Moon Spillers passed December 13

[Elwyn]

Just came across this on the net
http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignit ... cale=en-US

The Mustang he rescued ended up as a bit of a mongrel, but what a beautiful mongrel.


http://www.pbase.com/image/70777781/original.jpg

Last edited by Elwyn on Mon Dec 26, 2011 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[F3A-1]

My condolences to his family and friends.

Moon was an absolutely first rate guy. His word was better than a contract. He was a "doer" not a talker. Some people would look at the P51 wreckage he started with and say "that will never fly again". In effect those would be words of inspiration to him. When someone else built a plane that was not completely accurate he would say "well, it is flying!". When I passed through on the way to the Cleveland Air Races in '79 I met him. He became the first mentor for me in warbirds. He was the first person I met that actually went out and salvaged a warbird, rebuilt it and flew it.

Pirate Lex
http://www.BrewsterCorsair.com

[Ed Likes]

Im sorry to hear of Moon's passing. I met Moon in December 1986. He was either right on the verge, or had just finished a 9 year restoration of his P-51 Mustang. You would never know that Versailles OH airport had such a gem of a guy and aircraft. Moon let me climb all over his Mustang, and answered all of my questions I had of him then.
I did a short article on him which was published in Warbirds of America Magazine. On July 4th 1987 I got to fly with Moon in his Mustang from Versailles to Bryan, OH for our annual Kiwani's Fly In Breakfast which was advertised in advance. Moon was for our town a huge deal as he was the featured attraction. Cars were lined up on both sides of the highway at the airport that day. That flght with Moon was my first Mustang ride we came across the ruway at roughly 100 feet at about 350 which I have recorded on Video tape fo my personal archives.
I asked Moon how much I owed him for the Mustang flight which was a round trip affair of about 1 hour in the air he said would $125.00 be to much this was in 1987. I then saw Moon in 1995 right before he sold the Mustang to Jerry Gabe of Hollister California. I asked Moon why he was selling the airplane he said basically he had not flown it that much for a couple of years, and he felt that it needed to go to someone who would fly the airplane more often. Also he felt that perhaps his reflexes were not quite as fast as they once were. If memory serves me right I think he sold that Mustang for 500K in 1995.
Moon god speed and I hope your flying with the angels on high.

[B 25 C]

My condolences to Family and friends.

[cooper9411]

Condolences are sent. I'm glad that folks like Moon had clear vision, to see the finished product sitting amongst the pile of "rubble"