BBMF Spitfire cockpit experience Club prize winner
Header Image: Club member Rory Weatherburn won the Spitfire cockpit experience Club ballot prize for March, and took up his prize on 4th August, getting the rare opportunity to sit in the cockpit of BBMF Spitfire Mk XVI TE311 (Photo: Clive Rowley)
Club member Rory Weatherburn from Ancaster, Lincolnshire, was the lucky winner of the March ballot prize, a Spitfire cockpit experience at the BBMF’s home at RAF Coningsby. Rory took up the prize on Monday 4th August, bringing his wife Sue with him to the BBMF hangar.
Club editor, Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Retd), a former BBMF Spitfire pilot and OC BBMF, hosted the ‘money cannot buy it’ experience with Spitfire Mk XVI TE311, a late mark, low-back, clipped-wing and, most importantly, an airworthy Spitfire. Rory and Sue are regular visitors to the BBMF via the Visitor Centre and have been on many hangar tours (free to Club members), often bringing friends who have not been before. This was something different though and they both very much appreciated being allowed inside the barriers into the centre of the hangar and getting a full explanation of the Spitfire, its remarkable history and its external features from Clive, with a walk around the aircraft.
Rory then climbed into the tight confines of the Spitfire cockpit, where he spent the next 20 minutes. As an ex-BMW motorcycle mechanic, he had a natural technical interest in the aircraft, and Clive explained all the controls and instruments, as well as telling of some of his personal experiences flying Spitfires. Rory was then left in the cockpit to just soak up the experience.
Afterwards Rory and Sue were able to have some time in the centre of the hangar, where the public are not normally permitted to go, allowing them to see things they cannot see from behind the barrier on a public tour, such as inside the Lancaster bomb bay. Finally, BBMF’s Diane Law-Crookes had kindly made up two BBMF ‘goodie bags’, one each for Rory and Sue, with a selection of BBMF merchandise inside, a final surprise to round off the morning.
