CraigBirkhold wrote:
I remember when this P-51 was flown into Fort Wayne, IN in 1985 and Fort Wayne Air Service/John Dilley painted it in Fort Wayne Air National Guard Colors. It had General Hettinger"s name painted on the left side of the canopy who was commander of the 122nd at that time. Anybody out there got a picture of it wearing the ANG colors? This was before Fort Wayne Air Service rebuilt the aircraft and put it into the LOU IV Colors. This poor airframe has suffered from 3 major accidents since the time it was in Fort Wayne. The LOU IV paint scheme has ben applied to about 4 different airframes in the USA since WWII. Chuck Greenhill bought a former FWAS restored P-51 in "American Beauty" colors and had the Goderich, Ont paint shop put it into LOU IV Olive Drab colors about 2 years ago. LOU IV comes to OSHKOSH almost annually and is seen by all. Since we already have a LOU IV in olive drab there is no need for a repeat performance. If you guys want to keep LOU IV I would suggest a return to blue. It is much prettier than OD and the blue has its own significant history on the airshow venue. If there is a desire for an authenic WWII paint scheme, then I would pick a different canidate. I would love to see a "Jersy Jerk" paint scheme back out at OSHKOSH. Now we currently get to see the 3 variations of "OLD CROW".
I'm really glad to see this Mustang going again.
I remember the year Tom Kelley brought LOU IV to Reno and they let Paul Poberezny race it in one of the heat races, and he had a blast.
Poberezny had previously bought the Jerry Brassfield/Bob Love Cavalier and he went home and painted it as LOU IV but called it PAUL 1 with his initials down the side. - I always hated that paint job,
... and I'm sad that the plane has been grounded.
About a year later I was going to Oshkosh, and Bob Love asked my to give his greetings to "Pope Paul" if I saw him. I did end up running into Poberezny and we talked about Bob and the Mustangs for about 20mins.