Arnold Palmer attends Gathering of Mustangs and Legends.

[Hunter1]

Arnold Palmer was spotted at the Gathereing of Mustangs on Friday. WOW, how cool is that ?!??!

[krlang]

His Citation 10 departed diring the show today and did a max performance climb on takeoff. It kind of reminded me of the F-22

[P51Mstg]

You really need to keep in mind that Arnold's old pilot was Lee Lauderback. I got a few shots of N1AP coming in and leaving. I'd love to be able to find out how many corp jets had that number painted on it. Rumor says its more than 50 jets.

Mark H

[Hunter1]

Lee was in fact Arnold Palmers pilot for 20+ years. Arnold hired him at 21 years old fresh out of college. He flew copilot for 6 months part time when Palmers pilot at the time was Charlie Johnson, who later became President of Cessna Aircraft Co. Charlie Trained Lee in the Lear 24, the First N1AP registered a/c . After Charlies departure to become a test pilot at Gates Lear, Lee was hired full time and the rest is history. Arnie is a very accomplished aviator in his own right !

Arnies fleet has included over time :

Jet Commander

Lear 24

Citation 500

Citation II

Citation III S/N 001

Citation III S/N 083

Citation VII

Citation X

Citation X ( upgraded edition )

I know for a fact that it was very special to Lee to have Arnie at the GML.

Lee aquired the first Crazy Horse Mustang in 1986 while still with Palmer with Doug Schultz who was later killed in a Mig 21 over the pacific ocean while doing contract work for the Canadian Navy.

Being Lee's son and living with only my Dad growing up, I distinctly remember my dad coming to me one day and saying ....

" we have two options... we can have a house or a Mustang, keep in mind, we can live in the Mustang, but we CANT FLY THE HOUSE"

Im very lucky to have a great dad whom has more time in P-51s than any man alive. ( 5000+)

[Robbie Stuart]

Great story Hunter1. You should be proud. Thanks for sharing that.
Robbie