Crow Hunter
10-20-15, 15:38
Okay, time to brag.
I finally got to take my P51 this past weekend at the Balloons Over Mt Vernon festival.
It was INCREDIBLE. The most fun I have ever had in 40 min and something that I will never forget.
My pilot for my flight was the super awesome badass Maj Ray Fowler of the USAF ANG 100th Fighter Squadron (F16 driver). If you guys ever get a chance to fly, try to get Maj Fowler. (Youtube Ray Fowler F16 for some cool videos) Not only is he a great pilot but he is a really good guy and a lot of fun to talk to. If you can talk that is. I didn't say much because I was so overwhelmed with the incredible coolness of actually being in a P51.
The coolest part of the flight:
Me - "This is going to sound stupid but I have wanted to fly in a P51 Mustang since playing Aces over Europe in High School/College"
Maj Fowler - "I think I played that game too"
Me - "The only thing that would make this cooler was if we strafed some trains."
Maj Fowler - "We can take care of that, lets find some trains."
Me - ":dance3: (Well inside anyway since I was strapped into the plane and parachute"
Maj Fowler - "There is a juicy one, lets get it"
Where upon made a hard left turn and we literally dived down on and mock strafed a CN train heading to Chicago.
Me - "Oh my God that was great!!!!"
My apologies to any CN or IC engineers/conductors who may have thought they were under attack.:cool:
We did that a couple more times before the flight was over. However, due to oppressively silly FAA rules, no acrobatics.:mad:
Before you ask, unfortunately the borrowed GoPro apparently either malfunctioned/I screwed up/ate that part of the video. All I have is the last 2 minutes for the landing.:(
However, that means that I will have to do it again with a functioning GoPro.:secret:
Also, as an incredible bonus, there was a F4F Wildcat that someone had flown in for the show and while waiting for the P51 to arrive, my wife and I got to spend an hour talking to a local WWII veteran who was a F4F Wildcat pilot in the Pacific and he participated in 4 invasions while on the USS Steamer Bay. He told us of several harrowing and hilarious incidents that he had in training and also described some of the horrors that he faced. You could really tell that it bothered him that every night he slept in a clean bed on the escort carrier while the other young men were stuck on the beaches of Iwo Jima. Another time his carrier had switched places in line with another carrier and only a few hours later a kamikaze had punched through the deck and the carrier had gone down with all hands onboard. You could tell that it was something that was still real to him even today.
A real touching account spoke of was the "medal" that he was most proud of and that was the ring he had where he married his sweetheart between deployments, who he was still married to 72 year later. Along with several funny stories related to that. That gentleman gave me his personal card with phone number and address and told me next time I was in the area to call him and he would buy me lunch. I told him no, next time I will buy him lunch.
That, to me, was the actually coolest part of the trip and the P51 ride was just the icing on the cake.
I finally got to take my P51 this past weekend at the Balloons Over Mt Vernon festival.
It was INCREDIBLE. The most fun I have ever had in 40 min and something that I will never forget.
My pilot for my flight was the super awesome badass Maj Ray Fowler of the USAF ANG 100th Fighter Squadron (F16 driver). If you guys ever get a chance to fly, try to get Maj Fowler. (Youtube Ray Fowler F16 for some cool videos) Not only is he a great pilot but he is a really good guy and a lot of fun to talk to. If you can talk that is. I didn't say much because I was so overwhelmed with the incredible coolness of actually being in a P51.
The coolest part of the flight:
Me - "This is going to sound stupid but I have wanted to fly in a P51 Mustang since playing Aces over Europe in High School/College"
Maj Fowler - "I think I played that game too"
Me - "The only thing that would make this cooler was if we strafed some trains."
Maj Fowler - "We can take care of that, lets find some trains."
Me - ":dance3: (Well inside anyway since I was strapped into the plane and parachute"
Maj Fowler - "There is a juicy one, lets get it"
Where upon made a hard left turn and we literally dived down on and mock strafed a CN train heading to Chicago.
Me - "Oh my God that was great!!!!"
My apologies to any CN or IC engineers/conductors who may have thought they were under attack.:cool:
We did that a couple more times before the flight was over. However, due to oppressively silly FAA rules, no acrobatics.:mad:
Before you ask, unfortunately the borrowed GoPro apparently either malfunctioned/I screwed up/ate that part of the video. All I have is the last 2 minutes for the landing.:(
However, that means that I will have to do it again with a functioning GoPro.:secret:
Also, as an incredible bonus, there was a F4F Wildcat that someone had flown in for the show and while waiting for the P51 to arrive, my wife and I got to spend an hour talking to a local WWII veteran who was a F4F Wildcat pilot in the Pacific and he participated in 4 invasions while on the USS Steamer Bay. He told us of several harrowing and hilarious incidents that he had in training and also described some of the horrors that he faced. You could really tell that it bothered him that every night he slept in a clean bed on the escort carrier while the other young men were stuck on the beaches of Iwo Jima. Another time his carrier had switched places in line with another carrier and only a few hours later a kamikaze had punched through the deck and the carrier had gone down with all hands onboard. You could tell that it was something that was still real to him even today.
A real touching account spoke of was the "medal" that he was most proud of and that was the ring he had where he married his sweetheart between deployments, who he was still married to 72 year later. Along with several funny stories related to that. That gentleman gave me his personal card with phone number and address and told me next time I was in the area to call him and he would buy me lunch. I told him no, next time I will buy him lunch.
That, to me, was the actually coolest part of the trip and the P51 ride was just the icing on the cake.