My Best Flight Ever

I originally wrote this story quite awhile ago, but at the time, didn't know how to post photos, until Jessie Miller taught me.

In my "2nd" military career, I got involved with aircraft, continued aircraft work with the BLM, and  finished it in Arizona.

Now, longtime friends here in Idaho think my favorite ride was in the last F-111A I ever crewed, 67-074.  And it WAS a good ride, 2.3 hours over much of Oregon with Lt. Col. Phil Barrios, who I'd crewed airplanes for since he'd been a Captain back at Lakenheath.

And it WAS a great ride.

Here we are just before climbing in, and I took this 2nd shot as we climbed up the tailpipes of 67-095 at around 40,000 ft or so.  It was a good ride, but not the BEST one I would ever get!

On May 15th, 2001, at Falcon Field..............oops............this ain't Falcon Field...............wrong Mustang too...........

On May 15th, 2001, at Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, I got a ride in a North American P-51D Mustang, owned and flown by Bill Hanes, who had flown this VERY AIRPLANE in combat during the Korean War.  The guy was 70 years old by now, but that didn't bother me a bit!  He loved that airplane and could really fly it!  In "civilian paint trim" now, he had named it "Ho Hun."

I had an excellent vantage point from the rear jumpseat, and after a short take-off roll, we were out over the desert in fairly short order.

That "111" ride was mostly at altitude, but in the '51, we dove right down into the canyons and out over the waterway leading into Roosevelt Lake.  The Mustang has a Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 liquid-cooled engine that pumps out 2,200 horsepower and will pin you back into the seat at the touch of the throttle .

Near the end of the lake, Bill "touched" that throttle, we went straight up and you could almost feel your socks trying to roll over your heels, as he" barrel-rolled" it a couple of times, inside-looped it and by the time I got my camera set up for a shot, we were diving down along the wall of this mountain, (left).   (From my jump seat, it looked like the left wing was almost TOUCHING IT).......then he banked right, and we shot out over the desert.

I don't know how fast we were going, but I was holding on!  We did a high speed low level fly-by at the airfield, then flared-out, came around and landed.

Wow.  35 minutes in a vintage warbird.  Bill spent a lot of time in Australia doing something in real estate but would sometimes offer a $500.00 ride in that Mustang, when he had the time to do it.  The cost would pretty much pay for the fuel, so he could fly his airplane for "free", and  YOU could get a ride that most people would never get the chance at.  (I'd been on the sign-up list for over two years).  And the day may come, when we'll never see anymore of these, except in museums.

A 2-hour ride in an Aardvark is one thing.............but to ME, it didn't hold a candle to 35 minutes in a vintage P-51, and the sheer experience was worth every dime!

(Hey...I really like it, now that I can post photos............thanks again, Jessie!)