I Got to Fly the Collings Foundation P-51C Mustang!

[octane130]

Even though I was privileged enough to go up in the Collings Foundation's dual-control, full-rear-cockpit P-51C Mustang for one hour, I'll try to make this posting short and sweet. Not really an easy task since my flight was so full of incredible experiences!

After giving pilot Rob Collings my very short, non-pilot resume of about 45 hours of handling the controls on most of the single-engine Cessnas and Mooneys when I was a kid with my Dad many years ago and a very thorough aerobatic thrashing-about in a U.S. Navy T-34B while in college when I applied for Officer Candidate School, we strapped on parachutes and seat harnesses and we were off in the ‘51!

After about 10 minutes, we were at about 1,600 feet just off the SoCal coastline when I received the query from Rob, "Are you ready to fly a Mustang?" I responded with a quick "I have control of the aircraft." Well, what next? With the exception of exactly one aileron roll and one loop, little 'ole, inexperienced me was in complete command of this beast for the next 40 minutes of our one-hour flight; a 50-year dream come true! Under the eye of Rob, I literally had free reign to just PLAY with this aircraft for all of that time. Among a bunch of other things, I yanked and cranked, trying to "shoot" and fly through towering cloud wisps above a thin, broken cloud layer, playing fighter pilot. Due to my readily apparent lack of adequate control coordination, I was never quite able to accurately fly through a single one, ha! Believe me, this is not easy. I was skidding all over the place, but what a TREMENDOUS sense of speed maneuvering hard just a couple of hundred feet above the top of (and sometimes into) the cloud layer. My gosh.

I never received a single word of criticism from Rob, but I did get a couple of slow-burning, over-the-shoulder glares that conveyed the clear message "not exactly a stellar maneuver, chief." Yeah, I know.

Another really fun aspect of our flight was that once I was in control of the airplane, we had very little to no ground visibility on much of our route. Though with Rob up front, this certainly was a non-issue (this airplane even has GPS), but I was determined to maintain awareness of our location and not have to admit that I was lost, which could have happened very easily. I am quite proud of the fact that I maintained awareness of our location since you can really cover an awful lot of distance in one hour in a '51. I was able to steer us right smack on heading back down to Burbank Airport in preparation for a straight-in, high-speed (300 mph) low approach of less than 150 feet AGL to Runway 8 (Rob now in control of the aircraft, of course) and a 3+g, left-banking pitch-up and subsequent quick set-down on Runway 15, that Merlin engine just snarling and popping all the way. Sweet.

I know that there are several real ’51 pilots on WIX, but these are my non-pilot, quick-list impressions of the ’51. Feel free to correct me if you disagree:

- Very sensitive, finger-tip-light elevator control during cruise.
- Firm, very, very authoritative aeileron control during roll; you really get plastered into the seat even on a simple roll. Roll rate is huge. Holy cow.
- Very large trim changes on all axes when you really start to “crank and bank.” Not being knowledgeable enough to work the trim quickly, I basically just grabbed hold and pulled harder. No problem though. Especially at higher speeds, every control movement results in you really getting firmly g-forced one way or another in the cockpit. I was not used to this in my limited flying experience in slow airplanes but you would not believe how much fun this is. Really big control authority.
- Rudder control is very heavy at all times. This really does take some getting used to and it contributed to my overall lack of turn coordination. Seriously, I actually reached down to check if the toes of my size 14 boots were catching on something under the instrument panel and impeding my rudder control. Nope!
- The cockpit noise level is truly something to behold, especially during takeoff. Oh my gosh. This must be the highest cockpit noise level of any aircraft ever made, although some of the other Merlin- and Daimler-powered fighters probably equal it.
- The aircraft looks and feels very tiny from the cockpit with short, stubby wings and you can really, REALLY feel the power and the effect of that simply huge mass of the Rolls-Royce Merlin and big prop up front. In a way, that engine tells you where it wants to go. I can not overemphasize how powerful this aircraft feels. Simply and utterly amazing. Jeez. You really feel like you rule the skies; the impression is that this thing just doesn't ever seem to slow down even on tight loops, completely unlike the little putters I have previously handled the controls on long ago (no loops experienced on the putters, of course, with the exception of the T-34B). You hardly ever even touch the throttle soon after takeoff and don't need to. Just set it, make sure the friction is tightened up and just go.
- Cruise in this aircraft is not as butter-smooth as you would expect from a 12-cylinder engine, but it exhibits a very low-frequency, soft, medium amplitude, throbbing vibration that appears to be in sync with the RPM of the huge prop, not the engine RPM. I am not quite sure how to further explain this phenomenon, but it is there, but it is not at all objectionable.
- I must say that this aircraft, despite its 67-year-old provenance, is a very refined machine and I simply drank up every single minute of my flight in this famous airplane. I couldn't believe how much freedom I was given to just play with this powerful machine for 40+ minutes, soaring among the clouds totally on my own despite being a non-pilot. Definitely a lifetime memory!
- Have no doubt, this is definitely not your father’s Cessna, ha!

