Click on the "Watch on YouTube" button and it'll automatically go to parts 2 and 3.
I'd really want to get some training on twin-engined emergency procedures, but my initial reaction was "yeah, I could fly that thing."
Too bad that P-38s are so rare. Back when they were available for about ten grand in today's money, too bad someone didn't buy up a bunch of them and store them (with spares) in someplace remote.
(H/T)
P-38s and other airplanes are kind of like horses and boats and swimming pools, I think. It isn't the buying it, it's the care and feeding that costs the earth. Understand the P-38 is an absolute bear to maintain. The clearance in the engine nacelles between the skin and the mechanics is about nonexistent so to do anything you have to take the skin off by removing all manner of fasteners.
ReplyDeleteBut if somebody else will maintain it and fuel it, agree, love to fly it. That or the DH Mosquito, I'm not picky.
A beautiful bird. Last time I saw one "in person" was at an airshow at Offutt, they look and sound awesome.
ReplyDeleteThey cost twice as much even in WWII, and aren't getting cheaper, even digging out and restoring the squashed Glacier Girl from Greenland cost two fortunes. And not easy to fly either: see Thomas McGuire, Jeffrey Ethell...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Ethell
ReplyDeleteBob Hoover made it look easy
ReplyDeleteIron City, Bob Hoover made everything look easy. He was one of the best.
ReplyDeleteTod, I read that part on Ethell's crash. I don't think it was the airplane. I have very little twin time, but it read as though he was flying too slowly on one engine. That'll kill you in almost every twin.
Interestingly, the wreckage still has an active N number.
That means somebody is going to jack up the burned wreckage of the aircraft data plate and build a new P-38 underneath-for three fortunes.
ReplyDeleteComrade, I saw this and thought of this post; it's Juan Browne at Lake Tahoe describing the "Thunderbird", a 55' wooden boat powered by a pair of V-12 engines from a P-38. He even throws in a clip of a P-38 starting up and flying for comparison to the sound.
ReplyDeleteHe's a commercial pilot, formerly USAF, and has gotten some regional fame by covering in-depth the reconstruction of the spillway at the Oroville dam, complete with flyover footage he shoots from his "Mighty Luscombe".
He doesn't say where the P-38 in the clip came from, but in the credits it says "P-38 Flight Demo Octane 130", which I guess is a YouTube channel.
Anyway, here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUSOOcMUfAQ
-Doug in Oakland