On the Ramp Right Now!

As previously threatened, 'Mustang Mania' continues at the Skunk Works !!! Side-Stepping just a bit, I thought I'd post some photos of Monogram's early 60's plastic display Mustang that initially imprinted me like a baby duck.

My older brother bought this kit for me when I was seven or eight. He didn't have time to put all the functioning stuff in the model, and just assembled the major parts for me. Just as well...I was a typical kid, and the delicate mechanisms would not have worked very long!!!

I got this kit at a Swap meet in Mattoon, Illinois a few years ago, and had to stop several times on the long drive home to sift through it's magical parts and re-read the old instruction sheet.

I'd be in my late teens before noticing that these Mustangs must have time-warped backwards to attack a Japanese Airfield while wearing their 'U.S. Air Force' markings, as the dust from WWII had settled before they got those, along with the red stripe inserted in their star and bar.

Or, maybe the guys catching grief from the Mustangs were North Koreans using Japanese-looking planes...



For a plastic display model, the Monogram F-51 was fairly complex.











Like a lot of kids my age, much of what I knew about airplanes came from the notes included with kit assembly instructions and box flaps. School Encyclopedias filled in a bit, but mostly left specific questions unanswered.





The kits were still pretty common in the the late 1960's, and I built a couple in my early teen's, with all the functions up and working. I was also discovering photography, and the fact that it was pretty difficult to get a decent close-up with the plastic prize camera I got from selling GRIT Newspapers. But, you take your best shot at it...

GRIT news, I'd forgotten about that. Those ads were in all the mags.
And now I know there was an F-51 Mustang. Strange I didn't know about it, I read a paperback book about the Mustangs, and remember the A-36, but the first reference I remember to the F is when Cribbs gave me the Sterling Yak-9 kit and I read on the plans about the pair of models, matched for slow combat if I recall correctly. I tried to expand the picture and read, but it was making my eyes tired, so I'm off to Google it. Thanks for posting it.
Rusty

Yep...GRIT Newspapers, along with pushing around a loose-engined lawnmower, were my main sources of income during that awkward stretch of early teenagerhood!

...ok, one more time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNTQSbvlutg

also, here's one of the neatest plastic Mustangs, the Comet (Chicago, IL) F-51

Found some nose art        http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/p51pics/noseart/Home.shtml

Mark Boesen wrote:...ok, one more time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNTQSbvlutg

Ha! Made my afternoon.
P-51 Cadillac of the Sky! Horsepower!
Maybe he should have shouted Rolls Royce of the Sky along with horsepower.
I gotta look that movie up. I don't think I've seen it.
Rusty

Mark Boesen wrote:...ok, one more time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNTQSbvlutg

I've never seen that movie... I do believe I'm going to find and watch it soon!!! Thanks for posting Mark!!!!

Suffered through it to see the Mustangs...this scene is the best of all of it...

Kim wrote:Suffered through it to see the Mustangs...this scene is the best of all of it...

I have actually seen that scene before, probably posted here. That's a great one. The aviator grinning and waving at the kid at 175 mph was probably a stretch.
Rusty

RknRusty wrote:

Kim wrote:Suffered through it to see the Mustangs...this scene is the best of all of it...

I have actually seen that scene before, probably posted here. That's a great one. The aviator grinning and waving at the kid at 175 mph was probably a stretch.
Rusty

Yeah, with a lot of these, a guy has to sit back and just enjoy the spectacle...which was Great in this movie.  

Very similar to the beginning scenes in Universal's 'Battle of Britain' in 1969, with pseudo BF-109's strafing a British Base in France.

By VERY happy coincidence, I've crossed paths with this 51 several times.  

He's been to our Airshow here a couple of times, and I also have photos and some somewhat grainy video of him landing at Brodhead, Wisconsin.  

For me, a P-51, landing on a grass runway IS a bit out of the ordinary!

Kim wrote:For me, a P-51, landing on a grass runway IS a bit out of the ordinary!

...and for the Spitfire, it was the norm.  
Bob

I have a pre-digital camera picture of me with my hand on a P-51D at an airshow in Columbia. It was the first time I'd seen one close up, and I just had to make sure I touched it. My son took the picture and then we traded places. We got up close with a bunch of planes that day, including one of my other favorites, a Corsair and a B-25 Mitchell too. I need to find those pictures and scan them.

