Interview with Air Marshal Cliff Spink on his RAF Career

so click when do you first become interested in aviation I think very early days Mike I was a farmer's boy so we lived in Kent and a lot of activity in those days where airplanes stations that were still operational were Manston and West Malling Biggin Hill and the airplanes that used to come back in from there gun firing used to come right over the farm and it was great adventure for us if one of the sleeves that they were towing for their air-to-air firing detached and came down on the on the farm anyway so I had an an interesting aviation from a very early very earliest early stage ADC and things of that sort and my first flight in a chipmunk etc etc so that was that was really my introduction to aviation I always wanted to to fly I think it best put I I didn't exactly excel in my secondary education not so much from an academic point of view but I I left school prematurely I think is the way they put it more bluntly I think the headmaster said it's it's you or me and it's not going to be me so I am I came into the Air Force at the age of 16 as an apprentice because too young to fly but I was very lucky that I was selected for pilot training while I was an apprentice and at two and a half years later I was told by the Commandant at Halton our apprentice school and the Commandant was an air Commodore very famous wartime Spitfire pilot called aldia and he was our common den aldia was by that time in air Commodore and he basically said I think it was a joke I hope it was he said oh I think we're you're going to be a bloody awful engineer so we're sending you pilot training so I found myself at Cromwell starting my pilot training in 1966 having joined in 1963 well my my first basic training was on the jet Provost it was an interesting time in the Royal Air Force at the time because a lot of the when you first came in you normally did chipmunk flying first and then went on the jet Provost but there was a feeling I think by the Royal Air Force that we're becoming a much more of a a jet Air Force and the Khan end consequence they thought would take us right through jet training so we were one of the first entries that came in exclusively on the jet I'll come back to that later because anyway I went through on the jet Provost three and four and we did about a hundred and seventy hours on the jet Provost at Cromwell including all the all the basic flying training formation instrument flying and we got our wings in August 1968 just fifty years ago so seems like yesterday and that the the aeroplane was was a delight to fly the jet promised some people said it was perhaps a little bit too straightforward for basic training and I immediately I'd finished and got my wings went up to royal air force Austin at and sorry Spitfires and hurricanes taking off in the background so immediately after I'd finished I went as a gap in my flying training and I went with Northumbrian university Air Squadron and checked out on the chip man which was probably one of the best things I ever did because it gave me tail dragging prop experience and I was able to come back to that at various gaps when I was on an enforced time behind a desk or something but that was only for about a month before I went to RAF Valley on the net to do my advanced flying training super bit intimidating it looks small but it's the you know power weight it was very Swift it was not an aeroplane you mucked around within if you understand me we did but not in not close to the ground on the rest of it so it it was quite a challenge coming from the jet Provost to the NAT high approach speed lots of things about it you really had to watch out for so after the winter you got posted to your first funtimes hair Jack can you tell us about this and what your first thoughts are like me where when you went from the hunter which was in itself a really good high-performance aeroplane I always remember when I arrived at cortisol which is where we did our lightning conversion and walking across the hangar for the first time and looking I felt my goodness that's a big beast and you know just just to look at the Lightning it looked it looked mean and it looked yet full of performance and of course that's the way it proved to be and so that coal - all we did about I think it was about 60 60 hours on the aeroplane maybe not as 50 or 60 hours anyway and the the whole point was so you went through obviously your normal conversion to get your instrument rating and then you were into your applied intercept training a really high workload aeroplane actually because being a single seater and you had to not do the obviously control the radar the missiles and everything else that went with it so the airplane itself was a delight to fly absolute delight fly and I'll go back to that but where people fell down on conversions if they were scrubbed was normally because they couldn't operate the airplane right yeah now my first flight your very first fight in the Lightning was what we called an instructor's benefit you just sat in the airplane with an instructor and got airborne and he he it was