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WARBIRD

WARBIRD
SPECIAL

MI LI TA RY AVIATI O N MU SE U M B f 1 09 G

GU
UST
TAV
V

RESURRECTED

The Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach has taken delivery of its
newly-restored Messerschmitt Bf 109G. Aeroplane saw its rsst ights in the
US, and talked to its pilot about ying the menacing Gustav
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: LUIGINO CALIARO

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AEROPLANE JULY 2016

FIRST AIR-TO-AIRS!
BELOW: Rick Volker
ying the Military
Aviation Museums
Messerschmitt
ttt
Bf 109G-4 N109GY
near Virginia Beach
on 20 May.

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www.aeroplanemonthly.com 47

MI L I TA RY AVIATION M USEUM Bf 1 0 9 G

ABOVE: The
aircrafts markings
are those of Black
1, the Bf 109G-4
own by I./JG 3
pilot Hptm Klaus
Quaet-Faslem
circa 1943.

or what is believed to
have been the first time
since World War Two, a
Daimler-Benz DB605engined Messerschmitt Bf 109G has
taken to American skies. The historic
event occurred on 20 May, the day
before the Military Aviation Museums
Warbirds over the Beach airshow at
Pungo airfield in Virginia Beach. Those
present to watch the various pre-show
training and proficiency flights by
aircraft in the museums collection were
able to witness it.
The Gustav was rebuilt by German
company MeierMotors at Bremgarten

RIGHT: Previous
Bf 109 experience
on Ed Russells
E-model saw
Rick Volker being
brought in to carry
out the initial ights
in the USA of the
MAMs Bf 109G.
OPPOSITE: It is
thought that the
MAM aircraft is
the rst Gustav
model of the Bf 109
to have own in
the US since the
wartime evaluation
of captured
examples at Wright
Field, Ohio.

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on behalf of Jerry Yagens Fighter


Factory collection, which is based at the
MAM. Yagen, who has an outstanding
range of aircraft and artefacts from
the Second World War, says of the
Bf 109G: It is an important aircraft for
our collection. As well as expanding it
numerically, it increases our important
collection of German aircraft, allowing
the American public to see up-close and
flying one of the aircraft against which
our young pilots fought 70 years ago in
European skies.
The resurrection of the MAMs
Messerschmitt is an interesting story. It
is based on the remains found in Russia

of Bf 109G-4 Werknummer 19257,


merged with new components and
skins, and the wings and some other
parts from a Hispano HA-1112-M1L
Buchn owned by Yagen. The latter
aircraft, serial C.4K-64, was delivered
to the MeierMotors facility in Freiburg
during 2005 together with Yagens
Yak-3, which needed some work after
a landing mishap. Feldwebel Viktor
Petermann force-landed 19257 behind
Soviet lines near the Kuban bridgehead
on 5 May 1943 after being hit in the
oil cooler. Following this, the German
pilot who ended the war with 64
confirmed aerial victories, all on the
Eastern Front evaded capture and
took four days to walk back to his home
airfield.
The plan was to use the Buchn
as the main basis for the project, but
MeierMotors found that its fuselage
was in too bad a condition. The wings
were in better shape, so Jerry Yagen
and the MeierMotors team elected to
undertake a full restoration using the
remains of the wartime Bf 109G-4
fuselage, including the tailplane. The
Buchn fuselage was delivered back to
the Fighter Factory. It was decided to use
wooden propeller blades instead of the
authentic metal ones, as in the event of
a landing mishap this would cause less
damage to the rare and very expensive
DB605 engine.
In 2010-11, officials at Germanys
LBA (Luftfahrtbundesamt, the

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MI L I TA RY AVIATION M USEUM Bf 1 0 9 G

ABOVE: The superb


appearance of the
Bf 109G is a credit
to the work done
by MeierMotors for
the MAM.

countrys equivalent of the CAA or


FAA) allocated the aircraft a project
number under the title Messerschmitt
Bf 109G-4, WkNr 19257. The
number of original parts being used
was deemed sufficient to consider the
aircraft as a restoration rather than
new-build or a Buchn conversion.
Things proceeded well, and the Bf 109

The fighter has been painted in the


markings of Black 1, the personal
Bf 109G-4 of Gruppenkommandeur
Hptm Klaus Quaet-Faslem from
I./JG 3 Udet stationed in Germany
around mid-1943. Credited with 49
aerial victories, Quaet-Faslem was
killed in the crash of a Bf 109G-6 on
30 January 1944 while intercepting US

Overall, the rst ight was very good.


MeierMotors did an incredible job
then with the German registration
D-FOON recorded its first postrestoration flight at Bremgarten on 11
August 2015, in the hands of famous
British warbird pilot Charlie Brown.

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Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress


bombers near Braunschweig. The
accident was caused by bad weather.
He was posthumously awarded the
Knights Cross.

At Virginia Beach, Aeroplane was able


to carry out a short air-to-air session
with the newly-restored machine and
talked to its pilot Rick Volker. A former
unlimited aerobatic competition pilot
in Pitts Specials and Sukhois, Rick
joined the airshow circuit as part of a
four-ship gyroscopic aerobatic team.
Then, via a Harvard, he flew as a
display pilot for Ed Russells warbird
collection in southern Ontario, starting
off with Spitfire IX MK912 before
moving on to Bf 109E-4 White 14
and the Hurricane. Due to his time on
the Emil, Rick was called in to make
the initial US flights of the MAMs
Gustav, although he had never before
piloted the variant. He made three
flights in the Bf 109G from Virginia
Beach on 20 May, doing so without a

