A "Horse" of a Different Color

Ever ride a Mustang? To some, it means a wild horse out on a mesa somewhere. To others, it might mean a '65 Fastback 2+2.

To ME, on May 15th, 2001, it meant driving down to the other end of Falcon Field, and climbing into the back seat of a North American P-51.

The P-51 was first developed in World War II, as a long range escort fighter. Allied fighters at the time, lacked the fuel range to escort our B-17's all the way to Germany & back, so the B-17 gunners would have to defend themselves against the swarms of German fighter planes which would come up to meet them during their bombing runs. We lost a lot of bombers to the German fighters, such as the Messerschmitt 109's and Fokke-Wolfe 190.

The American-built "Mustang" as they named it, outfitted with the British Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 engine, was just what they needed. The P-51 was smoothly designed and it sliced through the air with very little drsg, so its fuel consumption was at a minimum at cruising speed. It could buzz along at around 440 mph.....UNHEARD of for a piston-engined, propeller-driven airplane. It could out-run, out-climb, out-turn and out-fight anything in the air at the time. The pilot's LOVED it. The Mustang was the airplane of choice among all the fighter groups that could get them, including the all black squadron known as the 332nd, "Tuskagee Airmen."

Even years after the Second World War, the P-51's went on to fight in Korea, as our early jets were still being developed and built. It is considered pound-for-pound, the best fighter plane of all time.

When they were replaced by jet fighters, then later phased out of our Air Guard Units, they sat in Surplus rows out in California.......for sale..........If you were a pilot with $2,500, you could go down there and pick the one you wanted, and not only get the plane, but a spare engine to go WITH it.........and a FULL LOAD OF GAS! Now......$2500 bucks was a pretty good chunk of change back then.........but a P-51 TODAY is worth a couple of MILLION!

Enter Bill Hanes. LIEUTENANT Bill Hanes flew the Mustang in Korea. A few years later when they became available for private purchase (minus the 50-cal. machineguns), Bill went down there to big storage facility in California, and went through the inventory until he found HIS old airplane, the tail number HE flew in Korea. He immediately bought it, flew it home, went completely through it, and gave it a beautiful paint job and named it "Ho Hun."

At age 70, he was still flying it, when it wasn't on static display at the museum there at Falcon Field. And two or three times a year, he'd sell a ride to anyone who might want to go. There was a two-year waiting list, but I went down there and signed up. he was also involved in real estate and spent considerable time in Australia every year, but when he was back in Phoenix, he'd take it out of the hangar, "shake out the dust", and then sell a ride or two before he left again.

When I got the phone call for MY ride, I was like a kid, the night before Christmas!

I previously wrote about my F-111 ride at Mountain Home back in '85, but THIS one was gonna be SPECIAL! The "Aardvark" ride didn't cost me anything, and it lasted 2 hours and 18 minutes.

THIS ride was gonna cost me $500.00 and we'd only be in the air about 35 minutes, but to me, it would be worth every dime, to fly in an airplane that would one day be in a museum permanently when the supply of spare engines and parts finlly runs out. And the old P-51 is a legend. It IS what it IS.

I met the 70-year old owner/pilot, we did a walk around and he answered any questions I might have. Then I climbed into the back seat........which was just a modiefied "jump seat", as the P-51D was originally just a single-seater. Bill climbed into the front seat, and strapped-in. He spun it over, and when it "lit-off", you could feel that 2,200 horsepower Merlin come to life. It's hard to describe........

but as my readers know, I'm a kid from the 50's.........and when I take our '95 Dodge pickup somewhere---no big deal----but on days like yesterday, when it was nice out, and I rumbled my old 56 Olds out of storage for a ride.........that was SPECIAL!

Back to Falcon Field.......although Bill Hanes was now 70 years old, that didn't phase me a bit......he'd flown THIS particular airplane in Korea, and for the LAST 40 years as well. I couldn't have been in better hands.

He throttled it up and we taxied down to the end of the runway and pulled into the run-up area, where he would rev' it up a few times, checking the oil pressure, manifold pressure, water temp, etc. Finally, we settled back, got clearance from the tower, then he eased it out onto the "active", and pointed the nose down the runway.

With the canopy still open, I could smell that high-octane AV-GAS as it popped and barked through those short stacks (six on each side protruding out of the engine cowl. It momentarily flashed me back to the old Fremont Dragstrip when I would ease up to the staging line, watching the "Christmas Tree", waiting for the lights.......but this wasn't my old Chevy...........this was 2200 horsepower in the fastest "Mustang" I would ever ride in!

Even at IDLE, you could feel the PULSE of that big V-12 Merlin.......we were gettin' ready to go and this was "SHEER SEX, BABY!!"

"READY BACK THERE?"...........(man, I'd been ready for a long time!)......"YES SIR!". Bill rolled the canopy forward, locked it down and throttled it up. Before you knew it, the tail was up and I was pinned back to the seat. To this day, that was the shortest take-off roll I'd ever experienced. In no time at all, we were over the mountains on our way to Roosevelt Lake. This was an opportunity that few people ever get, so I got my camera out and took some pictures as we went along.

As we approached Roosevelt Lake, we flew down into the canyons. I got some great shots as we swung out over a cove about a hundred feet above the water. We flew along the waterline a bit then headed toward another mountain range. Without telling me what we were gonna do, Bill "poured the coals" to it! We were rapidly closing the distance between us and this mountain range, when he pulled us UP into the "vertical" and rolled it a couple of times. I had NO IDEA of what was up or down and I could barely move around in the seat under the tremendous torque of that engine. I was glad I'd only had a slice of unbuttered toast that morning! Wow!

This of course was "routine" for old "Lieutenant Hanes" up front there! We flew down along this HUGE ravine, where the left wing looked like it was about to scrape the hillside. I grabbed a couple of quick pictures, then we banked right and we shot out LOW-LEVEL over the desert. It seemed like he could almost "WILL" that thing to go wherever he wanted it to go. No wonder every pilot who ever flew a P-51 loved the airplane, and why it is so sought-after today, on those rare occasions when one might come up for sale.

That old Warplane could REALLY RUN. We rolled out to the left a bit and headed back toward Falcon Field about 200 feet off the deck. Everything was a BLUR down there, but I took a last shot or two anyway. As we approached, Bill got permission from the tower to do a high-speed fly-by. The guys in the tower all knew him, and as long as there was no other air traffic nearby, they'd always grant him a "fly-by", because they liked to watch him too.

"HANG ON!"

I slipped my camera back into my belt pouch and grabbed onto the horizontal brace in front of me. He cobbed the throttle again, zipped down over the runway, flashed by the tower, did a beautiful climb and bank, brought it around, lowered the landing gear and we were back on the ground. We parked just outside the hangar doors to the museum that were still open, and shut 'er off. After I got out, we hooked the little ramp tug and towbar up to it, and I helped him park it back in the hangar again.

What a RIDE!.......in a genuine Morth American P-51

Even Carroll Shelby never built a "Mustang" like THIS!