Bald Eagle Aviation

[51fixer]

Wondered if it was Navion or possibly off of a turret from a B-25.
Foot starter has a narrower and taller pedal and is alum.

[Chappie]

Flew a Heritage Flight for the Korean War Ceasefire event at Arlington National Cemetery, here are a few pics I shot.

Jim,

I'll bet having an F-4 right off your wingtip never gets old does it?


Chappie

[51fixer]

New Mustang Pilot-
Wixer and new P-51 pilot soloed yesterday at MQS in Bald Eagle.
Congratulations Andrew McKenna.

Rolling-

I'm unsure if there are photos but Andrew did a week of training at Stallion 51.
Congrats again.

[51fixer]

Wondered if it was Navion or possibly off of a turret from a B-25.
Foot starter has a narrower and taller pedal and is alum.

Good bet from a very early Navion-
Interior photo from Navioneer.org website with a very similar rubber piece on the rudder pedal.
http://www.navioneer.org/riprelay/The%2 ... wpanel.jpg

[51fixer]

Andrew after a week of NAA Education with Crazy Horse2-

edit- Andrew is the one whose head is obstructing the word "Crazy". Read into it what you want.

[JLoveless]

Congrats to Andrew, moving up the ladder pretty fast!

[tipspeed]

Rich, thanks for taking the time out of your busy day and having me at MQS on Friday. Awesome man cave Jim has there. I appreciate it and also loved the vintage dirtbikes. Thanks again!

Dave

[amckenna03]

Andrew after a week of NAA Education with Crazy Horse2-

edit- Andrew is the one whose head is obstructing the word "Crazy". Read into it what you want.

Rich - That's right. You always fixing things that are not really broken will drive one to maddness! Seriously, Stallion 51 was a great experience. Lee and his entire team have a first classs operation. I had some pretty strong tail-winds going into formal Mustang Training; which included a comprehensive systems (Hydro, Electric, Fuel). I really didn't realize how much I had learned from Rich and Jimmy over the years, but it paid off in spades and allowed me to focus on flying and deepen my knowledge. The actual flying portion was great - lots of time going to the dark-corners of an otherwise stable and safe airplane, flying in the buffet in almost all portions of flight -including full on acro (loops, rolls, Cuban 8's) talk about pulling hard all week!!!! The term we used for the week was "poking the dragon" putting the Mustang into awkward flight conditions and learning what inputs were the correct ones - all of which I had done with Jimmy or Dan Calderale in the T-6; most important it reinforced the systems knowledge with actual flight situations and emergencies and forces the pilot on what not to do, to prevent or kill bad habits. We spent a good chunk of time on emergencies, aborted take-off's, and lots of take-off and landing environments (no flap, 10deg, 30deg landings) Lots of "go-arounds." You really do appreciate that the Mustang is a good solid flying airplane and you really need to "poke hard" to get the dragon to bite; when it does bite - how to put the dragon back in the box and get back to flying safe. The engineers on the Mustang did just about everthing right. Talk about addictive, that Merlin is just awesome and pushing it right up to 55-inches is such a kick! (now only if we could have the reliability of an Allison in the Mustang!!!) Hat's off to Jimmy and Rich for giving me a strong leg up, as graduate 143# of Stallion 51's comprehensive Mustang training program - I strongly advise Stallion as a part of your training. For me - I would not have done it any differently - waiting and getting more time in the hanger with Rich - lots of T-6 flying and especially some Mustang time was a huge game changer for my learning. To Jimmy and Rich, thanks for "leg up" last week - Lots more to learn! Andrew

[amckenna03]

[amckenna03]

[Taylor Stevenson]

Congrats! Looks like you had a blast!

[Brian Snow]

You look properly wrung - out, Andrew..........Congratulations on completing the Stallion 51 Program.........Great profile on your future CV......

[JLoveless]

Any progress the new SNJ?

[Brian Snow]

A fair number of Mustangs these days have a "Ferrari Style" ( Scudderia ) , prancing horse on the rudder.......anybody know what this signifies...??? Any connection with Avirex....???? Thanks, Brian.

[JohnTerrell]

Brian, the 343rd Fighter Squadron (55th Fighter Group) and the 353rd Fighter Squadron (354th Fighter Group) used that marking/emblem during WWII, so it shows up on quite a few restored Mustangs - "The Millie G", "Miss Marylin II", "Miss Velma", "Gunfighter", "Miss Judy", "Ho Hun", and the late Tom Wood P-51D, "Charlotte's Chariot II" and "Little Horse". In all of these instances, they are a copy (or at least based on inspiration (some more loosely than others)) of those squadron markings. Where the inspiration came from in 1944, I don't know.