WINGS OF FREEDOM TOUR--ALR Post 277 William Stanton (Crash) Fulfilling a Dream SInce Ive been the Director of the Riders @ American Legion Post 277 I have had the privilege and honor of meeting so many great people that I now call my friends. Among those friends I am happy to include our WWII and Vietnam Era Veterans @ Post 277, Philip Vale (Flip) and Bill Stanton (Crash) and truly value what they have brought to our organization. We are blessed @ ALR 277 with our group of riders and the knowledge and comradery that they all bring to our rider group. Its great listening to their stories and their remembrances of their military service. The things I have learned from our older veterans is something I will always cherish. Seeing the bombers yesterday and trying to walk through the B-17 made me realize how brave these young men were to get into these planes and fly to fulfill their missions. I went in through the hatch that the pilots would have gone through and Im amazed how small the opening was. This was a great experience and hoping next year more of our riders will have a chance to see it. Please see the story below from Bill Stanton (Crash) as he had the opportunity to fly in one of the planes yesterday & fulfill his dream. Congratulations Bill: Well, I just fulfilled the last item on my bucket list. I JUST FLEW A P-51 MUSTANG! Out of Boca Raton airport. Cost? Dont ask—Ill be eatin cat food for the rest of my life. But I couldnt pass up the opportunity. Every pilot in the world always wanted to fly the Mustang. Of course, I had to fly from the back seat. Its one of those very few Mustangs modified to accommodate another pilot. VERY cramped in the back, but it has a full panel and all controls back there. It had the very powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engine—with 50 hours since last major overhaul. Ran smooth as glass. Had PLENTY of power, even babying the Merlin. The guy in the photos with me is Mark Murphy, the real pilot, who flew it from the front seat and made the take-off and landing. Good thing--there was a stiff crosswind. He looks like a kid—but might be 35. Mark has plenty of experience in the Mustang. We didnt use helmets, boots, or flight suits. Just a parachute and sound-powered headphones. Mark was (as you see) flying in shorts and a T-shirt. Mark proved to be an outstanding pilot—and very professional. After take-off and climb out, Mark let me take the controls to get used to flying it. So, I flew around awhile, making steep turns, etc. Then he took it back from me and dove steeply down to some tiny, grass-strip crop-duster airport (Mark crop dusts too) about forty miles west of Boca. Mark must have tipped off the dusters by phone prior to our flight. They were all outside waiting for the show. Mark made three very low altitude, high speed passes—executing an aileron roll during each pass—one of them a 4-point roll. A 4-point roll is where you stop the roll for a split second at the wings vertical point, again at the inverted (upside down) point, and again at the other wings vertical point. Then he gave it back to me to climb back up above the clouds, where he let ME try an aileron roll. It had been 55 years since Id done rolls in the Navy T-28. I guess I blundered through them OK. Mark said I did good, but then he probably says that to everybody. I was surprised by the heavy stick pressure required to roll it...at 220 knots (about 250 statute miles per hour). My aileron roll would have earned me an UNSAT back in my T-28 days—but at least I got the Mustang all the way around without losing much altitude. And at my age (74), the few Gs required for the initial pull-ups to enter the rolls kinda flushed my feeble brain a tad … or two. So I declined his offer to try a loop, an Immelman, a Cuban 8, etc. Im WAY too old to try those much higher G maneuvers. My skull would have imploded. I couldnt believe I used to pull 4 to 5 Gs in the those kind of verticals in the T-28. 5 Gs used to black me out. I flew it back to Boca airport, where Mark took it back from me and made a sweet landing in the stiff crosswind. That boy could flat AVIATE! When we got out, some guy with a big camera tried to interview me—maybe for TV or something. It was a waste of his time. I was almost speechless and walking around with weak knees--and a big smile. It was wonderful experience and worth every penny. I recommend it highly—if you dont mind draining your bank account. Bill, aka “Crash” in Legion Post 277 Riders group. Good guys and girls ALL. Planes flown: Civilian: Aeronca Champ, Pipers: Cub, Clipper, Aztec, Navaho. Cessnas:150, 172. Boeing 707. Military: T-34, T-28, S2F, P2V, P3, and NOW a P-51 MUSTANG! Im DONE.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:40:14 +0000
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