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LOL - OK; I'm not exactly an air-racing fan; but years back; my Dad gave me a book, "Flight of the Mew Gull"; about the plane which took the Cape Records Flight in 1939.

Well - finally found her: the Percival Aircraft P6 Mew Gull!


Ain't she a beaut?




Sweet lines; a real sleek, slick racer.


A very nice VC as well. The only problem is the VC gauges don't work; I'll have to do some tinkering to get them running.


Handling:
Unlike the Gee Bee; in which I fictionalized the difficult control in my little story; this little monster's an absolute handful to fly. She's tricked out for the Cape Records flight; with the two auxiliary onboard fuel tanks.
This puts the C of G so far aft even getting close to stall puts you in serious danger. Flying from spot view is practically impossible.
She's quirky, twitchy, unstable as Hell and allows zero mistakes. On my first flight I executed a barrel roll and durned near executed myself - she spins so quick I was redding-out before I could recover.
Takeoff's easy but interesting (with British prop dynamics); landing's a real chore without flaps - with full fuel you've really got to smoke her onto the runway.


I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!


Surprisingly; she's not nearly as fast as you might think for a racer; the Mew Gull was built for quickness and long-distance record-making. She cruises at about 200kias.

I'm researching now - If I can get the VC gauges working; I'm going to try recreating the Cape Record flight this weekend.

Cheers!

Very nice too.

Here's a few factoids. This aircraft (G-AEXF) is still in airworthy condition. I have some photos taken at the G-VFWE fly-in at Kemble although I haven't seen it this year. You didn't mention that it was owned & flown on that Cape record flight by the great Alex Henshaw (he swapped it for a Leopard Moth), Ozzy's hero (& one of mine).
http://www.esparacing.com/Air%20Racing%20History/aircraft/jan2004/mew_gull.htm

The original Mew Gull was the first civil aircraft to exceed a speed of 200 miles per hour. Later versions introduced steady improvements, and the fastest speed recorded by G-AEXF in its 1938 Kings Cup configuration was in excess of 270 mph. At sea level, it was faster than a Hawker Hurricane.

I had the Mew Gull a while back.