Here ya go. FTB in his Auburn days back in 1998. If you thought I was white and too tall to fit in the front seat of a P-51 such that the canopy would've smashed my small brain then you had me pegged. I', not sure if I actually would fit because I wasn't about to move the seats. I can tell you the instrument panel was nice but the #1 thing in your face is the radiator stuff. If you managed the radiator right then it was just a piper cub.




I'm going to post these for no other reason than to say he took me flying in his P-51 because I did a rental checkout. That's pretty darn kind.

Only barrel roll FTB has ever done...



Smoke on startup. Let me tell you, nobody was around when I climbed in that airplane. My buddy who is on the 88 here in ATL and 3rd generation Delta pilot and hired with 80 was the only one standing out there to see it. He was waiving to me and I waived back, but once Mr. Leeward fired the engine up, which btw when asked how much HP it had he said he didn't know for sure, but a crowd assembled. When we started buzzing the field we had a lot of people in the audience.

 

When we did the low pass, btw i took that low pass while on his way out after we flew, but I wanted to take a picture for my friends that were watching. So we did a fast pass down the runway, came back and did another and I got that pic which wasn't good enough. So on the third pass I got the camera ready and was holding it up to take the picture when Mr. Leeward broke into a climbing left turn right in front of everyone.

I ended up taking a picture of the floor. I have no idea where that pic is and I'm not sure when I got my head back up to look outside, I need to find that pic.

Last one.



This was after takeoff, I don't think he was at half throttle when that thing was airborne.

This is very sad.

 

Cool pics, FtB.

That's the one airplane I've ever wanted to fly, but know I won't. OK, maybe a low-level/carrier landing in a F-18 for a close 2nd.

Btw, I watched Buffett jump out of his Albatross and run full speed behind that white hangar after a long flight from s. Fla.

 

youtube has several videos coming. It looked as if the airplane pitched up, rolled over to the right and went vertical into the stands. The video you're seeing on tv is showing that, the crowd could see the accident unfolding before the impact.



i'm done. good night guys, war eagle.

 

Won't be having too much luck seeing me around other than lurking for the next 4 weeks except for friday and saturday nights. There's a french lady that is demanding my attention.



So, I'm not saying a free for all tonight, but...



By the way, the tail has fallen off every SIT (north speak for CPT) training session so far, and 4 guys have dropped out due to malaria.

It's ugly!

 

Those pics are awesome, ftb! They look way better on here than on my cell phone!

Do I need to bust out the creepy clapping guy again for those?

 

As long as she has underboob, then yes.

 

A song about the things you don't say to your wife...

 

And bad wedding song choices:

 

There are several good stills shots and movies that show what perhaps happened. It appears the trim tab came off the elevator. You can see it separate in one video and the aircraft pitches up instantly. This is a common problem in the P51 at high speeds and has happened before. It happened at Reno a few years back and the aircraft did a 9 g pitch up. The pilot in that case was able to recover the aircraft after it slowed and land.
In this case it appears the pitch up may have GLOC the 80 year old pilot. You can see in a close up still that he is slumped over out of sight in the cockpit just before impact.
The entire accident is very sad and perhaps had a better trim tab been mandated for 51's in air races it could have been avoided since its a known problem.