a good day for him because he could just show us what it was all about and I think I didn't know whether it was to impress us or intimidate us but I always remember mines my instructor was a chap called flight lieutenant Jimmy Jewell who subsequently was a very well known here at Duxford flying the b-17 anyway Jim we got airborne and it was a reheat take off in a mark 5 and it truly was gut-wrenching or inspiring and it was if somebody had got hold of the world and towed it away from you that's the way and as we as we were going up at a incredible angle of climb and speed he looked across at me as we were sort of almost lying on our backs going airborne and in rather laconically he said there you are young man he said the only reason we've got wings on this airplane is to keep the nav lights apart so we went through the training there I mean the thing about the Lightning was it was always it never had a great deal of fuel no you know compared you've had two massive engines and you really had to be on your mettle to get in all that you needed in that's in that sort and you're always looking at the fuel gauges yeah it's seriously I mean if a combat sortie in the short range shorter range airplanes could be 15 20 minutes or something like that but we generally eat about half an hour out of them later on I went on to the longer range but anyway I finished a cold ish all I was posted to travel one squadron an RAF what ischium and it was just the best thing for a young man in this wonderful airplane a good captive good good airplane to earn your Spurs on I think is the best way you really had to be on your mettle but it was so wonderful to fly beautifully handling machine a lot of people would used to say yes and landing was a controlled crash nothing could be further from the truth you could really finesse the Lightning on to the ground in a crosswind we would you could wear out on not because you've ineptness on the behalf of the pilot I quickly add but bikina crosswind the tars were such high pressure things you get rid of a pair of tires in one landing in a crosswind but normally they didn't last that long we obviously had a brake parachute because they for obvious reason you're coming around finals at about 170 coming across the hedge around about 150 knots say you're yes you're fair moving as for sure but the airplane was eminently fly you know fly ball and as I say very demanding particularly at low level and very sadly we did you know that the force the lightning for stood in in what was a highly demanding environment anyway that was my first tour and I got selected from there to go back to cold assure would become a weapons instructor that was another high intensity program up at coldish or where you not only did it but you taught other but people how to do it which is always a good lesson for anybody becoming an instructor yeah and I finished finished that I had a little bit of a tragedy in my life at that time I lost my first wife but the Royal Air Force were great although I had been retired on Trevor one they decided to send me to Cyprus 256 squadron and which I thought was magnificent as a human relations and the Royal Air Force were very good at that time and they they sent me to Cyprus as one of the weapons instructors on 56 squadron which were flying the mark six increased fuel big ventral tank compared to the mark 3 which I'd been flying on treble 1 squadron and not only did it have the same missiles but it also had two 30 meter 30 millimeter cannon yeah actually in the ventral fuel tank I think only the Brits can put two guns in a fuel tank but about right there did it worked ok yeah and I had 18 wonderful months in in Cyprus and in and during that period we of course we had the Turkish invasion yes during the time in Cyprus the Turkish invasion of Cyprus which was prompted by actually Greeks fighting Greeks Macario says men being and the National Guard anyway they had a bit of a punch up and eventually the Turkish government somewhat understandably said we won't have a Greek dominated Island because it had been obviously dual nationality and they invaded and it was very interesting that I was scrambled one day and we knew this was all going on but the fight had been going on but the Turks hadn't invaded but we anticipated that they may um probably would and I was brought to I was on what we called battle flight QRA and I I was brought to readiness and as I clambered in the controller said we've got six tracks coming down from Adana and gave me a scramble so I was rather pleased to see my flight commander also scratch strapping to an airplane because six to one didn't seem like a very good odds at the time as it turned out we scrambled and intercepted rf-84f aircraft the Turkish reconnaissance airplanes and we escorted them and that was you know with our rules of engagement obviously we had to be shot at before we shot back and and of course they seem to be as nervous as we were and of course the lightning it's quite a big airplane compared to an RAF 84 and so we were I was in close formation escorting this Turkish pilot who I met many years later but