Warbird Information Exchange

pulled this off another board has anyone here heard of this

Steve



I live about 12 miles or so from the Provo airport. The unlimited air
racer P-51 Dago Red is hangared there. At about 8am I could hear Red up
and running, making passes out by Utah Lake. I periodically bike out to
the airport and cruise the ramp, so I pedaled over there, hoping to
catch Red out of the hangar.

When I got there, the plane was back in the hangar, and they were
hammering out a big dent in the left leading edge, just outboard of the
main gear. Seems Dago Red ran out of gas and had to make a dead stick
landing, just barely cleared a brick wall past the end of the runway,
and touched down in some gravel. She either kicked a rock into the wing
or hit a sign. Apparently, the airport, which is uncontrolled, was
pretty busy, and Dago Red, to save every ounce, doesn't even have a fuel
gauge on board. The pilot, Skip Holm, was planning on a 45-minute
flight, but due to the traffic, was up over an hour. The engine coughed
and died as he was heading north past the airport, and he was very lucky
to be able to do a 180 and save the plane. With 4 feet clipped off each
wing, Dago Red doesn't even have the glide or aileron authority of a
stock Mustang. A guy from one of the FBOs said he was the first one on
the scene, and he said Skip was shaking like a leaf as he was getting
out of the cockpit. Very close one! And they're heading to Reno next
week for the races.

Story may be true, but I'm finding it hard to believe that Skip Holm, combat fighter pilot veteran, Lockheed test pilot, and veteran race pilot, was "shaking like a leaf" when he made a deadstick landing.

Several issues with the account, first being a fuel gauge. I think they are right where they are supposed to be, on the floor!, that weight wont make much difference. Have they looked in the cockpit??? Second, Skip is the ultimate race pilot, and I don't think we need to believe that about a guy with his record.

Just because you've done everything and fear nothing doesn't mean you don't pucker up a bit when doing a power off landing. ESPECIALLY in something missing like 20% of its normal lifting surface.

_________________
REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Skip is the best in the business, and I am sure he focuses his attention to the task at hand without hysterics. The Racing Mustang while it has a wing reduction does not suffer for it as the military weight is removed. The wing loading remains at or near the design targets for the airfoil, which makes it a good package. Too much wing and the aircraft is more draggy than she needs to be. The design lifting ratio of wing to weight is kept constant by removing wing area to compensate for the racing weight reduction. Best Glide is still 175 AFAIK, and the racers are considered fairly slippery compared to a stocker, but generally as docile. For mustangs at least. Hopefully one day I will find that out for myself.