RIGHT:
The two TF-51Ds
named Crazy Horse
— the cornerstones
of the Stallion 51
fleet. The first Crazy
Horse has been with
the company for all
of its 30 years.
PAUL BOWEN/STALLION 51FAR RIGHT:
Lee has become
renowned for his
P-51 displays. Here
he’s standing with
Crazy Horse^2.
STALLION 5166 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE SEPTEMBER 2017come down and train. We haven’t seen
a drop-off in that, and we haven’t seen
a drop-off in the orientation flights.
We are seeing a younger generation
interested in it, but occasionally we’re
still flying older guys. The other day
we flew a 92-year-old Mustang pilot,
who wanted to fly a P-51 one more
time in his life.”
Lee has enjoyed many of those
special moments. He’s flown with
a whole range of notable aviators,
from present-day US Air Force
fighter pilots in the Heritage Flight
programme — of which he was an
original member 20 years ago — to
several famous veterans. “One of the
guys I trained was having a TF built,
and he ended up painting it in Robin
Olds’ Scat VII colours. Robin found
out, and the guy asked him if he
wanted to fly the airplane. He then
asked if I’d be willing to let Robin fly
in the front seat of the P-51. I said,
‘Absolutely’. Robin Olds and I got
together — I’d been a kid in high
school reading about this guy. He and
I went and flew the Mustang, and
had a great time. About a month later
he called me up and said we needed
to get the keys to Scat VII again. We
did this for quite a while, flying the
Mustang round the country.“When Bob Hoover was having
his medical issues with the FAA, I
was flying a TF with him. In a sense
he was flying on my credentials,
which made it legal. One day I got a
call from Bob, who had a big suite in
the Airport Hilton at Reno and told
me to come on up. When I showed
up it was [American Volunteer
Group pilot] ‘Tex’ Hill, Bob Hoover,
a couple of bottles of gin, a couple
of bottles of whisky and a couple of
bottles of vodka. Those guys told
stories for four hours.
“One of my real treasures is being
able to interact with these people. I’ve
also flown with ‘Chuck’ Yeager, ‘Bud’
Anderson, ‘Pete’ Peterson — many
guys who did it for real. I haven’t
done it for real, I’ve just done it a
long time. These chapters are closing,
and that was the whole thing with
the Gathering of Mustangs and
Legends that we did, one in 1999 and
another in 2007. We wanted to say
‘thank you’ to those guys while they
could move around, tell their stories
and be part of the whole thing. They
were a cast of characters. We had to
close the bar many times when they
were still talking...”
Lee has a simple but effective
philosophy when it comes to P-51operations. “These aren’t just
Mustangs we’re flying, these are
national treasures. We’re bringing
the history alive, but the key is to do
it safely, and that makes it fun for
everybody”. This was vital when it
came to flying P-51B Berlin Express
to Britain. “The whole Berlin Express
project started with Max Chapman”,
says Lee. Max was the Mustang’s
previous owner, the aircraft having
emerged from restoration by Pacific
Fighters in late 2014. “He and I
have done business together for 25
years. We were involved in marketing
the airplane, and I was flying it at
different times.
“I’m real close to Ed Shipley, and
we’ve done a lot of flying over the
years. When Dan Friedkin purchased
the airplane we were joking around a
little bit, and the next thing I know
he was telling me Dan would reallylike to fly it to Duxford. I basically
said that with the right team of
people, with the right support, that
I would consider doing it. Dan, who
is so passionate about the history of
these airplanes, totally jumped on
board and got the team of people
and the support that we needed to do
Operation Berlin Express. We started
looking, talking, designing and
planning the mission. The mission
was to have Berlin Express here on 4
July — what a great way to celebrate.
“Dan grasps the whole concept of
the heritage of the Mustang and so
many different fighter aircraft. His
ability to keep that at the forefront
is great. This is so important today,
because all of these treasures could
otherwise be relegated to the back
of history. He’s instrumental in
many things — he founded the Air
Force Heritage Flight Foundation,AEROPLANE MEETS... LEE LAUDERBACK
62-70_AM_AEROMEETS_Sept17_cc C.indd 66 31/07/2017 11:03