I don't recall ever building one, but I just remembered I have a small plastic kit in a box that my Nephew gave me years ago. I built, more battleships than planes. I did build a nice Fokker DR-1, red of course, since I'd read Richthofen's biography.
Rusty

Completely understand and relate to that!  P-51's ARE a National Treasure...but that was not always the case:

Mustang Start Up:

So...WAY back in 2010, I loaded my first You Tube Video, and either through naivete or more likely, simple denseness, I never considered that the Fleetwood Mac background song MIGHT cause me copyright issues.

You Tube posted my video, sans sound track, with a nasty note to me to cease and desist my evil ways!  But, even muted, it STILL got quite a few views, by my standards at least.  On a lark, I punched it one day last week, and was surprised to discover You Tube had restored the audio.  Don't know why, and ain't asking !

For three great evenings every year, we flew our little wooden airplanes all around Brodhead, Wisconsin and it's surrounding farm fields, playing like otters on a muddy hill.  Finally, flying back home, exhausted and sunburned and thinking about the next year.

I'm leaving my airport job this Spring, and my retirement plans are to get Ole Yeller going again, and hopefully post a much-updated video of this year's reunion!

So, here it is: a video of flying clips from ten some-odd years ago, all from various years of a reunion of some of the greatest people anyone could ever meet...the Annual "Pietenpol Expo" at Brodhead, Wisconsin's wonderful grass airport.

I don't have video ability, but here are some pictures of a RR Merlin which belongs to a friend of mine.  We had a play day at my place with old engines, tractors, a few cars etc.  Engine doesn't actually come from a P-51 but from a DH Mosquito, hence the 3 blade prop rather than 4.  Dave's done a magnificent job of restoring it & it runs sweet as.  

Dave at the controls.

That's me in the hat getting my dose of adrenalin.  Man it sounds nice.   

The business end.

Rod.

Cool !

Kim wrote:So...WAY back in 2010, I loaded my first You Tube Video, and either through naivete or more likely, simple denseness, I never considered that the Fleetwood Mac background song MIGHT cause me copyright issues.

You Tube posted my video, sans sound track, with a nasty note to me to cease and desist my evil ways!  But, even muted, it STILL got quite a few views, by my standards at least.  On a lark, I punched it one day last week, and was surprised to discover You Tube had restored the audio.  Don't know why, and ain't asking !

For three great evenings every year, we flew our little wooden airplanes all around Brodhead, Wisconsin and it's surrounding farm fields, playing like otters on a muddy hill.  Finally, flying back home, exhausted and sunburned and thinking about the next year.

I've leaving my airport job this Spring, and my retirement plans are to get Ole Yeller going again, and hopefully post a much-updated video of this year's reunion!

So, here it is: a video of flying clips from ten some-odd years ago, all from various years of a reunion of some of the greatest people anyone could ever meet...the Annual "Pietenpol Expo" at Brodhead, Wisconsin's wonderful grass airport.

Thoroughly enjoyable!!!!!!!  

Because we're talking aircraft engines, I just want to continue this sidetrack one more time. We talked before about Ranger engines in cars. I found back some pictures of my aero engined special still not finished. The pics were taken some 10 years ago. It is still like that only with a little more dust. It's a 1928 Citroën chassis. First pic as I bought it, then restored with the upside down Ranger 440C (king shaft not mounted). I have a Bentley Mk VI gearbox for it but I have no idea how to get on with it.





Lieven

Spent my Memorial Day with my favorite veteran, Uncle Wayne.  This replica Jenny was trying to make our airshow last week, but got grounded in Paducah, Kentucky with serious engine problems, finally experiencing an off-airport landing during a test flight.  Un-damaged, it's crew hauled it back to the hangar where it now sits.

It's crew buttoned up the cowling and panels while it waits for parts to come in, and I thought Wayne would enjoy walking around the classic airplane.  Turns out, it was a BIG deal for him, and we had us a great day running around Illinois and Kentucky.

The crew will try to keep me informed on when it's gonna make it's escape, and I intend to try my best to be there to record the event.











Authentic mud from the Jenny's authentic pasture landing:

My pals threw a retirement party for me yesterday, and today is my last working day at my beloved airport job.

Gonna miss this great bunch of people, but it's time for me to go play.

Hopefully gonna be back here more often once I get a bit more clear-minded, and make sure I got all my money stuff organized.

Hang with me crew...I'll be back up to speed here shortly !!!!