Mustangs at Maralinga

[tinpis]

Niles I didnt know it was still there in the 80s
That was Hockey Treloars (sp) VH-UFO
Never finished and was re united with its Merlin and restored
Photo to follow....here

[Stationair8]

Hey Kooka, did you ever climb into the cockpit of that Mustang and pretend you were deep over German territory shooting down FW190's, before returning to your base and doing a victory roll, then carrying out a three point landing and then shutting down at the dispersal bay and sliding the canopy back and lighting up a cigar.

[gassed budgie]

Quote:
flicked in a very steep turn

Have read that this feature of the Mustang unwittingly saved new comers to combat who had a Me or FW at his six o'clock

I wouldn't be to sure about that. You stall and spin a Mustang during combat, the aircraft will tend to follow a known flight path through the sky. I reckon if you had one of the Luftwaffe hotshots in his 109 or 190 right up your clacker you'd be dead meat. All he has to do is to determine the direction of the spinning aircraft, point his 109 at that particular spot in the sky and wait for the Mustang to spin right through his gunsight recticle. All over as quick as you can say...WTF?

[Crosshair]

"Hey Kooka, did you ever climb into the cockpit of that Mustang and pretend you were deep over German territory shooting down FW190's, before returning to your base and doing a victory roll, then carrying out a three point landing and then shutting down at the dispersal bay and sliding the canopy back and lighting up a cigar."

Walter Mitty, is that you?

[tinpis]

I think most would only have liked some grub and a sleep after 4-6 hours at 30000' breathing oxy and freezing escorting bombers all day

Imagine how bloody dangerous it must have been flying near an American aircraft bristling with .50cal machine guns

[Stationair8]

Tinpis, I thought VH-UFO was a PA-31 Navajo in the 1980's.
It was rebuilt at YMMB after an accident at King Island and then was later destroyed in a fatal accident near YBAF.

Piper also played around with a turbine version of the Mustang in the late 1970's, they were chasing a military contract. I think they zero timed the airframes , installed tip tanks and replaced the Merlin with a PT-6 .

[OZBUSDRIVER]

I think that one was called a Cavalier Mustang.
Cavalier_Mustang

The Piper model was the PA-49 Enforcer

[tinpis]

VH UFO was assigned to Hockeys DARTSTANG in the 70's




The Piper ENFORCER


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer

[OZBUSDRIVER]

Imagine the noise of that dogwhistle

[Stationair8]

Tinpis, I will have to go through some old photo albums, but I am pretty sure that their was a PA-31 around Melbourne in the late 1970's with the callsign VH-UFO, it used to transit through both Essendon and Moorabbin on a regular basis. It may have been owned and operated by Bizjets.

[tinpis]

Tinpis, I will have to go through some old photo albums, but I am pretty sure that their was a PA-31 around Melbourne in the late 1970's with the callsign VH-UFO, it used to transit through both Essendon and Moorabbin on a regular basis. It may have been owned and operated by Bizjets.

Ummmmm.....I have walked around this aircraft when it was parked up against the GA fence in Canberra circa 1972.
Help me here....somebody musta been alive in Canberra at that time?
It had VH-UFO painted on it
It looked like **** personally
Whether the registration was taken up or not I have no idea

Try Google VH UFO P51

[Tmbstory]

Brian Abraham

In the early 1960's I was an instructor at Bankstown. our CFI had experience during WW2 in Mustangs and liked telling stories about the P51. On the Northern coast of Africa they were on stand down in a pre-festive season, enjoying an ale or two when they were jumped by the enemy. They all roared off, engaged the others & he said it looked like someone had thrown a deck of cards into the air. Mustangs doing all sorts of manoeuvres /flicks etc. They won that battle!

Tmb

[bush mechanics]

google search found alot of P51s in asia with flag poles up their clackers,On guard duty!!!Very sad!!!!

[Torres]

Tinpis. I seem to vaguely recall the P51 at Canberra with RR Dart installed was never registered and never flew. I believe it was eventually converted back to a Merlin engine.

Owners may have reserved VH-UFO but I don't think the registration was ever taken up.

Was told many years ago that the P51 was the only dedicated war bird ever to achieve civil type certification in Australia, necessitated due being used as target tugs for the military by a civilian operator in the 1950s. Can't say if that is fact or an aviation legend.

[Torres]

Ahhhhh. Here's the answer! I was correct.......

A68-187, 44-74839a, N50FS, " La Pistolera "

1950: RAAF
1958: numerous owners, open stored '61-'67
1976: VH-UFO, Australia - attempted restoration with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop, later stored
1995: Shipped to USA (World Jet Inc.)
1996: Rebuilt as TF at Square One Aviation in Chino (Frank Borman)
2006: (Rod Lewis) "La Pistolera"



Rather an interesting name on the engine cowl, eh Tinpis? I guess the owner knows what it means?

[tinpis]

As I said Ive got aslide somewhere of the DARTSTANG parked up against the fence at Canberra with VH-UFO on its tail
I know it never flew I doubt if it was even started.

I wonder if they ran a Geiger counter over the Maralinga birds they would still click?

[Brian Abraham]

I wouldn't be to sure about that

gassed budgie - I figure the guys who flew the thing and wrote the after action combat reports had some idea of what they were saying.

P51 was the only dedicated war bird ever to achieve civil type certification in Australia

Torres - Illawarra Flying Services operated Mustang target towers out of Bankstown. I last saw them operating at Nowra, late sixties I think. VH-BOZ was one of the aircraft (photo here http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0459167 ) though at the time seem to recall they were painted an over all orange colour. Have a slide somewhere in the drawer taken at Morrabbin late 1966 of a Mustang sitting in the weeds. Don Busch aircraft?

[gassed budgie]

gassed budgie - I figure the guys who flew the thing and wrote the after action combat reports had some idea of what they were saying

Correct BA, hence my comment. I remember having a series of conversations a few years ago now with a chap who I presumed was quite knowledgable about this sort of thing. One of the things I remember him mentioning was the particular scenario mentioned by yourself.
I can still vividly remember reverentially opening his log book and being suprised at the relatively low total time that he had accumulated in his aviation career. I can still remember that total time. It was 823 hours. Of those 823 hours, 744 hrs (I counted them) were spent piloting the Bf 109.

[gassed budgie]

Torres - Illawarra Flying Services operated Mustang target towers out of Bankstown. I last saw them operating at Nowra, late sixties I think. VH-BOZ was one of the aircraft

Correct again BA. There was also VH-BOW (A68-100) and VH-BOY (A68-39). You're gonna have to rifle through your draws. It would be really interesting to see that slide that you've got hidden somewhere.

[tinpis]

There was a P51 still target towing at BK in the early 70's
It was for sale for around about $70000 if I remember correctly