Took a ride in a Mustang!

[fecmech]

I went down to the Geneseo Air Show on Thursday to take a ride in a P-51C Mustang. The aircraft has been restored by the Commemorative Air Force and painted with the "Red Tail" design. I have flown in a large number of different a/c in my life but always wanted to fly in a P-51 or P-40 and finally got to do it. Great bunch of people involved and the pilot Doug Rozendaal did a great job. We flew for a half hour, I got a little stick time in the back and we did some aerobatics. I'm a happy camper and that's one off the "Bucket List"! Here is a picture of us taxiing out.

[Digger]

you are one lucky man ! ... I am so jealous .... being able to ride in a beautiful piece of history like that .....besides , talk about FUN ! .....

[Hardcast416taylor]

Now if only the .50`s would have been live and you could have done a strafing run on some training targets.....?Robert

[fecmech]

Now if only the .50`s would have been live and you could have done a strafing run on some training targets.....?Robert

That would have been the icing on the cake!

[fryboy]

looking at the thread headline my first thought was Ford mustang and i was thinking you poor feller , now i'm green with envy lolz cool ride amigo !!

[runfiverun]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJonrBWkbtE
i don't know a ride in one of these would be just about as exhilirating [minus the 3-d aspect of course]
this is where i get most of my parts for my 06.
and yes, it is street legal here.

[WILCO]

Here is a picture of us taxiing out.

Makes a great desktop background!

[Ronbo256]

Lucky! I wish I could have some backseat time in that Mustang myself!

[MtGun44]

VERY cool. I got about an hour in a T-6, much of it me flying and
the instructor demoing acro, and me trying to duplicate it. Humbling a bit,
due to the significant need for highly variable rudder input that I never
quite got just right, close some of the time, but not really dead on.

It was a LOT of fun, and I can only imagine how much more fun a
P-51 would be. Lucky man!

My FIL has 2.5 kills in WW2 in P-51s, and started in the B-models, razorbacks
like the one you flew. You were sitting where the radios and armor plate
normally would be. Later models had a fuselage tank there and my FIL
says the airplane was hard to handle (CG too far aft) when it was full so
it was always burned off on the way to the target.

Well DONE!

Bill

[looseprojectile]

I can remember ads for MCMD Mustangs completely overhauled with the second seat, selling for $7,500.00. Was in the late fifties and early sixties.
Avgas was thirtyfive cents.

When in plane captain school in the navy I experienced starting and running the engines in F4U-5 Corsairs for training. All that throbbing horsepower is awesome.
Later it was common to taxi test the planes that I had done brake work on.

Was always a thrill to sit behind all that power. I was not a pilot, just a crewman/mechanic.

Little can match the pucker factor of a catapult launch and the controlled crashes of landing on an aircraft carrier. Memory dims and I wish I could remember those experiences more vividly. [the joy and the terror].
I would love to do it all again.
It would be expensive without uncle sam buying the gas.


Life is good

[Olevern]

fecmech,
I recently took several boys to the Glenn H. Curtiss museum in Hammondsport, NY (not far from where you are). Don't know if you have been there but this museum houses original and working replicas of many of the early Curtiss airplanes, including the very first seaplane purchased by the Navy from Curtiss.

Here is a photo taken on one of my recent trips to the museum of a P-40 which is being restored to flying condition in the museum after being raised from a watery grave and having been underwater since ww2. Quite a project and when in the museum one can walk into the restoration shop and talk with the curator if he is there and any of the restoration experts who have done the great work on the displays in the museum.

If you have not been there, it is a must see, and, like I said, not far from where you are.

[x101airborne]

I would buy one if my dad would fit in it. He is in LOVE with the mustang and I know it would let him negate a lot of things on his bucket list. Say, anyone have one they could hog hunt with? Aircraft are legal for hogs in Texas!

[runfiverun]

now that would add an element, strafing hogs with a 50.
it might save on the trespass fee too.

[fecmech]

Olevern-Thanks for the heads up on the Curtiss Museum I'll have to take a trip there. My father worked at Curtiss in Buffalo at the beginning of the war before he was drafted and I remember him talking about the P-40's and P-39 Aircobras. I have a soft spot for the P-40. It was reading about them in Scott's, God is My Co-Pilot that started my aviation career as a young boy. I love the sound of the 12 Cyl Allisons and Roll Royce Merlins when they do high speed low level passes so it was quite a thrill to hear it up close and personal in the cockpit.

Was always a thrill to sit behind all that power. I was not a pilot, just a crewman/mechanic.

LP I hear you on that score. I was Run/Taxi qualified on the 727 at Fedex. One winter we had to do a full power run with all three engines and the only bare ground was the runway. After we finished the run I scared my partner a bit as we came back down the runway. I shoved the throttles up to TO and let the airplane get up to about 30-40 MPH before I pulled them back and coasted the rest of the way to our turn off.

[geargnasher]

All I can do is drool, what a ride that must have been! Congratulations on checking that off the list, it'll stay with you a very long time.

Gear

[Boz330]

That would be at the top of my bucket list. Last time I checked the price on the dual control Mustang in FL a couple years ago it was $2800 an hour, a little outside of my budget.
What a dream come true.

Bob

[ErikO]

Dang, I'd settle for being able to fit in the backseat. Congrats!

[Olevern]

don't want to spoil it all but here is another pic from the museum

[dmize]

That would be at the top of my bucket list. Last time I checked the price on the dual control Mustang in FL a couple years ago it was $2800 an hour, a little outside of my budget.
What a dream come true.

Bob


Yea I was going to mention that,when there was one here from The Collins Foundation last year it was $2,500 for a 1 hour flight in a P-51 and $500 for a shorter flight in the B-17 or the B-24.
I am not trying to start anything,I know those birds have to cost a lot to own and maintain. It was just a shock to me.

[BruceB]

The warbirds work in a different world. I just took a look at some WWII data for the P51D (Mustang).

To climb to 10,000 feet took 23 gallons of aviation gasoline.....if that cost the same as my car gas (it doesn't) that's about $100 just to get well off the ground. Wartime cruise at 395 mph drank 85 gallons per hour, or about $400 in automotive fuel.

Add all the other costs for maintenance and MANY associated expenses, and we can easily see why a joyride costs big bucks.

Beautiful birds.