Best,
- octane130 -

Last edited by octane130 on Thu May 21, 2009 7:51 pm, edited 23 times in total.

[M MAKI]

Wow! Thanks for this. I wish I was there!

[steve dickey]

Neat story thanks for sharing, musta been last year cuz unless they flew the 51 out to the west coast I believe they are in Texas for a few more days

[K5DH]

I believe they are in Texas for a few more days

Yep. I spent the day with her today (when she wasn't out flying, that is).

Cheers!

[octane130]

Yes, my flight was out of Burbank, Calif. in 2008.

[EXPAT0149]

you lucky lucky .....
I am not jealous at all, honest im not ...

[skydaddy61]

OK, we all hate you...


Seriously, thanks for sharing!

[Dudley Henriques]

Even though I was privileged enough to go up in the Collings Foundation's dual-control, full-rear-cockpit P-51C Mustang for one hour, I'll try to make this posting short and sweet. Not really an easy task since my flight was so full of incredible experiences!

After giving pilot Rob Collings my very short, non-pilot resume of about 45 hours of handling the controls on most of the single-engine Cessnas and Mooneys when I was a kid with my Dad many years ago and a very thorough aerobatic thrashing-about in a U.S. Navy T-34B while in college when I applied for Officer Candidate School, we strapped on parachutes and seat harnesses and we were off in the ‘51!

After about 10 minutes, we were at about 1,600 feet just off the SoCal coastline when I received the query from Rob, "Are you ready to fly a Mustang?" I responded with a quick "I have control of the aircraft." Well, what next? With the exception of exactly one aileron roll and one loop, little 'ole, inexperienced me was in complete command of this beast for the next 40 minutes of our one-hour flight; a 50-year dream come true! Under the eye of Rob, I literally had free reign to just PLAY with this aircraft for all of that time. Among a bunch of other things, I yanked and cranked, trying to "shoot" and fly through towering cloud wisps above a thin, broken cloud layer, playing fighter pilot. Due to my readily apparent lack of adequate control coordination, I was never quite able to accurately fly through a single one, ha! I was skidding all over the place, but what a TREMENDOUS sense of speed flying just a couple of hundred feet above the top of the cloud layer. My gosh.

I never received a single word of criticism from Rob, but I did get a couple of slow-burning, over-the-shoulder glares that conveyed the clear message "not exactly a stellar maneuver, chief." Yeah, I know.

Another really fun aspect of our flight was that once I was in control of the airplane, we had very little to no ground visibility on much of our route. Though with Rob up front, this certainly was a non-issue (this airplane even has GPS), but I was determined to maintain awareness of our location and not have to admit that I was lost, which could have happened very easily. I only had a little whiskey compass in my cockpit but I am quite proud of the fact that I maintained awareness of our location since you can really cover an awful lot of distance in one hour in a '51. I was able to steer us right smack on heading back down to Burbank Airport in preparation for a straight-in, high-speed (300 mph) low approach of less than 150 feet AGL to Runway 8 (Rob now in control of the aircraft, of course) and a 3+g, left-banking pitch-up and subsequent quick set-down on Runway 15, that Merlin engine snarling and popping all the way. Sweet.

