Warbirds Worldwide : Page 2 of 4

To fly with Lee is an experience in itself. When he looked me straight in the eye and said "you will fly Crazy Horse today" I began to get a little nervous. We walked around the aircraft which had been towed out of the hangar, and once into the thorough pre- flight brief (tailored no doubt to my non-pilot pilot status but delivered in a friendly and non patronising way) I was strapped in for a cockpit and emergency egress procedure brief (with an emphasis on bail outs being rare!) I was ready to fly having been suitably kitted out earlier (which made me feel good) and given a relaxed but serious tour of the cockpit - my cockpit in this case - and shown what to press pull and monitor and what results to expect. I was then given some ear plugs to insert underneath the headset given a final look over to make sure I was properly secure and Lee grinned again, almost knowingly before climbing in up front.

One thing quickly became obvious I was going to fly Crazy Horse. Lee began his calm encouraging banter which is skillfully unobtrusive, as a narrative throughout the flight. It is intelligent in a reassuring pitch. A quick lesson in how to taxi a Mustang was to be followed by a thorough but easy to understand brief on high power take off and departure from Kissimmee. Lee had briefed earlier by telephone with Eliot Cross who was flying out of Bartow with a two seat Spitfire and a much better looking passenger than me. I leaned over to make sure my camera was secure and that I wasn't about to embarrass myself by scattering any loose items into the cockpit, and settled in to the seat ready for the forthcoming detail Over the intercom and with meaningful looks outside the cockpit towards Richard on the ground Lee began the pre take off l checks..."flaps up, carb air controls cold and rudder trim six right, elevator zero, aileron zero, mixtures idle cut off, prop full forward, throttle cracked one inch. On he continued until finishing the before start checks with 'All circuit breakers in'. Then a pause. This is the business! If your clear of the canopy Paul, I m going close it a little bit And we'll wake up the Merlin " CLEAR was the cry from the front, and echoed from Richard who was thumbs up outside. Pulsing the aircraft into life, Lee enquired of my welfare. "You all set?" came the question from the front. "Sure am!" was the reply I felt as relaxed as I'd ever been - little did I realise that this was to be about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on. The Merlin crackled.. started without without hesitation, and earned praise from Lee " she says Let Me Run! Then into another banter of checks...radios on nav lights on and nav mas- on Crazy Horse was raring to gallop. A quick conversation with the tower, clearance to taxi off the ramp and Lee lines her up ready to let me attempt the famous weaving taxi to runway at Kissimmee. "O.K. Paul, taxi strictly with your feet. Give some pressure with the left foot and she comes left...then go with the right foot - as she swings to one side you look straight down the opposite side of the airplane." We took a right turn and I Lee demonstrated the maximum turn radius available on the TF-51. The next exercise was interesting. "Now, Paul, I want you to find the brakes up on the toe pedal (Coggan envisages the headline Editor Noses over Mustang on First Flight L.. ), and push the stick forward, push push,, PUSH! Now give me right brake and we make a turn here. Hold it there. Stick back to central position, and advance the throttle forward to 1500rpm Paul..." I did so obediently and with pride.

"Canopy forward...good oil and and pressures, everything's looking really good, so I'm going take the brakes and you can advance the throttle forward to 2300rpm Paul..." By now I was starting to feel a real part of what was going on rather than merely a passenger. "O.K. Paul, with the small black round prop control, underhand with your finger tips pull it all the way back to you. Now quickly push it all the way forward - good, checks prop pitch is good and functional. Check left may, 90 drop, right mag 80 drop back to the boost...good ...27.9, boost induction carb air good, oil, engine pressures and temps good, hydraulic pressure thousand....Back to 1500 to get the checklist stuff out of the way...flap handles verified up and visually checked (swift visual check) front and rear harnesses locked (thumbs up from me)..elevator trim zero, aileron trim zero and prop control full forward. Fuel boost pumps confirmed on. Fuel check full left, full right, no fuel venting left or right...set compass to 060 if you'd do that Paul.. I fiddled a little. . . Parking brake in, transponder to ELT, Hydraulic T handles confirmed down. Fuel pressures good, mags are both ...strobe lights coming on and circuit breakers rechecked. The tempo increased....the anticipation was mounting. But I'd done this before. . . . NO I hadn't!

Ready to go?

I'd seen Lee's now famous high power departure from the taxiway many times before, but to actually experience it from the cockpit was a thrill indeed. I did one last check of my harness and indicated to Lee verbally and physically (thumbs up) that I was ready to be Stallionised. Last brief on the take off and an instruction to follow Lee through on the controls. Lee visually checked finals and base legs to runway 6 and radioed Crazy Horse was departing. The aircraft was nicely lined up on the centre line with the tail wheel straight and locked. Up on the brakes, once last check on the canopy.

Lee instructed me to push up the power to 2300rpm, and he pushed the boost to 40 inches of manifold pressure. As the Mustang tracked down the runway on three points I felt the solid acceleration build - at 50 knots Lee flew the tail up with forward elevator as it came up and all was revealed ahead of the nose....power increase to 46 inches, and, Merlin singing smoothly through 100 knots...let's hope Mike Nixon did a good job flashes through my mind...and more acceleration as Lee seems to hold the aircraft down before flying Crazy Horse very deliberately off the runway and into a steep angle skywards, as the gear comes up and the nose rotates all the way up. Oh boy. Power back to high cruise and as we gained height the power was pulled back a little to reduce local noise and as the green Florida scenary fell away I felt that silly grin spreading across my face.

My first lesson was how to trim the aero plane... "O.K. Paul, we're at 2500 feet and I just want you to drive straight ahead." Lee gave me some basic instructions and allowed me to feel the aircraft, to fly it, sense its reactions to my inputs and corrections. After the first successful lesson (more grinning) Lee instructed a power increase and a climb up to 7500 feet to wait for the two seat Spitfire out of Bartow. "2700rpm Paul, manifold up to 46 inches, and raise the nose slightly. Go on little bit more...we're passing through 3500 feet at 205 knots....that's great..O.K., rotate the nose up more and slight right hand turn as we pass 4500 feet at 2000 feet a minute climb and 180 knots.."

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