that's another story and we escorted them around and it was very easy to know the areas that they were recognized during because you could see the camera doors on the nose of the RAF 84 coming over anyway we did that and that was all very exciting time and then of course they did invade we were rather restricted to defending the sovereign base areas and by that time we'd been reinforced by phantoms as well in case we really did get into a hot engagement as it turned out it didn't but we had a lot of very exciting exciting flying that's that's for sure Cyprus itself was a great environment to fly in as you can imagine yeah and a great environment to be in but sadly to our amazement given all that had happened in 1974 at the end of 74 the government of the day decide they're going to withdraw experience that yes yeah we and of course luckily they didn't close Akrotiri for all the reasons today it's used so so much in that rather hot part of the world I mean hot in political terms rather than we came back with the airplanes again to water sham Durrell water shampoo and I was with the squadron then again all the way through 1975 into 1976 sometimes on the lightning fabulous I mean I got about 1300 hours on the airplane and it was just just a wonderful period in my life I think it was as I've already said a great airplane for developing you're not in your flying skills were your captaincy skills because you really did need to be on top of the job you know never had an excess of fuel so before we move on I have to ask how their lighting fairing dact with the tights at the time very well very well it had a lovely wing and we're talking about a time when a lot of the European air forces had the 104 yeah so no contest yeah we out climbed and out turned the 104 good airplane that it is and I've flown in the 104 but that the Lightning was in it and of course we used to we were cleared to air test the lightning to fifty six thousand feet and that the the reason it got only fifty six thousand feet was a limitation on the oxygen system and your pressurization Zoar nothing to do with itself no the aircraft and indeed and others I'm sure went further and higher than I did but you used to do an accelerated term through a run through one point three and then did a constant mark climb but by the time if you handle the end you had to handle the engines properly you had to gradually reduce the reheats to got as you were getting higher so you didn't get what we call a rich cut right the last thing you want is the engine blowing out at that height and losing pressurization could soon get some fundamental physiological problems then but we all went through that and I mean I only went into the mid-60s but I know a lot of my friends who went even further and it was amazing I mean on the few occasions I did on their tests you can actually see the curvature of the earth the sky goes a very deep midnight blue all the light is actually reflected from below and as you went up you the amazing thing was that you were doing a very high Mach number still but because we had a what we could have stripped speed in the airplane you could see compared the air speed to the Mach number and the air speed was incredibly low sort of speed you only see in the circuit or just above and but the mark you were still doing 1.3 yeah and given it gives you an indication of the you know the relative relationship between air speed and mark and we used to have roll and you didn't have enough tail to push you tended to roll and pull the airplane down hoping that the engines weren't going to go out my flight commander who who had actually flown u2's really got us all together one day and said look you don't you boys a playing was far there because if the engines go out you could have a real problem with your pressurization and Wow and so but anyway we did you know we went to great heights and indeed it was the lightning it only became known laterally when the black programs were kind of the lightnings did interceptions against u2's really to prove or disprove whether ere other airplanes could get to the same sort of height and of course the lightning did which was a bit of a sobering thought for the youtubes because Soviets were getting airplanes of quickly a mig-21 which were comparable performance so but we we did actually do interceptions not me personally but and indeed it was unknown to me when I was in the lightning force but laterally it became known that we had done interceptions just to prove or disprove and it proved that the Lightning could get a toast we were pretty much ballistic as we went past I wouldn't say that they could fly like the YouTube anyway that was the end of my 76 brought an end to my my flying in the lightning after about 1300 hours and they were looking up to go on to fly the fd1 in the fgr - how did you feel about this well I was very pleased I was I was given a tour with the army at the role of military academy sandhurst where I I managed to play hooky on certain days and go and fly the chipmunk to keep me and I in fact I browned the flying club for the Academy as well but obviously I was