Flying in a P51 Mustang

[BoldHighlander]

This one is for the warbird enthusiasts out there.

Some of you might remember Val-Halla, our local P51D (converted to a 2 seater - below) that was part of my thread on a local airshow last year:



Tonight I located a video that was posted that was filmed in flight from within the cockpit as Val-Halla & another P51 (Hell-er Bust) fly out of Bellingham airport, over Bellingham (w/ the bay to the right), and over Mount Baker & the Cascades, and return home over Whatcom County.

This is pretty cool, and is probably the closest most of us will ever get to flying inside the "Cadillac of the Skies".

Enjoy!

[denmcdough]

Excellent! I felt as if I was on the flight with you.

[Whidbey78]

First, I'm jealous of both the pilot and the back-seater. The P-51 is one of my favorite prop aircraft.

Second, seeing that scenery made me a bit homesick. I really miss Mt. Baker in the east, the Olympics to the west, the rain and salt air.

Thanks for posting that! Very very cool.

[Jock Scot]

I want a go! Sadly I doubt that I would ever fit in. We have a two seat-er Spitfire that does the air show circuit here, but I think that very few get to have a ride in it.

I had occasion to be at Inverness airport the other day and there right in front of the waiting room window(20 yards) was a single seat-er Spitfire with engine running waiting to take off, it was there for a couple of minutes and off it went .WOW! I just had to get that in! Anyway there is a connection------the Merlin engine.

[Mipi]

That was great. Thanks for sharing with us. The "birds" are in good condition.

[Redshank]

the sound of that RR Merlin engine makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and fills me with emotion, Respect for The FEW

[Mael Coluim]

My Dad was mechanic for those babies while serving Uncle Sam.

[Jerry]

I turned up the volume and just listened to that bid Merlin engine purring. I've never been in one or seen one up close, but on a golf trip several years ago, there was an airshow going on at an airfield across the road from the course we were playing. There were quite a few vintage aircraft going over the course, including a P-51, a B-17, a P-47 among others. I played horribly. Do you know how difficult it is to hit a golf ball while you're looking at the sky for the entire 18 holes?

[haukehaien]

I would love to go up in a Mustang!

About ten years ago one of my wife's colleagues at the local newspaper got me a ride in a B-17 that was making a publicity/fund-raising tour and that experience was AMAZING! Going for a spin in one of the "little friends" would be a real add-on to that experience.


B17038 by haukehaien, on Flickr

The bombardier's view from that flight. I had a Sony digital camera that recorded on floppy disk(!) so the detail's not so good. I wish I had scans of my 35mm slides from the flight - have to do that sometime.

[artificer]

Great stuff, Terry.

Living where I do, about 1 hour south of the EAA, every summer we are treated to an air-armada flying overhead for nearly a full week. The topper was a few years ago.

I was out on the lake a few miles during a surface interval (tech diving) when we heard the strangest prop noise... Looking around we see a B-17 sweep over the ridge and down into the bowl of the river basin- like it's on a close-support bombing run. The thing does a great circle around the entire harbor at what seems like 75mph, banked steeply to the port side, then rights itself and heads back north up the lake toward the show.

My whole team and the support crew all just stood there, mouths agape, for the entire five minutes it was in view.

Now if it had been escorted by a few of the Mustangs... well, we'd probably STILL be standing out there drooling