Got $2,200 ?

Theres three WW2 airplanes in town from the Collings Foundation. Theres a B-24, B-17 and a P-51. Its only 2,200 for a half hour ride or 3,200 for an hour in the Mustang. They say its the only two seat Mustang. Its a modified P-51B. The only problem is it sure didnt sound like a mustang. I asked if it had a Rolls in it and he said yes, made by Packard.
While I was there a Beechcraft Bonanza club landed. They sounded more impressive than the stang! Anyway they fly over in formation and I mean a tight formation. They form V formations and two peel off to land together. The third group of two are landing and the front guy lands too early with the guy behind him with too much speed left. He would have rear ended him and guns the throttle and flys right over him! He couldnt have been more than 5 ft above him when he went over him. This was a small group of them as I have seen them with almost 100 planes going over the house in formation.


Have fun, Bruce

The subject Mustang is the only dual-control B model Mustang. Almost every P-51 flying has a jumpseat behind the pilot where the fuselage tank was removed.
It is equipped with a normal Packard V-1650 Merlin, so maybe the Bonanza photo plane was wide open and the Merlin at near idle!

I wonder what they'll charge for a ride in the Me-262 when it's up and running. A Mustang would probably have more character than the 262.

Seeing this got me thinking. I wonder what the actual cost per hour is flying one of these things? I realize these guys have to make a profit, and I figure the profit margin is probably not too great here all things considered. I wonder which one costs the most?

The least should be the Mustang because of its single engine but at 3200 for an hour compared to 4400 an hour for the 4 engined bombers it seems slightly out of balance shall we say. True, it has a different engine so we are not comparing apples for apples here.

Just curious.

The good folks at Stallion 51 in Kissimmee Florida will give you considerably more than a ride in their dual-control TF-51 -- for similar bucks, you can actually fly it yourself for the greater part of the hour. With talk-through from the instructor<1> I did barrel rolls, aileron rolls, point rolls, loops, Immelmans, and a Cuban eight in addition to a bunch of just poking holes in the sky. My feet haven't touched the ground since I flew Crazy Horse last spring.

<1> My instructor, John Posson, flies left wing in a civilian jet exhibition team, the PPatriots. He was an outstanding instructor.


Bill Jacklin
(A Ringmaster/Fox .35 kinda' guy)

Perhaps it's the current usurious cost of fuel. About six years ago JoAnn and Michele had a half-hour flight aboard "Sentimental Journey", the Arizona Wing of the CAF's B-17. At that time, the cost for each was only $395.

Mike Keville

I don't think they are providing direct and indirect cost rides, they are giving rides as a vehicle to promote donations to the Foundation. The Mustang ride cost is much more than direct costs and probably more than direct and indirect costs, but these type of airplane's aren't cheap.

The two seat, dual control P-51B airplane was a ground up build and probably cost 2.5 million to build, but that is immaterial to the cost structure for operation as they are almost all bought cash (people don't finance these things). They also self insure the hull, and typically only buy liability.

Normal Mustang fuel burn is 50 to 75 gallons per hour, probably less when giving rides, at 5.50 to 6.00 bucks a gallon, so fuel burn is higher than before but not adding thousands to the hourly operation. 100LL is all that is available, check your local airport to see what it's going for, not that much more than car gas usually (there is always NJ, though!).

On top of fuel and oil, Prestone and tires and brakes, there are a lot of expensive engine and accessory items that are becoming rare and need attention periodically, but still the engine overhaul is around $50,000 to $70,000 if nothing big is unserviceable (about the normal premium over a large turbo-supercharged twin engined business twin's reciprocatiing engine overhaul).

Still, the Packard goes about 300 hours between top overhaul (valve job) and 1000 between major overhaul, so still we are not seeing the high operating costs of 4400 an hour.

The reason that the Mustang is the most popular WWII machine is it's economy, it fit in a normal hangar and didn't burn too much gas, had two seats and airplanes and parts were available from surplus military sources into the sixties.

The Planes of Fame in Chino, California will give you a ride for 20 minutes for around 400 bucks. I remember Stallion 51 giving dual instruction not too long ago for not much more than 1200 to 1500 an hour.

>Perhaps it's the current usurious cost of fuel. About six
>years ago JoAnn and Michele had a half-hour flight aboard
>"Sentimental Journey", the Arizona Wing of the CAF's
>B-17. At that time, the cost for each was only $395.
>
>Mike Keville

My father also had a flight on this plane in Lexington, KY before the Iraqi war. He paid less than $400 also.
Collins found. seems high for such a short flight.

Hi Bruce!

I did see the B-24 fly over yesterday, pretty cool! As well as the Bonanzas, I think rockford has been a stop over for those guys for many years.

Are you gonna come out for the Rockford contest this month?

Mark

Interesting figures. http://www.greatplainswing.org/p51.htm

BTW 100LL is $5.50, Jet-A is 5.75 at our FBO.
Norm

My father and I flew on their B24 10-15 yrs ago. I can't remember exactly but think it was $600 each. My dad was a B24 capt and they actually let him take the co-pilot seat and fly the plane a few minutes. Climb rate was very impressive on this bird with only a few people aboard. Another thing I remember is how close the props are to the pilots. It was also loud, drafty and the crew seating very uncomfortable. Like already mentioned, the high cost is about donating to the cause. The B24 takes 40 man hours of labor for each 1 hour of flight.

Bill P.

Hi Mark, I am planning on going out there. Its the 11th at the park off of North Main? I wont be flying darn it. This should motivate me to get something flying!


See ya there, Bruce

I think the big cost difference between the P-51 and the B-17 is that they can split the costs between 8 or 10 people in the bombers, and the Mustang has to be paid for by one person.
As for the Bonanza sounding better than a Mustang, there's no comparison. Sure the Bonanza may have a louder "bark" but thats just prop noise. Just listen to a T-6 fly by and you can hear what I mean. That little Continental 6 cylinder just doesn't have the same quality sound as a V-12 Merlin. A Merlin has that smooth V-12 sound that nothing else can match.
I'm not trying to flame you, but I just respectfully disagree.

BONANZA UPDATE! I watched the news last night and today a little after noon they started. "Bonanzas to Oshkosh"! They were staging in Rockford going to EAA. Well over 100 launched to the EAA Fly-in flying in formation. It took well over a half hour for them to all fly over. I am maybe 5 miles from the airport so I got to watch them Join up as they left. They flew right over my house. Just thinking of the logistics of it all! For the first 15 mins they were all pretty organized, not far off from thier group, then at the end, twins and different planes. You could tell they were just trying to keep up. For the next week Oshkosh Will be the Busyiest airport in the world! Dang to be there!

Me and my Wife sat outside and watched it all. As a matter of fact all my neighbors were out! It was something for sure.

Have fun, Bruce