Romanian Ace "Bazu" Cantacuzino Aerobatic Routine 1943

[Rjel]

When the Italian army started the pull back from the battle lines around Stalingrad, the Regia Aeronuatica followed suit. What had been a grand adventure a few months prior had turned into a rout. Few Italian aircraft remained and those that were left, were badly in need of maintenance and even complete overhaul. Flying one of only a handful of Macchi Mc.202 still able to get airborne was Sergente Gianni Barbieri. An accomplished private pilot before the war’s beginnings, he had proven himself a competent fighter pilot when facing the enemy. As his group began its transition towards the west, with an airbase in the western part of the Odessa region as its destination, Sergente Barbieri was flying in the tail end of the formation.

 

The third leg of their hop scotch flight across Russia would be the longest and would take them near the Eastern most point of Romania. As his Mc.202’s engine had the most hours of flight time on the clock, he struggled to keep up with the squadron leader. After an hour in the air and another 150 kilometers to go to the final landing field, the weather was threatening to close in as the flight approached a towering storm front. With limited fuel reserves, they had little choice but to fly through the storm clouds. Barbieri was struggling to keep the rest of the flight in view as they neared the dark cloud bank. His Folgore’s engine was running rougher and rougher as he watched the tail of his flight leader’s plane disappear into the dark mass ahead. With the ground all but invisible to guide him and the clouds quickly closing in, he felt as if he were feeling his way through the murk. He throttled back both to conserve fuel and hopefully prevent his running into a plane in front of him. He kept his eyes on the artificial horizon praying to keep his plane flying steady and true. Droning on in near isolation, he felt trapped in his cockpit. After trying his radio several times, he realized it was either dead or he was out of range of his comrades. Panic was beginning to creep in as he struggled with his weather induced blindness, an airplane with a sick engine and no way to contact the outside world. Keeping his eyes locked to the instruments in his cockpit, darting between the artificial horizon and the quickly depleting level of the gas gauge, he failed to notice the ever so slight brightening in the cockpit. Another minute or two passed when finally it occurred to Barbieri that he was breaking into the clear. And none too soon as his engine was now vibrating and issuing an occasional backfire. His fuel was nearly expended. A dead radio that neither listened nor answered to anyone. And no other airplanes in view.

 

But as bad as his situation was, the sky suddenly cleared and turned to a beautiful cloudless blue. With an engine threatening to tear itself from its mounts and running on vapors, an airfield blossomed into view only a couple of kilometers ahead off his left wing. With no other options available to him, he turned onto final, dropped his gear and flaps and set up to land. His engine sputtered, caught again but continued to turn its prop. Dropping lower over the threshold, feet off the runway, the engine banged one last time and died. Barbieri let the Macchi settle onto the runway with a dead engine and rolled to a stop. Overshooting his original destination in Odessa, providence had luckily found a Romanian air base for him. Clambering out of the cockpit, he saw the fluids running from the bottom of the engine cowling. The obvious conclusion was there could be no repair to the Mc.202 short of a brand new engine of which none were readily available. But his new hosts were sympathetic to the Italian’s plight and offered the services of an old American Fleet F-10G bi-plane to get him back to his unit. The next couple of days were spent getting familiar with the controls and then some short test flights in the unfamiliar plane. Barbieri was then ready to head East to the Odessa air field that was now host to the Italian pilot’s group. With a final round of handshakes and promise to retrieve the Macchi as soon as possible, Sergenti Gianni Barbieri cranked up the engine of his borrowed ride. Lining up on the East/West runway, he opened the throttle and started rumbling down the strip. Lifting off smoothly, he circled the field twice, rocked his wings in an airman’s salute and headed East. His flight would be long, lasting 44 years and the rest of his life.

 

In 1986, a farmer plowing his spring fields turned up bits of metal and fabric. Doing more digging, the farmer pulled up a larger piece that featured what he believed to be a yellow cross of some fashion. Contacting local authorities, the site was excavated to reveal an old pre-war biplane and human remains identifiable as a long missing Italian fighter pilot. The reason behind how he ended up in a crashed Romanian marked trainer was lost to history. In late 1986, Sergenti Gianni Barbieri was at last returned home, his final flight completed.

 

 And what of the Macchi Mc.202? It sat on the Romanian airfield for several weeks, broken and abandoned. As luck would have it, Romanian Ace Capitan Constantin “Bazu” Cantacuzino flew into the base on his way back from the front in July 1943. Taxiing in, he saw the Italian fighter sitting on the edge of field. Getting the particulars on the unclaimed aircraft, he quickly made some phone calls, first getting permission to initiate the repairs and to line up a test flight program. Arranging to have a brand new crated Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine trucked from his home field, he issued orders to have the Mc.202 refitted, repaired and repainted in Romanian colors. All of this accomplished in a couple of weeks with the purpose of testing the Italian fighter as a possible supplement for Romanian fighter plane numbers. Bazu had convinced his superiors that the next version from the Macchi factory, the Mc.205 Veltro, could be that plane. The Macchi Mc.202 would be used to impress the Romanian High Command. But it was not to be as Italy would never produce enough aircraft for their own air force, much less Romania’s. Still Bazu Cantacuzino put on some spirited displays with the little Italian fighter plane. So in love with the Macchi was he that it soon became his personal property, flown whenever time and duty permitted. It was said to be his favorite airplane. Favorite that is until he was “given” a P-51B Mustang by the U.S.A.A.F. in 1944. The Macchi Mc.202 faded from public view after the end of WWII. Whether it was scrapped, taken back to Russia by Red Army troops as a war souvenir or pushed into an old barn and forgotten is unknown. The attached film was made in late summer, 1943. An aerobatic routine flown by Bazu Cantacuzino, done for Romanian Air Force generals.*

 

 

The original color version as recorded from the game. Full screen HD.

