (more are planned) and take photographs. As well as examine all the other interesting aircraft in there too, whilst we waited for our turn in the simulator.
The simulator is fabulous.
The cockpit is fabricated in the same way the team have built the two flying Spitfires but only the cockpit section. And its kitted out with realistic flight controls that feel right. The display is a 180 degree display that adds to the immersion of the experience and at £40 for a 20 minute flight it’s not overly costly, when compared to a lot of other simulators.
“Yay granddad I got 6!” yelled the 8 year old lad running out of the sim as I walked past for my turn.
Oh good, no pressure then…
Also, in case you are wondering, the granddad reference was to his own granddad, not a nod to my advancing years, at least I don’t think so anyway as I’m only in my forties!
Before I stepped in I was asked “do you need me to brief you on the controls?” – clearly I said the only thing I could, given he knew I was already a pilot…
“Just show me where the guns are” I replied with a grin!
Having noted before that the sim was set to immortal, I did initially challenge the standard concept of ‘immortality’ on my first attack when I swooped in guns blazing and didn’t bother to avoid flying into the enemy.
Cue, large explosion, propeller stopped, and smoke and flames all over the screen. And me, Maverick style “in a flat spin heading out to sea.” with the instructor muttering “I’ve never seen that happen before” while shaking his head at me.
Not as immortal as I might have thought then, it would seem…
However, with that little experiment out of the way and the sim reset, I got so involved in the flying and dog-fighting that I didn’t have time to think “this isn’t real”. I managed to score quite a few successes, taking 6 HE111s, 5 FW190s and the notoriously difficult to hit ME109 down (with that diving attack) – all of this earned me the chance to ring the genuine WW2 scramble bell from Biggin Hill, which is also located in the simulator. Kaz had a blast too and managed to shoot down a few bandits and emerge from the sim with a smile on her face.
All in all it is a great experience to see what they are trying to do at Enstone, fly the sim, and enjoy a great atmosphere with friendly people. Plus its a flying experience that doesn’t rely on the weather playing ball, and being from the North of England, that gets my vote every day!
So what are you waiting for?
Scramble!
Dan Roach Flying Author 