Flying THE Bf 109

RENOWNED WARBIRD PILOT JOHN ROMAIN TALKS TO NIGEL PRICE ABOUT THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF FLYING THE BF 109 AND ITS SPANISH BRETHREN „

Bf 109

"As I came out of the loop I knew something was seriously wrong with the engine or with the propeller, so I decided to pull the aircraft up to gain height and time to think. At that point there was a loud bang and a big lump of metal came flying out of the crankcase. The crankshaft had broken in half and the mass balance had gone straight through the side of the engine." This was how Aircraft Restoration Company boss John Romain described the spectacular engine failure he suffered while displaying Hispano Buchón 'Yellow 10' (G-BWUE) at the Headcorn airshow on June 22, 2014. The Spanish built, Merlinengined Bf 109 had just started its routine when the problem occurred.

John: "I had flown down to Headcorn with two of our Spitfires, and I was the first to display. I ran in for the first half-Cuban [roll] and everything was fine. But as I was pulling up for the second one I could feel a vibration going through the aircraft. I quickly looked at all the instruments and everything seemed okay. My first thought was that I was losing a magneto, which isn't a massive problem, but as I was coming over the top of the loop the vibration got worse. I checked the mags and it wasn't them. I looked at the oil pressure gauge and I could see it start to fluctuate, but reckoned the vibration might be doing it as the engine temperature appeared to be right. But by the time I levelled off, the vibration was so severe that the instrument panel was just a blur."
The engine exploded when the crank broke, although the propeller was still turning. Smoke and oil were coming up through the cockpit floor, and the situation looked bad. Thankfully, John is one of the world's most experienced warbird pilots, with 109 different aircraft types in his logbook, and he soon had the crisis under control. "I knew I had a major engine failure, and I needed to get it back on the ground very quickly. I didn't want the aircraft to start burning because I had no way of stopping it, as we don't have extinguishing systems on board. If it had caught fire, I'd have been in serious trouble.

Bf 109

"I looked back at the airfield and I could see the runway – I thought 'this is going to work'. I pulled back on the stick to put the aircraft onto the glide path but nothing happened! My initial thought was that I'd lost the elevators, but then I remembered a similar occasion in a Griffonengine Spitfire where I'd lost the engine and I had to go faster to get the flight controls working again. The reason is that the 'wind-milling' propeller tends to create a void behind it so the elevators are simply not getting enough air to give you pitch control. You have to wait until the aircraft starts to build up speed before you regain full control.
"Once the Buchón reached 125 knots I got the feeling back in the controls, but I'd lost 500ft in height so when I looked at the runway again it didn't look so good. That's when I thought 'I'm not sure I'm going to make this'."

Committed to land 

At this point John was probably too low to bale out of the stricken fighter, so he got ready to land, either at the aerodrome, or in adjacent farmland. "I kept looking at a big cornfield to my left and I figured if I can't make it back to the runway, then I'll belly-land there. "I put the undercarriage down, as it doesn't create much drag, and I hand trimmed the tailplane to set the correct angle of glide. I then turned the flap wheel twice to give probably two or three degrees of flap, which felt about right – I certainly didn't need any more. I left the radiator doors fully closed because they are huge on the Buchón and cause a lot of drag – they act like dive brakes. I kept going towards the runway, and tried to keep the speed up.
"The glide seemed to carry on forever but it was probably only 20 seconds. When I was around hundred yards out I said to myself 'actually, I'll make this'. I pulled back slightly on the stick and I brought the speed down to 110 knots for landing.
Read more in FlyPast February 2015