itching very quickly to get back to jet flying I've been promoted to score Delina so when I was told I was going as it happened backed to treble one score and by now RIA quipped with the FG 1 and the FG are two they had a mix of the old Navy airplanes and and and so I did refresher training on first jet promise and again the hunter jet Provost at leeming and the hunter at RF braudy great fun going back through the training and found myself at Coningsby on the on the phantom first impressions were not as positive as I I would have wished phantom with the Spay is a very powerful engine airplane but the increment you got with reheats was enormous in cold power it had less thrust on the lightning in reheat had a lot more but so in cold power it was it was a a bit pedestrian particularly at height great low-level aeroplanes because it's a fan engine so my I always remember my first take off and adopting her from my memory banks at an angle of climb which I thought was going to be appropriate and it was far too far too high and I had to shallow it off just to keep the speed but I got to love the Phantom it it didn't have the handling characteristics of the of the lightning that the lightning was just a thoroughbred in its handling I went a difficulties the wrong word but it didn't have quite the characteristics that the lightning did as you could see in tips of the wings turning up tailed turning down in fact I think sometimes they called it double ugly but but it was nonetheless a incredibly good warplane much much better in somewhat is a warplane on the lightning in that it had eight missiles a gun a lot of fuel a pulse doppler radar we only had a pulse radar in that and a navigator and although I'd been in single-seaters and we always rude about two-seaters actually it was the way to go yeah having another pair of eyes in that airplane and controlling the radar a worked up two-seat crew on the phantom and it was a quantum leap in our operational capability yeah and I got to love it I flew with Trevor one and we were intercepting the bear and doing a lot of QRA missions which were fun in themselves you always knew when you were intercepting a bear with a a political officer on board because they were all very grumpy but if they didn't have a political art they would show you copies of playboy and yeah coca-cola and it was a serious business because some of them would try and drag you down at like too low level particularly at night and then throw a turn into you and if you weren't careful so it was a serious business I wouldn't but great great great fun and of course we had detachments all over Europe and that that was my time on on Trevor one which I I thoroughly enjoyed I was sort of associated with the Phantom for about ten years later I I then went on a ground tour but I I just stayed in touch in Germany I was commander air defense ID in Germany but I just stayed in touch with the Phantom yeah you know I kept my simulators up to to speed and so at the end of my ground turret in Germany I was I'm sure I would think it was a pain in the bum to my posting officer because I was phoning up all the time about where light and of course at being a Wing Commander by now I I was really bucking for a squadron about three years into my ground her I got phoned up and told I was going to become a squadron commander and command 74 squadron which was then flying the f4j back at RAF water Sherma game but I'd you know I knew I'd spent a lot of my career there but the f4j was one of the was an airplane that we'd bought from literally out of the desert they'd been used by the stockpile by the United States Navy we'd had the Falkland in the meantime we deployed a squadron down there so we needed to bolster our home defense so we literally bought these they were refurbished they were effects you effectively s model phantoms but I still had the what we call the hard wing you didn't have the automatic slats although it had slats for landing him and it had a jet engine rather than the tub that you know turbofan which this way so interestingly it retained all the area ruling which the f4 k and the MMR's had lost yeah so it was back and it was it was a as a phantom goes it was a really sporty airplane yeah and it had a very good performance at high level all the way through had engines both in coal power and reheat similar to the lightning less installed thrust than the FA with a reheat in but when we were in coal power we had more and it also we had instant rehear yes coz whereas the K in the M the Spay you had to wait a hard 5 sec what he never actually never actually passed Boscombe downs acceptance for that but we had it in the Air Force anyway so I was a squadron commander of the 74 the Tigers yeah wonderful wonderful days I had a very young squadron which was good very hair-raising when I UN on detachments sometimes for the youngsters but it was it was great fun absolutely fun and and I I thought the Tigers head as a badge and a motto I fear no man there's got to be and I'm very sad that he no longer yeah he's a frontline squadron which it should be well absolutely let's start the movement