check out my video of experiance in real P-51D

[legoman]

well their both lucky! i would sell my soul for a real flight in a p51.

[mike8318]

Was the aircraft name "Crazy Horse"?

[Brooke]

Was the aircraft name "Crazy Horse"?

I believe that Crazy Horse is another P-51 that folks can purchase rides in, based in Florida.

There is also the P-51 from the Collings Foundation that folks can purchase rides in.  That one goes on tour each year, visiting numerous airfields across the country.  Details here (although they have only a portion of the schedule filled out with more to be filled in later):

http://www.collingsfoundation.org/cf_schedule-wof.htm

I've taken a ride in the Collings Foundation B-24 and B-25 but not yet the B-17.  The B-24 and B-17 tour the country each year and cost $425 for a half-hour ride.  It was amazing.  In the B-24 and B-17, they let you travel throughout the whole plane in flight, from tail gunner to nose gunner, and everything in between (including through the bomb bay, walking across the i-beam down the center to go between fore and aft.  The B-24 was great also because of the wide-open waist-gunner openings.  The P-51 is $2200 for a half hour or $3200 for an hour.

[rllong]

Hey guys, I had to take the video off, they were screaming and hollering at me for the music dubbing and maybe a little copyright infringe. I am redoing it without the music and just the raw footage. But what the hell, a P-51 makes it's own music. thank all you guys for the great feed back. and yes the luckest man alive is the one that owns it. try to have reinstalled soon

rllong  (Aka Psycho)

[rllong]

here is the new link to my musicless version of the video. Really can hear the 51 a lot better along with some control tower talk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTTKojbw1jc

[rllong]

[New link to video without music dubbed in, old link no longer works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTTKojbw1jc

[Saurdaukar]

rllong - I did some searching over the weekend.

Couple hours from me in June of this year is a fairly decent WWII-focused airshow.  The CAF "Red Nose" P-51D can be reserved for 20 minute "rides" for about $1,100.

Your original post indicates that the driver allowed you some stick time.  I'll have finished my PPL/VFR by then - do you recall whether or not there was some sort of minimum hour requirement for you to be able to run a couple patterns in it?

Trying to determine whether or not a "ride" is strictly that (course; I'd still do it anyway). 

Thanks.

[rllong]

Saurdaukar, there is no minimum time requirment for taking the contols and flying out in the practice area. The Pilot gave me the controls at I believe around 1500 to 2000ft alt. after takeoff and told me it was mine do what I wanted to do, course he was there to get me out of trouble but it flew like a dream. He did the takeoff and landing since it takes many hours of training in a taildragger and expecially a bird with a P-51's torque and prop dia or any big engine warbird for that matter to heard the thing down the runway without ground looping. Yes it was close to $1200 for around 20 minutes but I got lucky and was the first one up that day and it was a beautiful calm 60 deg morning so I believe Stan (the pilot) was really enjoying the flight and I got to stay up around 35 or 40 minutes. Remember to take your log book with you and he will sign you off as having what ever amount of time you fly as duel instruction - looks really good in your book. I am going to shoot for a full hour this year ($2200) logged in my book. Just before you get in the plane he will ask you what kind of flying you would like to do (mild to wild), I only had enough nerve for some mild aerobatics. Not sure if I mentioned it elsewhere but Stan took the controls just before we got back to the airport and he flew the low high-speed passes that is on my video.

Psycho

[TnDep]

I actually got around 30 minutes of stick time in a P-51 last year at Oshkosh and put together a little video of the experiance, although it did not help my flying in Aces High, still die a lot..lol. Going back this year and planning to get a full hour of duel instruction logged in my logbook.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UdaK-rBPuI

Was going to check it out but it showed user removed the video, nm I see the new link.  Sweet I know that was fun <S>

[legoman]

I'm sure they leave the costumers with the biggest grins on their faces

[TnDep]

I'm sure they leave the costumers with the biggest grins on their faces

ya i could imagine do you mind me asking how much that cost?

[rllong]

tndep, it was just under 1200 bucks for around 30 minutes of flight time. I have to say it was the best money I ever spent. But when you consider how much it cost to maintain a warbird like the P-51 you can see they don't make much even at that price. I was told it burns anywhere from 60 gal of avgas up to around 120 gal per hour depending on how it is flown and avgas is around $4.50 to 5 bucks a gallon. Oh one more thing 75% of the price is tax deductible.

[ink]

the parking job at end was awesome

wow a day you will remember forever.

[TnDep]

rgr that alot of money for 30 min. but what an amazing feeling and memory you would have.  I'd say it's probably worth it too. 

[Saurdaukar]

Saurdaukar, there is no minimum time requirment for taking the contols and flying out in the practice area.

Excellent.  Thank you.