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Modern Mustangs in the Warbird Era

Mick Rupp’s P-51 Old Crow at Reno Air Races

(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Warbird Era Mustangs

I got interested in the Warbirds organization first through Ed and Connie Bowlin, both active Delta Airline pilots. They owned a P-51 as well as a Cub, a T-6 and a Baron located at a grass strip near Griffin GA. The unique thing was their log cabin home attached to a hanger. They were well connected in the Warbirds of America organization. They had a good friend Mickey Rupp, who also owned a Mustang located at Naked Lady, FL, a grass airport. Ed and Connie Bowlin had painted one of their Mustangs in the colors our WWII 357th Fighter Group, so with a little arm twisting from the Bowlins they convinced Mickey to paint his Mustang in the colors of my wartime P-51 Old Crow. The idea being; wouldn’t it be great to see these two old WWII Squadron mates flying together in P-51s after all these year. I had seen Mickey’s freshly painted Old Crow and just loved it. Mickey knew that I wanted to fly it in the worst way, but I think he had second thoughts about letting this old guy fly his single place P-51 national treasure. After some more arm twisting, Mickey got a friend of his with a two place P-51 trainer to come to Florida. He told me if I would come and get a check out in the two place trainer, he would let me fly in his P-51. So that happened Mar 15 1988 and what a thrill for me. It had been 34 year since I had last flown a P-51 while still in the Air Force. It is not as though I had not been flying. When I retired from the Air Force after 30 years of active duty, I already had a FAA Commercial Pilot’s License, so I got an FAA Flight Instructors Rating. I also purchased a Piper Cherokee 160 and was actively flying.

So now that I was checked out in a P-51, that opened the door to all kinds of great experiences. We flew to Maxwell AFB and flew formation fly-bys for the Gathering of Eagles. Then at Oshkosh, WI, at the annual EAA Fly In, we flew formation Fly-bys, as part of the air show for several years. We participated in some photos shoots with some great aerial photographers such as John Dibbs, Paul Bowen and Earl Smith. I had a great experience about a year after I started flying the Mustang again. We were visiting Mickey Rupp at his home on the Naked Lady airport. The way I recall, after breakfast he came to me and handed me the keys to his Mustang and suggested I take my spouse Ellie for a ride. Wow what a great experience that was. Mickey even got into another plane with his wife and took photos. In 1995 on the 50th anniversary of our last combat mission of WW II, Wiley Sanders and Kenny Campbell invited us to Troy, AL, where we flew a formation photo shoot of the historic event. One year, we flew the P-51’s over the Indianapolis Speedway for the start of the Indianapolis 500 race. About this time Jack Roush, owner of several NASCAR racing teams, got interested in owning a P-51 Mustang. Meanwhile Mickey Rupp converted his P-51 Old Crow into a Reno air racing plane. Jack’s P-51 was being restored by Art Teeters Cal-Pacific Aeromotive on Salinas airport, CA, Occasionally I would fly to Paradise, CA, and pick up Merle Olmsted and we would fly to Salinas and watch the restoration progress. Mickey Rupp’s racing P-51 had an engine stoppage in the traffic pattern and crash landed destroying his Old Crow. After Jacks P-51 completed it restoration and checked out in flight, I started flying it to Oshkosh and other airshow around the country.

In 2001, I was invited to come to the UK for the airshow at Duxford. There I met Anders Sather from Oslo Norway, who owned a P-51 also restored as my P-51 Old Crow. He let me fly it on a photo shoot over my old WWII airbase near Leiston. The next day on another photo shoot, I flew an Air Force F-15 from the back seat in formation with the P-51 over the same base.

Jack Roush had two more P-51s restored, all painted in our 357th Fighter Group colors. The second one was a rare B model P-51 restored with a Malcolm hood type canopy. In the mid 80’s, I started to slow down with my flying, I had sold my Piper Cherokee and also tried to have somebody with me when I did fly.

Fortunately, I had met Daryl Bond at an air show in Santa Rosa, CA, who owned a two place dual controlled training model TF-51 named ‘Lady Jo’. Daryl was very generous and offered to let me fly in the front cockpit as long as his pilot was with me. This extended my P-51 flying for quite a while. Rob Gordon, a local County Sheriff, flew with me for several years and we became great friends.

I found flying the restored P-51’s was quite a bit better than the ones we flew in combat during WWII. We flew at a heavier gross weight. We also had the 85 gal. fuel tank installed behind the pilot and when it was more that 1/2 full it made the aircraft unstable. We also had machine guns and ammunition to add to the weight. Our cockpit instruments were the standard for time. Whereas the modern restored aircraft has new equipment such as, a GPS navigation systems and the latest type radio. Further, the paint schemes were kept much cleaner and nicer to look at; compared to our beat up war planes. There would be screwdriver scratch marks, exhaust stain and generally they were not as good looking as todays restored treasures.

I believe my last fight in a Mustang as the pilot in command was in August 2007. I was 85 then. As I voluntarily quit flying altogether at age 90. My association with the Warbirds gave me about 19 years of occasional P-51 Mustang Flying and the opportunity to participate in some exciting events. Most WWII combat pilots would give up a body part to have someone restore an aircraft in his personal colors. I have had four different P-51’s restored in my WWII Fighter Group colors of the Old Crow. That is very special. I thank all those folks in the Warbird community for making all these things happen.
Bud Anderson