bring back the diversity audition going so can you tell us which you prefer to fly their spear model or the American version I actually ultimately preferred the the American version I thought that was a bit but bear in mind to be fair to the K in the M we were the original had to drag bombs and rockets and lots of things off a small carrier so once you had the reheats in of course they were effective for a small carrier probably couldn't have done that yet I know you couldn't have done it with the with the pure jet and what we call it the American version of Madonna fix runway and given the job that we had to do in air defense I found the f4j a much much more capable I'm surprised about that actually because throughout throughout the yeah I'm I'm convinced we had a good radar it was fast it had a good high level performance all in all it was it was an excellent excellent airplane as I say that's not - damn them if the fok in the air for EM at low level excellent okay but but you need a performance across the spectrum yeah of course I also like the colors of the J models they and we have one bit of fun witcha still exists two of us my boys convinced me that a Jaguar shouldn't hold the speed record from London to Edinburgh which has been held by various airplanes and a Jagger was a holder and it held it from I can't remember what the date it did it but he did it over land with a very high tailwind because you're not allowed to go supersonic over land you have to be ten miles off the coast if you're going parallel to it or 30 miles of your pointed water so I am or the boys said let's see we can break it and we took to F F for Jai's clean and nice noise in the background beautiful the and we we took two airplanes purely if it one was unserviceable good still and it was all done with the FIA and they had all their super clocks and we did it such that we came up over Norfolk to blank me and Blakeney and then up around the coast and accelerated once we cross the coast we were very high subsonic and then we were averaged about one point six mark all the way up video the coast and across the extended line that's which is what you did and then died very very quickly into Lucas because it was short of fuel and we broke the record not by a lot but it says 27 minutes and three seconds from London to Edinburgh and it still stands I'm sure now I've said that there's going to be able to go everybody going to break it anyway being boss of the Tigers and 74 squadron was obviously a real high point and the foj and all that went with it was just a high point of my my career in many well one of many high points I'm privileged to have been able to fly so many good airplanes but from there I went to the Falkland Islands as the station commander still retaining my currency on the f4 I was also lucky as well to fly the c-130 and the Sea King while I was down there and it was a wonderful year of being able to fly the f4 in that sort of environment which a bit like today normally quite clear and but very windy and then you had four seasons in a day so you had to watch the weather's quite quite closely so that was that was a wonderful period as well I came back after a year and I'd been assigned to be the station commander following that at RAF Coningsby you're lucky to get a station in the Aurora air force but I was doubly lucky not only was it a fighter station but it's also the one that had the battle Britain Memorial Flight on it and like all station commanders you're allowed to fly the airplanes that are on your station so well before I got to that though I I converted to the I converted to the tornado but and went to operational status as well and about that time I was told I was already Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait and so I'd been told that I was going to darin as the detachment commander which i duly did but towards the end of nineteen and and then obviously we were into the first Gulf War it was three months it seemed a lot longer at the time purely because of what we were doing and I was very privileged to command a composite wing of bombers recce and air defense tornado airplanes yeah so I mean that's as they say is history now but I did manage to fly one a lot of u2 sorties down there as I say that seemed like a quite a long time but in fact I was backed by April straight into command of the station of the of RAF Coningsby which had three squadrons two operational squadrons and one training squadron which we have 529 and 56 squadron 65 grand to 56 and I flew with all all those all those squadrons variously but as important I suppose for the future I was able to fly with the Battle of rip memorial flight and it was in that time in 1991 that I first flew first off to the Huracan dbm Fu tended to do 15 hours on the Huracan and then went on to the Spitfire and so I am I did 15 hours on the on the hurricane wonderful I must admit when I was taxing out the first time in the hurricane I've had a wonderful briefing from Scott Lee today who was the OCB may be BMF the one thing I hadn't realized being a jet pilot that time I'd flown chipmunks and harvard's but