FlyPast 12.2018

December 2018 FLYPAST 105

time. These also provided great

opportunities to fly over – in

formation with Hangar 10’s P-51

Mustang and Spitfire Mk.XVIII –

the historic Peenemunde airfield

on the Baltic coast, just 15

minutes’ flying from Heringsdorf.

The innovative use of the very

latest digital data recording

technology by Hangar 10 is likely

to be studied more closely by

other operators, and should help

to improve all-round flight safety

for warbird pilots everywhere.

I would like to thank to Volker

Schulke, Johannes Schulke, Martin

Glockner, Michael Stock and the

team at Heringsdorf, and of course

Klaus Plasa, Cliff Spink and Rob

Davies, who flew the camera

aircraft for the photo sorties.

The G-14’s snug cockpit with Klaus Plasa at
the controls. An air data computer is mounted
between his feet, along with a GoPro video
recorder on the right-hand side and a blue-
coloured camera on the instrument panel.
The fl ight programme and notes are on his
left knee.

thanks to the odd-looking side

panel windows. These extended

panels were fitted during the war

to improve forward vision for

the rear-seat trainee, and they

certainly work very well.

“Cliff started the Merlin 500

engine and taxied from Hanger

10 to the main runway for run-up.

All went very smoothly, and we

departed off the grass runway

and climbed to about 5,000ft

and performed some warm-up

manoeuvres, stalls and such like.

I enjoyed the good view from

behind and began to like this

crew position, while poor Cliff

probably sweated somewhat

pacing through the numbers of

manoeuvres. Cliff came in with

the usual run-in and break to

an uneventful and very smooth

landing. A first for both of us and

hugely enjoyable.”

The G-14 test programme

started on August 16, and then

over the following week Klaus

flew a comprehensive set of

flight profiles, allowing the

paperwork and flight data reports

to be submitted to the Luftfahrt-

Bundesamt (LBA - Federal Aviation

Office), for the grant of a Permit

to Fly. At the time of writing, an

LBA permit had been awarded to

the G-12 and those for the G-6 and

G-14 should be provided in the next

two or three months, as flight

testing and inspection have

been completed.

FlyPast was able to have two

photo sorties during the test

flight programme, to record both

Bf 109s in the air for the first