P-51 Live fire...
 

Twilight Tear 50 cal machine gun testing - YouTube

So cool, if I won the jackpot for $500M or whatever it was, I know what I'd be taking up to the range.:cool:

Lets see .50 cal is about $5 a round...

Way cool! My favorite aircraft, ever!

as much as i really like the p-51 and the .50 cal.it's like a peashooter compared to the 30mm gatling gun of the a-10 warthog.

Yeah, much as I like a Model A automobile I'd rather have an E350.

Thanks for posting Hat. I really enjoyed it... however, I must admit I was a bit disappointed. I thought I was going to see some aerial gunnery.

The P51 is probably my favorite military aircraft too. I would love to get the chance to fly one. Problem is, even if I won that 500 Million lottery instead of Hat, it is a single seat, single control plane. A number of pilots died just trying to learn to fly one.

A WWII pilot friend of mine said that after basic flight and dual in an AT6, they handed them the manual for the P51. They told them to study the manual and go fly the plane. Several people died from his group doing just that.

For today's pilots, even some really high time pilots, even if they had the cash to fly one, what would keep them out of it, at least until they did some training, is the fact that the P51 is a tailwheel plane. There are lots of experienced pilots that could figure out how to handle it in the air without much trouble, if they could get it airborne without ground looping it first. The vast majority of my time is tailwheel, so they need to move me to the front of the line.:D

All that said, I sure would like to get the instruction and the chance.

The Collings Foundation TP-51c is out touring in the West now. Only dual control Mustang there is. ;)
North American TP-51C Mustang - The Collings Foundation

cool stuff...

Video has been removed

ah the taildragger.my dad had a cessna 170b when i was a kid.we used to fly all over the place to flight breakfasts. he sold it in 77 to the guy that was running the airport,he also did cropdusting.one day he had a guy come in and wanted to rent it for the day.was asked if he knew how to fly a taildragger.guy says no problem,piece of cake.so it was like o.k. he ya go.guy drove around in circles on the tarmac for about 5 minutes shut it down came back in and asked for something different.i always wished i would have gone thru flight schooling and solo'ed in that plane,but i had other things on my mind back then.

If y'all ever get the chance, fly into the FBO at Acadiana Regional (ARA) about lunchtime Friday. They usually have a world-class lunch. It's flypaper to military pilot cadets. Which makes a great sideshow if you get there ahead of them! You get to see the instructor's raise hell.

I was there one time when a Navy guy arrived in a green airplane with a red star on the tail and wing. Had an extremely long nose (the airplane, dunno about the pilot) with the pilot set just ahead of the intakes. He took off ahead of us (we were in a Cessna 182F amphib). Listened to him talk to the tower ending with something like, "then turn to course three-three-zero and climb to 40 thousand in 6 minutes." (can't recall precisely, but it was unworldly). Hell, it takes us 6 minutes to get to 500!

^^^^ I think this was it: Northrop F-5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spitfire No fire.
 

Alone. Unarmed. Over Berlin in 1944.
A Yank in a Spitfire.
Spitfire 944

SPITFIRE 944 - YouTube

I really, really enjoyed that. Thanks for posting.

Coincidentally, a guy just showed me the Spitfire Youtube while were having our afternoon coffee. It is nothing short of outstanding.

The reconnaisance pilot is well into his eighties and looks sixty.

GREAT video.

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

Something a bit more German.


Old warbirds are much better looking than the modern ones.