Sandy Gunn

ON THIS DAY IN 1941…

Sandy flew the Spitfire for the first time. He recalls the event in his diary:

"Flew the Battle first thing in the morning for an hour and did some real good landings. Had another 45 minutes before lunch taking a look round the countryside and at various aerodromes such as Bicester, Upper Heyford etc. After lunch Peters showed me cockpit layout of Spitfire and off I went. Pretty shattering at first; speed almost too much to contend with, even throttled back. Went up, like a fool without goggles and found it impossible to stick my head out when landing, as accustomed to on the Battle. Made some pretty lousy landings as a result; first one was alright by a fluke. Never seen such a rough ’drome as Benson – positively dangerous.

Did just over an hour and a half and got pretty annoyed. Came in and was immediately sent for a rapid tea to go off again at five. I actually got off about six when it was getting pretty misty. Went over to Mount Farm, the satellite ’drome which has runways. What a difference! Goggles too this time. Made some quite respectable landings, though still getting too low on last stages of approach and had some trouble watching for late returning Wimpies. Built some confidence and was getting used to the speed although I made a lousy landing on return to Benson partly due to bad approach and partly due to the roughness of ground. My first impressions of the ‘Spit’ definitely good; no viciousness whatsoever. I must get these approaches right, then landing should be better."

This is extract from his diary ,sandy went on to fly many missions eventually he ended his career as one of the Great escapers at Stalag Luft 111 camp ,the plane you can see is currently been rebuilt after it crash landed in Norway ,his legend lives on.