I know that there are several real ’51 pilots on WIX, but these are my non-pilot, quick-list impressions of the ’51:
- Very sensitive, finger-tip-light elevator control during cruise.
- Firm, very, very authoritative aeileron control during roll; you really get plastered into the seat even on a simple roll. Roll rate is huge.
- Very large trim changes on all axes when you really start to “crank and bank.” Not being knowledgeable enough to work the trim quickly, I basically just grabbed hold and pulled harder. No problem though.
- Rudder control is heavy at all times. This really does take some getting used to and it contributed to my overall lack of turn coordination. Seriously, I actually reached down to check if the toes of my size 14 boots were catching on something under the instrument panel and impeding my rudder control. Nope!
- The cockpit noise level is truly something to behold, especially during takeoff. Oh my gosh.
- The aircraft looks and feels very tiny from the cockpit with short, stubby wings and you can really, REALLY feel the power and the effect of that simply huge mass of the Rolls-Royce Merlin up front. In a way, that engine tells you where it wants to go. I can not overemphasize how powerful this aircraft feels. Simply and utterly amazing.
- Cruise in this aircraft is not as butter-smooth as you would expect from a 12-cylinder engine, but it exhibits a very low-frequency, soft, medium amplitude, throbbing vibration that appears to be in sync with the RPM of the huge prop, not the engine RPM. I am not quite sure how to further explain this phenomenon, but it is there, but it is not at all objectionable.
- I must say that this aircraft, despite its 67-year-old provenance, is a very refined machine and I simply drank up every single minute of my flight in this famous airplane. I couldn't believe how much freedom I was given to just play with this powerful machine for 40+ minutes, soaring among the clouds totally on my own despite being a non-pilot. Definitely a lifetime memory!
- Have no doubt, this is definitely not your father’s Cessna, ha!

Best,
- octane130 -

Nice piece on flying the 51. Glad you enjoyed the experience.
On handling;
Generally speaking, as you say the airplane is sensitive to trim changes. The ailerons will get heavier maneuvering in the 300mph range.
If just playing with the aircraft mostly in roll, setting the trim up for your power setting and playing an airspeed range both below and on top of the trim with stick pressure in pitch and roll will suffice.
Rudder as you noticed can be a workout
Vertical maneuvering in the 51 is where you can get into some "work".
Generally you can work the airplane vertically using a +4g profile married to your power setting. There are changes in the vertical plane working a Mustang that are far and above those found in much lighter and less powerful aerobatic aircraft.
The 51 in the vertical plane on the way up experiences fairly large force changes caused by the huge prop disk being exposed to changing angles with the relative wind. P Factor as the relative wind effects the prop with angles other than dead straight on which you have in the pull require a rudder correction to maintain the plane of the maneuver.
Gyroscopic precession also becomes a factor as the prop disk rotates in pitch. This is also a yaw correction.
As angle of attack increases with decreasing airspeed past 90 degrees in the vertical, especially at METO power settings, you get torque which is a roll correction requiring aileron.
Add all this up and then add that you have to play the g carefully through the float at the top of vertical maneuvers to keep the 51 from transitioning into an inverted climb and you are a fairly busy camper as a newbie in a Mustang doing any concentrated akro
But once you get through the newbie period and understand the forces working on the airplane vertically, the Mustang becomes a beautifully designed and balanced aerobatic mount that's a lot of fun to fly.
Dudley Henriques

[Holedigger]

Cool!

Now, if you could hitch a ride in a 109 and let us know how different it feels!

[octane130]

Check out the video of the startup and takeoff of "my" P-51C at Burbank, California. Sorry, no in-flight video of my flight. I was way too busy "expertly" piloting this machine for the next 40 minutes and it required my full attention, ha! Click the following link:
http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r224/octane130/Message%20Board%20Photos/?action=view&current=P-51CBurbankMyFlightClip.flv
Best,
- octane130 -

[sdennison]

If I may be so rude, How did you make this happen? Inside track or "speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"

[Michel C-GNCJ]

Great account !

Brought me right back of the excitement I felt when I flew the CAF's SNJ-5 in Mesa. But a P-51 must be something else...

I'm not jalous, I'm not jalous, I'm not jalous...

[Zachary]

I'm not jealous, just green with envy! Nice story!

Zack

[octane130]

Check out the below link to a recording of the takeoff sound from the P-51 cockpit. I didn't record this sound file, but I obtained it from an online acquaintence that took it during his flight and I edited it. This is a quite accurate representation. Turn the volume up on your computer sound system. If the plaster isn't starting to flake off your walls, you just don't have it turned up loud enough. Seriously, you will never be able to recreate the real sound from your computer, but this is as close as you will get. Have fun and thanks!
- octane130 -

Click the following link:

http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r224/octane130/Message%20Board%20Photos/?action=view&current=CollingsP-51CTakeoffCockpitSound.flv

[Mudge]

If I may be so rude, How did you make this happen? Inside track or "speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?"

Will we get an answer?

Mudge the curious