2019 P-51 Mustang Flight Narrated “Crazy Horse I”

This is video commentary on my Mustang flight from 2019. I wanted to explain some of what you may have seen in the previous videos, and also share a bit of what it was like. Previous videos with more flying time:

Stallion 51 Flight of a Lifetime, Part I: P-51 Mustang Takeoff and Practice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3GfBOtGxQk&t=273s

Stallion 51 Flight of a Lifetime, Part II: P-51 Mustang Aerobatics and Landing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qtk01mtw5M

In a lot of ways, this was an “intro flight” – where prospective pilots are given their first chance to handle the airplane and learn what it’s like. With an instructor to bail you out (and who will help on the controls a lot more than you realize), your experience is much more empowering.

My instructor pilot (his USAF callsign is Homer) didn’t just let me fly, he taught me lessons that I can use in flying other airplanes, and I’ll always be grateful for that.

This may not mean much to non-pilots, but I wanted to share some conclusions:
1 – The Mustang doesn’t have any adverse yaw that I could tell. I’m sure it does, but with the totality of my hours in airplanes with a lot of adverse yaw, I was incredibly impressed.

2 – Slow flight was much easier that I expected. Approaching a stall gave us a lot of buffet and except for dropping a wing the stall was very easy to recover from. Handling was very good, slow or fast.

3 – With 12 unmuffled exhaust pipes pointed at the cockpit, that engine is LOUD. I had earplugs in, underneath my headset, and while that muffled the engine fairly well, I could barely understand Homer’s commands most of the time. You can hear him much better than I could.

4 – Synchronize your altimeters before you leave the ramp. I didn’t think to ask him for his setting and missed the barometric pressure. In a moment of poor judgement, I set my altimeter to the airport elevation and ended up missing all of Homer’s elevation calls.

5 – Airspeed says what???? The airspeed indicator was another point of confusion, because it wasn’t like anything else I’ve ever seen. Homer would tell me to hold an airspeed and I tried my best to guess what speed to hold, based on what my gauge said. I honestly don’t believe my airspeed was correct, but it’s probably just the way I was trying to figure it out.

6 - Finally, probably the most important lesson: A successful landing starts way beforehand. In my case, we had to turn away from the runway on the downwind leg, because we were high and fast. That messed up my turn to final, because I didn’t allow for the longer distance on the base leg. We landed way off the centerline. Because the wind was light, it wasn’t a problem. But, it’s something I have worked on since then.

Stallion 51 does a great job of making everyone feel like a VIP. You walk away feeling awe for the Mustang and confidence in your ability at the same time. The Mustang really does own the sky, I don’t know of any other way to describe it.

The experience is expensive, but well worth it. One warning: You’ll need to go back and do it again, so don’t plan on checking it off your bucket list (it will always be on your list, ha ha).

Please let me know if you fly Crazy Horse I or II – I’d love to know if you have similar experiences.