AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 65can’t buy your way into graduation.
We’re approaching 200 graduates
now. [A lot of people] would say,
‘Oh, I’m a graduate of the Stallion 51
programme’, but we’re going, ‘Wait
a minute’. Now we’ve got numbered
patches so you can’t bluff your way in.”
There are today more and more
P-51s flying, and more and more
P-51-qualified pilots. “I’d like to think
that, in 30 years, we’ve had a dramatic
impact on the safety of the Mustang”,
Lee comments. “Our graduates have
had a terrific safety record, and the
training’s responsible for a lot of that.
It’s a big part of the legacy of our
programme — I’m just the keeper of
the keys for a while. Improving the
safety record and the training aspects
is something I’m very proud of.”
Work with all three US armed
services continues, too. Having started
out flying for the USNTPS, Stallion
51 has supported its US Air Force
equivalent as well, in both cases
showing students and instructors
areas of the flight envelope such as
gyroscopic effects and precession
that cannot be demonstrated in more
modern propeller-driven aircraft.
It recently undertook a specialised
programme for the US Army, looking
at unusual flight attitudes.Lee’s own efforts to learn more
about the Mustang and impart that
information to the wider community
have seen him exploring areas of
its envelope that no-one else in the
modern era has looked into. “One of
the claims I can make”, he says, “is
that I’ve got two-and-a-half hours
of engine-out time in a P-51, doing
glide test work. We would take the
airplane to 14,000ft, and because
it’s water-glycol-cooled we could
completely shut it down without
shock-cooling the engine. Then with
very sophisticated barographs and
GPS equipment we determined glide
ratios, looked at best L over D [lift-
to-drag ratio] at different weights,
prop configurations, bank angles,
flaps — all these parameters. I’ve
done that with two different airplanes
to compare a TF to a P-51D. If it
happens for real, it’s just another day”.
For this sort of activity and more,
Lee was inducted into the Society of
Experimental Test Pilots.
Commercial aviation in all its forms
goes through peaks and troughs, but
Stallion 51 looks forward to the future
with great confidence. “From our side,
interest in the Mustang is as strong
as it ever has been. There are many
people looking to own a P-51, who62-70_AM_AEROMEETS_Sept17_cc C.indd 65 31/07/2017 11:03