[:(]
That’s really sad[BH], at least the pilot’s ok and he had the nessesary coolness of head to avoid any injurie’s on the ground. A famous pilot once said,“any landing you can walk away from, is a good one”. A [#toast] to the pilot.
Good heads up flying. Sad teh Mustang bit it. But I’m glad the pilot’s a-ok!
That’s just heartbreaking, anyway you look at it, you know? Not much else to say.
A Christmas miracle, perhaps? I, too, raise a glass to the pilot’s skill and nerves in avoiding any injuries! [#toast].
Merry Christmas, all!
Brian [C):-)]
Was this the same P-51 (Russ McDonald’s) that was purchased from his field here in Heber Utah when he passed away back in December 2004? If so, I remember seeing Russ fly this beauty in all it’s glory. A 450 mph pass at twenty feet off the deck and perhaps a scant 100 feet away is impressive to say the least. I know that plane went up to Idaho after he passed on, and was supposed to be one of the best surviving examples still being flown. Sounds like this could have possibly been one and the same?
This was his plane:
And a link to a registry entry for Russ: http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51registry/p51-6722579.html
DAMN DAMN DAMN!
It’s as I feared. I thought it was the same plane.
Previous owners were:
1967: Cavalier Aircraft Corp. -production
1967: Bolivia FAB 519
1977: C-GXRG (Arny Carnegie)
1978: (Neil McClain)
1985: N52BH (Robert Hester)
1992: N251RM (Russell McDonald)
2006: (John Bagley)
Having met Russ several times since 2000, and knowing his love of this plane, this is indeed a loss not only to John of course (and thank the maker HE’S ok at least!), but to the memory of Russ who was a great man to promote aviation awareness and interest in old warbirds and general aviation in the west.
What sad news! My hangar partner bought his Christen Eagle in Heber City, and we got to see the Mustang fly while we were there to bring the Eagle back to Kentucky. I had no idea that Russ had passed away.
Fortunately, in a crash where the pilot walks away like that, the airplane will probably be re-buildable, given sufficient cash. Hope that someone will expend the resources to do so. As I recall, the airplane had the tall vertical fin, at first I thought it was an H, but Russ corrected me.
At least the pilot’s okay! Still a shame about the plane; that was a sharp-looking aircraft! I hope they can restore it.
I kinda have my doubt’s on that one m8, according to the new’s clip of the crash, they pretty much totally demolished the remain’s clearing it from the median where he “Landed”[:(]
It did seem highly unlikely that there would be much if indeed anything left to salvage after they cleared the wreckage away. I’m sure there are those who would always like to give it a try and if they could do much with the metal pretzel that was left my hat would indeed be off to them. In my very admittedly limited knowledge, it would seem an almost absurdly time consuming and expensive project however.
Which is again only doubly painful - having seen Russ fly this plane not a hundred feet from the end of my nose, 20 feet off the deck at 400 knots!
I don’t know but have you seen some of those folks like Air Pirates do, they go out to the most impossible places and find a totally destroyed WWII plane and bring them back to life as well into the air so the younger generations could see and hear them fly, and I wouldn’t put it past them to completely restore the wreckage to either a flying example or just a gate guard status either way it’s sad to hear of an old warbird going down, and on the lighter side the pilot walked away to fly another day (that’s what it’s designed to do in the first place; fight at least 1 battle and get the pilot home safely) and THEY JUST DON’T MAKE’EM LIKE THEY USED TO
Uilleann, I saw this plane at the 2005 Heber Air Show. It was
a static model only that year. I wish I had seen it fly like you
described!
When I saw the footage, I knew it was the same plane for sure.
Really a bummer. I’m betting that it will be sold away as parts.
/cry [BH]
Bud
The owner says he is going to rebuild it. It may have looked bad in the pictures but in aircraft rebuilding realm, it really isn’t that tore up. Here is a link to the article with video. http://www.kidk.com/news/4996096.html