the noise was really you hear everything the reduction gear and that lovely Merlin growl that you hear outside is one thing but when you're in the cockpit it's a different you hear every engine via everything sounds like a bag of bolts sometime and I must admit I thought this can't be right I was waiting for someone to stop me but no one did so I I assumed always well anyway that was my first hurricane flight I am I did fifteen hours and then my I was converted to the Spitfire my first ride in a Spitfire wonderful was the was the mark to a very famous Battle of Britain airplane and to trust me on my first solo I thought was amazing but anyway I got it back on the ground you have to say that when you're flying such precious iconic aeroplanes and ones that belong to the British public ultimately again just huge responsibilities like animation so I had two wonderful two wonderful years flying with BB MF the Hurricanes mark-5 and then the not mark-19 with a sound like that in the background so as I was saying that the flu all of the three marks of step far that we had on ppm F and the and the Hurricanes the during that time on ppm F I had a Kaitlyn to do a display Mildenhall with to to mark 19 Spitfires and after landing off one of the this sortie I walked over to another group of pilots actually two pilots one of whom was Rey Hanna I knew rave from air force days and he ran here at Duxford the old flying machine company and he was with one of the other pilots and I just sat down and we were just watching the rest of the air display and and ray just said in his ways and would you like to come and fly with the old fly machine company and when you finished with BB MF I told him that I was staying in the Royal Air Force which I did but he said well if you want to spare fly in your spare time you can cut please do come and fly with us so I took up that opportunity my my poor wife who I'd told I was just going to do two years I said I've did two years of BB MF and 27 years later that's what beginning to wear a bit thin I think but anyway she does just about put up with it but that was my introduction to flying here at Duxford but just to continue on the RAF side out perhaps I can come back to the old airplane so other warbird airplanes once I left once I went from Coningsby another wonderful two years I was initially going to go to what I went to them what they call the Royal College of Defense studies but I was pulled out because it was a nun somebody was unwell or left early and the chain went that I I suddenly became I was pulled out of the Staff College to go and be the senior air staff officer he called his eleven group at Bentley Priory I retained my currency on the tornado throughout that period which was jolly nice I know it didn't fly as much but I still retained my currency and then I was pulled over to a teen group which was over at northward to be chief of staff of a teen group which is a maritime group I didn't understand why at the time I couldn't understand why we wanted a fighter pilot in a maritime group but it became clear after about six months when I was told I was going they were amalgamating both 11 and 18 groups and I was going to be a group commander and then as an a vice marshal and that was just wonderful because I suddenly was commanding a group which had tornados hawks helicopters and Nimrods which I'd never flown so during that period period aside retaining currency on the hawk and the and the and the tornado I I did a course on the helicopter although I was I was never a qualified helicopter pilot they always had a responsible adult with me make sure I didn't do anything wrong but I did did do that and then I I did a conversion on to the Nimrod which is a largest airplane I'd ever flown in the RAF and that was quite wonderful to somebody of my background to suddenly have 13 crew utterly professional bunch they were as well and flying a large airplane close to the sea at 250 feet or 500 feet with considerable angles banks hunting submarines is a demanding a job an hour I had actually seen a Royal Air Force did a magnificent job with a Nimrod and I loved it yeah but I said I flowed it III flew in the airplane you know really quite quite a lot and that was a another great two and a half years where I could I could jump into a pork fly too Kinloss fly the name Ronald fly to Lucas and fly the tornado what a toy said but in the meantime and mice in what little what what spare time I had I was by this flying quite regularly here at a duck shirt and with OFM see and that gave opened a door to not just the Spitfire but the I was then flying black six the Messerschmitt 109 G the Bhushan Mustang Corsair and had started to come in the sea fury III minute it was pilots dream and pilots do and and that's just carried on I suppose I've flown with TFC quite a lot and some of their airplanes the wild cat and Curtis Hawk and things of that sort as as well you've also offload their f-86 Sabre is that correct I flew the f-86 that was down at a RC when I I started flying with ALC after Oh FM C and we had a t-33 and the f-86 a a model owned by then mr. robert horn he