Tiger Moth: Old school flying without all those pesky flaps, brakes and instruments

Oh dear

A proper aeroplane. Now I have to book a flight.

I am so jealous...

That sounds like a truly awesome day out. I can't begin to describe how jealous this article made me feel!

All of the above

I can only just repeat what has been said before. I'm now jealous and want to try myself!

Nothng like it

I flew from Duxford in one of these a while back. One of the finest experiences of my life, without a shadow of a doubt.

Lovely

A proper airplane where the pilot flies the plane instead of the plane flying the pilot.

Flown one too...

at Duxford on a summer afternoon a couple of years ago.

Super way to see the countryside, 2000ft up, Cambridge on one side, open views right down to the Cotswolds on the other. The plane is wonderfully gentle but responds so well.

The best part was when swifts and swallows came alongside and played around in the wingtip vortices, flying in and out of the turbulence and chirping to their friends as they tumbled, you could hear them through the sound of the engine. There aren't many planes (maybe LSA or microlights) which fly slowly enough for that to happen.

Thanks for the article, reminding me of a favourite day. I got the smell of oil and avgas the moment I read the second page and the engine start sequence.

Fabulous article for a Saturday morning!

I felt like I was sitting in the cockpit. What joy.

Also...that airspeed indicator photo was spot on.

What I Would Like To Say.

"we’ve got an aeroplane this weekend"

How I would love to be able to say this myself...

POTW!

Post of the week!

Excellent find, article and video.

These were aircraft made back in the day when men were men and aircraft were barely more than jeeps with wings.

I have done the Duxford experience, and enjoyed just as much as the others mentioned.

I had already done hundreds of hours on Cessnas and Piper nosewheel planes, and was so pleasantly surprised that the 1930s biplane and more responsive handling. Lovely gentle spin too.

Of course the more "modern" spamcans had damping in their control links to smooth out hamfisted inputs, but the moth was a joy by comparison.

No flaps?

To land, how does one slow to a safe speed *and* maintain safe descent rate w/o flaps? Did I miss something? Thank you.

Acrobatics

Had a trial glider flight once. The pilot said it was very good at acrobatics. I indicated that it was not my thing - even going high on swings as a child made me ill. Alton Towers would be a nightmare. I just can't handle motion disorientation.

Part way through the flight he decided to demonstrate the glider's agility. Suddenly the horizon was now vertical. I controlled the panic but was not pleased.

This article's description of the acrobatics brought back that memory too clearly.

However - I love the thrill of take-off and landing in planes of any size.

I also flew in Chipmonks and winch launched gliders as a Cadet in the early 90s. Lots of fun. We all loved the gliders the best but it would be rather nice to fly in a Tiger Moth.

Stampe

Many years ago, early on a sunny summer Friday afternoon my boss (owner of the company) - an amateur pilot - came over and said "enough work, we're going flying".

And sure enough, we drove down to the airfield and spent a glorious afternoon flying around the south-east of England in his Stampe - which is a very similar plane to the Tiger Moth.

Best afternoon ever! And also slightly terrifying when he gave me the controls. I gave them back rather quickly. Of course he then did a bunch of aerobatics which didn't exactly stop the terror!

Thanks for republishing this! Most enjoyable.

Tigers did have flaps

Actually they were call "Slats" and would come out automatically at the front of the upper wing at slow speeds. There is a lever to lock them down during Aeros. Most also have brakes (and breaks as well).

But Tigers are like the good old axe with three new heads and six new handles. I flew one with four obviously different wings, and the fibre glass engine cowling might not have been original. The slats were often removed as they were not at all necessary.

They are a joy to fly. Open cockpit, responsive yet forgiving, would spin like a top but pull out easily. Needs a bit of rudder in the turn, bit scary for a tin can flyer.

They are actually very difficult to land properly, 3 points together, because there is not enough elevator authority to pull the tail all the way down. So you have to snap the stick back at just the right time to build up enough angular momentum but without launching back into the sky.

The most frightening part is starting them. By hand, of course. That prop comes flying round very fast and anything that gets in its way will be neatly chopped off.

The great shame is that they are *so* expensive. Here in Oz I used to hire one for $180/hour long ago, but the price has tripled. In the UK triple that again. For a machine that doesn't have 1/10th as many parts as a basic car, it really is rags, sticks and wires.

I bought my dad a couple of tiger moth flights for birthdays - he absolutley loved them. One one flight the weather was nice so he was able to take the controls, and on the other it was a bit rougher so the pilot kept them, but spent some time chasing the spitfire that was up at the same time.

I really wish I could have gotten my dad a spitfire flight, but that was too expensive :(