AEROPLANE JULY 2016

formal transition process given his prior


Messerschmitt experience.
The odd teething problem was
encountered with Black 1, but
nothing significant. Rick said, On the
first flight we had a starting problem,
because when the prop was pulled
through, as is normal for the first start
of the day, the inertial starter was tied
up and it would not wind up for inertia
it was trapped. The groundcrew had
to back the prop off to let it release so it
would wind up It did start up quite
explosively very rich, very black and
sooty. But it ran fine, it wasnt an issue.
The first issue on the first test
flight was that the old test documents
suggested a certain prop setting. I
found on my initial run to take off that
the prop was starting to get close to the

AEROPLANE JULY 2016

top end of the rpm range, and I had


to retard the boost so it wouldnt overspeed. That gave me about a 4,000ft
take-off roll, just so I wouldnt hurt
anything. The next take-off, I changed
it and it was perfect.
Overall, the first flight was very
good. One of the undercarriage legs
wouldnt lock up; it stayed up, but I
couldnt get the gear light to confirm
it. Other than that there were no
squawks of any kind. This was fixed
by making a very minor adjustment to
the up-locks. On the first two flights,
Rick continued, not to really have
much of an issue is amazing when you
think that it only had a few hours on
the engine and that it was shipped
over in a box. MeierMotors did an
incredible job on this airplane.

What of the Bf 109Gs handling and


performance? I can only compare it
to the E-model, Rick continued, but
I went through several performance
checks stalls, yaw dampening, roll
dampening, pitch oscillations and in
pitch and yaw it felt very similar to the
E-model. In roll its quite a bit stiffer.
Another difference is that it has a lot
more mass, and you feel that on the
runway. It seems like it takes more to
move it. Its got a lot more power, a lot
more acceleration.
I felt that the 109E could fly on the
edge of its stall and stay in a turn with
a Spitfire or a Hurricane. Test pilots
disagreed with me, but thats what I
felt. I have not had the experience to
push this G-model at all; Ive not done
anything like that, other than just 1g

ABOVE: The
Daimler-Benz
DB605 engine was
restored by Vintage
V12s in Tehachapi,
California.
TOP: Some pilots
may not be keen on
the Bf 109s cockpit,
but Rick Volker
likes it.

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MI L I TA RY AVIATION M USEUM Bf 1 0 9 G
stalls, so I couldnt tell you about the
accelerated g stall. It is a different wing,
it does feel a little different. On the
E-model, when you land the ailerons
start to sag and it changes the whole

fast as the MkIX, but its very close, and


it gets there faster. The 109G climbs
at a steeper angle, and I dont think it
would turn anywhere near as well as the
MkIX.

To me the Bf 109 has a certain feel to it


that I like better than the Spitre
feel to one much heavier than the
G-model. This has a better aileron feel
coming in to land.
The 109G accelerates faster than
the Spitfire IX, but keep in mind that
Im not using wartime power. Max
climb power is about the maximum Im
ever going to use in either aircraft, to
preserve the engines. It may not be as

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But to me the 109 has a certain


feel to it that I like better. I like the
seating position: legs up a little bit,
slightly reclined. It seems like you could
pull more g in this. People complain
about visibility and tight quarters, but
I dont mind. I love the fact that it
hugs me in the shoulders if youre
manoeuvring aggressively its going to

hold on to you, so you can relax and


dont get fatigued. All the controls, to
me, make much better sense than []
in the Spitfire. Things in the Spitfire are
put in wherever they fit. I do like the
Spitfires spade grip, but [in the 109]
every control seems to fall right where
it should be. The Messerschmitts build
quality is amazing everything is
precise and perfect. Ill probably never
fly it again, but Im in love with
this airplane now.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The
author thanks Jerry Yagen, Mike
Spalding and Rick Volker for the
support provided during his visit to
the MAM, and Matthias Dorst for
historical information and details of
the restoration.

AEROPLANE JULY 2016

LUFTWAFFE COLLECTION

Alongside the Bf 109G, the Military Aviation Museums collection


features a number of other Second World War German aircraft that
y regularly, including new-build Me 262 N262MF (see Aeroplane
July 2015), Flug Werk FW 190A-8/N N190BR, CASA 352 (Junkers
Ju 52/3m) N352JU, and several liaison and training aircraft: a Bcker
B 133C Jungmeister, Focke-Wulf Fw 44J Stieglitz and Nord 1002
(Bf 108). Static exhibits in the museums Cottbus hangar are
original Fw 190A-8 Werknummer 732183, which was rescued from
Norway, a reconstructed Fw 190D-9, and a series of replicas of
Germanys last, desperate, experimental rocket aircraft projects.
The history of the hangar is remarkable in itself. It was built at
Cottbus aireld south-east of Berlin in 1934, having been designed
by Ostdeutsche Landwerksttten GmbH for rapid erection and to
be easily transportable. Its curved prole, with no internal columns,

affords maximum usable space. From 1939-41 the building housed


aircraft operated by a Luftwaffe ying school, Flieger-AusbildungsRegiment 82. Thereafter it was handed over to Focke-Wulf when
the rm moved some of its production to Cottbus, being used for
storage, as a base for test ights and as a nal assembly facility in
the manufacturing of the Fw 200 Condor, Fw 190 and Ta 152. The
hangar was badly damaged during an Eighth Air Force attack on 29
May 1944.
During the Cold War years, Cottbus aireld hosted units of East
Germanys air force, the Luftstreitkrfte/Luftverteidigung der
Nationalen Volksarmee. In 2000, the MAM acquired one of the
original hangars, which was dismantled and moved to Virginia
Beach for restoration and re-assembly. It now provides ideal
surroundings for the wartime German aircraft.

BELOW: A very rare MAM Luftwaffe duo, with the Bf 109G leading Flug Werk FW 190A-8/N N190BR.

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