 

 

 

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 

Edited September 8, 2018 by Rjel
Added original color WS HD version

[Raptorattacker]

HELL of an engine sound you got going on there!

[Rjel]

2 hours ago, Raptorattacker said:

HELL of an engine sound you got going on there!

None of the audio was enhanced, only video. Other than it sounding a little muted when the camera is looking forward over the canopy top, I think the audio is amazing. The doppler sound effects (at least I assume they are doppler) are very well done. The sound effect as the airplane climbs away from the camera is my favorite.

[Freycinet]

Wonderful, Rjel, you put a lot of work into this movie. Amazing what can be done with this sim, coupled with dedication and hard work such as yours. The text is very good as well.

 

Not sure how the length of the text and the movie will go down with the fast consumption youngsters of today's world but this old geezer liked it!

[Rjel]

Thank you Freycinet. Your compliment is much appreciated. I agree. There is much that can be done with this sim series beyond simply flying. 

[IckyATLAS]

As a pilot and aerobatics pilot I appreciated a lot. For this type of airplane with high wing loading and low power to mass ratios figures are large, and aerobatics are of the ballistic type. No brutal moves like with the aerobatic planes of today, otherwise you would have a dynamic wing stall, catastrophic at low altitude.

I enjoyed the whole of it, did not miss a second. Sound is just EXCELLENT. I felt the real engine was just there. I use a high quality Razer Thresher Ultimate headphones with an excellent asus audio hardware and man that sound was awesome.

I immediately checked the Macchi 202 engine sound in the game with a camera placed in a similar position during take off and no way, that is not at all the same. The sound is more flat and much less "growling" and powerful. Either you enhanced the audio band, filtered some frequencies, enhanced the bass sounds, or you used a sound MOD. Please give us some hints. 

[Rjel]

5 minutes ago, IckyATLAS said:

As a pilot and aerobatics pilot I appreciated a lot. For this type of airplane with high wing loading and low power to mass ratios figures are large, and aerobatics are of the ballistic type. No brutal moves like with the aerobatic planes of today, otherwise you would have a dynamic wing stall, catastrophic at low altitude.

I enjoyed the whole of it, did not miss a second. Sound is just EXCELLENT. I felt the real engine was just there. I use a high quality Razer Thresher Ultimate headphones with an excellent asus audio hardware and man that sound was awesome.

I immediately checked the Macchi 202 engine sound in the game with a camera placed in a similar position during take off and no way, that is not at all the same. The sound is more flat and much less "growling" and powerful. Either you enhanced the audio band, filtered some frequencies, enhanced the bass sounds, or you used a sound MOD. Please give us some hints. 

Honest, I didn't change a thing on the audio. It does sound throatier somehow. Maybe Jason or some of his crew will see it and have an answer.  Bit thanks for you kind words. The Macchi is just a blast to fly. I envy your real life experience. As a wannabe I can only pretend but this is as close as I'll ever get to flying. 

[IckyATLAS]

What I miss with simulators, is the wide 360 view (maybe VR one day will solve that),  vibration, heat, hot engine smell (every plane/engine is different and has a particular odour), and all the G forces, that make every move a muscular exercise, so we miss the sweating, and a  lot of it. After 10 minutes of aerobatics pulling between 4 to 5 G (positive), just think a moment:  I am 100 kg weight, so at 5G I weigh half a ton. My arms have to move and they weigh 5 times too. Now if you wear a helmet,  then the  helmet is also 5 times more heavy. So you have to be careful with head motions during high G figures. Your head is upwards the plane centerline, (the amount depends on airplanes and your body size) so when you do high speed rolls you get lateral and centrifugal forces. Your muscles continuously work to keep all together. Believe me 10 full minutes is worth more than a full hour of aerobic and weight lifting exercise. A stupid thing is glasses. Say you wear just your headphones/mic and glasses. You know the typical RayBan pilot glasses, very cool. Better have the special model with temples that are spring type and go round your ears, otherwise they may fly away during the show. And the headphone too can fly away. In the cockpit all that is not fixed, flies away, and may end up in places that can become dangerous, like under the pedals and block or restrain the motion.  When doing aerobatics you have or should have a parachute. At least I always wear one (backpack). So you have to be ready mentally to jettison the canopy and exit the plane if necessary. I did a little of paragliding, and today parachutes are more of the wing type with directional control and brake compared the the old round military type parachutes. In short these are some of the nice things that we miss in the simulator. Now the only thing I like in negative G is that you can find yourself for an instant weightless, floating in your seat. Start a positive loop, then a half roll and then you end on the top of the loop in negative G. Difficult to find the right speed and curvature, but I love that  feeling. It is very brief very real and you get a glimpse of what it could be much above in orbit. Unfortunately this is the nearest I will get to that.

 

But there are things we cannot have in the real plane, like hitting F2 and see the plane from outside, or hit F3 and have a nice flyby, or the Pause button, to sip a refreshing drink. It is all a compromise.

 

 

[Rjel]

ickyATLAS, I think I can understand what you are saying. The biggest drawback to flying a computer game is the lack of physical effort. Physical danger even. I flew the routine I recorded so many times I've lost count. Crashed several times. Broke a lot of landing gears and bent more props nosing over. Obviously we can't emulate the dangers involved with computers we'd experience in real life. I tried to tailor my flight to mimic what a real pilot might have done in WWII. It was and still is most enjoyable for me to fly aerobatics as much as the combat part of the game. I am very eager to try out the P-51 in this way when it is released. 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Rjel
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