unfortunately had a very sad accident here luckily nobody hurt with the t-33 with the pilot and the engineer both got out of it but i love flying the t-33 lovely airplane the f-86 was was was great as well I've never flown the later Sabres this was an early model Sabre and really was you were flying it mechanically and that flying control surfaces were boosted by hydraulics okay later Sabres were all hydraulic controlled and apparently actually were nicer to fly the early models certainly the the sabre was heavier that I flew the a model was heavier than the hunter but nonetheless wonderful privilege to fly after living what was the oldest flying jet in the world built and delivered in 1948 so it was and and I we pulled the leg of the guys who made the meteor and said oh it came out it was the oldest flying jet well actually the sabre we were flying was nine months younger I was it and I always remember a particular air show up big in hill where we had to do a cool Korean War scenario and it was the Firefly leading me in the Sabre and the commentator was very well briefed and as we went past and he said now ladies gentlemen which is the older airplane and it was the Sabre because the Firefly was 1949-50 that particularly and so hey Mike it's it's been a wonderful journey yeah this year represents my 50th year year with these the wit my wing the original wing they look it don't they they're looking pretty tatty I don't know whether they're my original ones but the ones I've kept for some years and they begin to look a bit threadbare but I yeah you'll have to fight me to get them off me and so it's been a great journey I suppose there will come a time when I have to hang up my tired old flame gloves overly many years to come though well you say so yeah well yes if I get the necessary clearances from the memsaab okay so cliff you have any hobbies apart from flying I I do play I do play golf but it's a little bit of a backseat because my wife I normally play with her and she's slightly had a bad back but yes I do play golf I ski in the winter again with the family mm-hmm with my crazy son who goes straight down the mountain but I'm a little bit more and my grandson's now I'm my wife and my daughter all ski so we ski in the winter and I suppose apart from leaving the house in garden my wife and I are I a member of a choral society you're not allowed to laugh but so I I hold up not very well the tenor section of particularly so I'm privileged to be president of the battle Brit Memorial Flight Association and the roll observer Corps Association and I'm also chairman of the trustees for the Bentley Priory Museum which I do if I can get a plug in it's great museum to visit down near and bushy Heath stand more and it's it's got all of dart outings office so I'm the chairman of those trustees so I stay pretty busy you certainly do and this could be a very tough question but I have to ask you yeah if you had a favorite aircraft of every type year floor what is your favorite I put it I'll put it this way Mike and it's a question that I'm very often ask you know which is the favorite of course what before I had flown the warbirds when I was flying the lightning wow you know going to the near reaches of space and going at that speed with an airplane which was so flyable was wonderful flying therefore amazing for its day amazing warplane the tornado was great as well or snarling along in a sea fury behind a you know 204 2400 horsepower Centaurus all wonderful but if God gave me one more flight and said you can fly any airplane you like in the whole lot and I'm I suppose I'm up to 65 on types and marks types of the model it'll have to be the Spitfire it's such a classic isn't it it is it is a classic aeroplane and and of course I have flown it for the last 27 years I suppose so bound to get into my blood it's not an easy one I have to say but that would be that would be it and there's a real aircraft you wish you could have flown that you haven't yeah I'd love to have flown the focke-wulf 190 actually having flown the 109 if I could have got into a an original 190 people who've flown it's a it's it's a cracking airplane amazing roll rate great power unit not without its it's vices but I think in that sort of genre of aeroplane I I yeah I think I would have liked to have flown I'd like to fly any airplane that one I suppose stands out as one I would quite like to have flown yeah thanks very much for being on the show thank you [Music]

Channel: Aircrew Interview

Views: 32,524

Rating: 4.9236112 out of 5

Keywords: cliff spink, raf phantom, f-4 phantom, f-4 phantom documentary, english electric lightning, raf lightning documentary, pilot interview, raf lightning takeoff, airshow display, aviation documentary, f-15 documentary, bbmf, bbmf display, bbmf spitfire, duxford airshow, duxford spitfire, ww2 documentary, lightning bruntingthorpe, cliff spink display, typhoon display, airshow 2018, raf tornado gr4, fgr2 phantom, f-4 phantom takeoff, f-4 carrier takeoff, ee lightning display

Id: DWemca-ljTM

Length: 48min 45sec (2925 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 28 2018