Warbird Down In Arizona

Posted on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:00:36 GMT

A WW2 P-51 Mustang crashed Thursday at Stellar Airpark in Arizona, killing the pilot. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but witnesses said the aircraft seemed to have engine problems before it struck a wall and cartwheeled into a hangar where it burst into flames. But such cold facts don't convey the emotion associated with the aircraft from the glory years of aviation and the pilots that flew them.

 

If you've heard the sweet music that a Merlin produces at full gallup you understand the passion that drives the men that invest millions to fly them today.

If you're fortunate enough to have flown in one of those amazing machines you understand the hammer-on-anvil purposefulness of the aircraft.

If you've had the opportunity to get intimately close, to caress, to fondle one of these beautiful birds you understand how they resonate the with spirit of the glory years of WW2.

If you've had the honor to sit in the cockpit of a North American P-51D Mustang you know the intimacy, the bond between pilot and machine. The smell of oil and gasoline and sweat. The almost sexual thrill sharing each other.

But even if you've never enjoyed any of those privileges, you might have enjoyed a dalliance with this machine, with Su Su, during a virtual flight in IL2. If so, you understand the thrill of that sound, the responsiveness, the daydreams of slipping the surly bonds.

What you don't understand, and what I don't understand, is why this lovely bird, why the precious man who owned and flew her is no more.

 

Today, about 2015 GMT, Nazy Hirani conducted that 12-cylinder orchestra fortissimo, he shared the majesty of a P-51 on a pitch-up break, at his home field at Stellar Airpark near Phoenix AZ.

But then something went terribly wrong. At the 180, turning base, according to a pilot witness, the engine sounded rough. Over the threshold, short, it didn't look or feel right. He tried to go around and the engine didn't respond then a flash of adrenalin faced flush this isn't working fly the aircraft until pieces come to a stop shit wing hit a fence no control sliding sideways hope my wife isn't watching this is going to hurt flash of white fade to black.

Blue skies and tailwinds forever, Nazy. You were a kind man, a true gentleman.

This editorial was submitted by resident Aviation News editor Tom Harnish, Tailspin45.

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