Page 22 - Volume 18 Number 6

20 • TWIN & TURBINE JUNE 2014
From The Flight Deck by Kevin R. Dingman
Trivial Pursuits
intentions, however, was to highlight the improvements in fighter capability. Like the changes from a ’65 Mustang to a new Corvette. I still think the P-51 is one of the most amazing looking and sounding things on earth. The sound of four of them in formation, or just one of them at fifty feet and 350 kts, brings a tear to my eye. But, every airplane has its day, and every airplane can be bad-mouthed by someone who thinks another plane is better, especially if comparing it to one from a different generation and in a different class.
It would be irrational to expect a P-51 to handle and perform like an F-16. However, the P-51 was about $58k new, or $911,000 or so in today’s dollars, and the F-16 costs about $20 million. Dollar for dollar, could $20 million dollars worth of F-16s defeat $20 million dollars worth of P-51s? Not likely, and this is an argument just as incongruent as the writer’s initial comparison. Someday, my cherished F-16 will be called a piece of crap by those
Iwas reading a stack of aviation periodicals the other day, all of the usual ones. I often get behind and try to catch-up in one sitting. I read them cover-to-cover including the ads; it seems only fair – them being my employer and all. The ads help me learn about new ideas, products, services and the dates of special events.
There are a couple of writers in each magazine that I enjoy the most, so I start with them, then I see what the editor has to say, then I dive in, page-by-page. The articles help us to stay out of trouble, make us laugh, show us the future and past, assist in making informed decisions, and they inspire our dreams, though occasionally they crush them.
Mustangs
For example: I’ve long had an appreciation for the P-51. Admit it, you have too. Not that I don’t anymore, but it’s changed..... because of an article. The story was written by a former F-16 pilot and what he said made sense to the ex-fighter pilot in me. The author flew a P-51, then composed a story discussing its flying characteristics and contrasting them against those of other planes, including the F-16. My unbridled enthusiasm for the classic fighter was crushed.
My love of another Mustang had been crushed as well, a 1965 Ford. I learned how to drive in my Dad’s ’65 Mustang and found one for sale, just down the road. This time, I crushed the dream myself by taking it for a test drive. None of my memories of the machine were left intact. The nose was too high, the ride was rough, turning was difficult and it seemed underpowered; even the smell was different. It looked and
sounded as I remembered, but the feel was not the same.
The magazine article described the airplane as uncomfortable, heavy on the controls and with poor visibility—a piece of crap as a fighter, he said. But in its day, it was the cat’s meow. I have only experienced the P-51 from the admiring eyes of a spectator and had no idea of its actual attributes. It may look and sound like the greatest machine ever invented, but in the air, it apparently has flaws. He had taken the test drive for me and came to the same conclusion as I had about the Ford. The reality was hard to accept: my dream plane, tainted by the truth in a magazine article.
A Different Class
The catch-22 in the writer’s assessment and comparison was obvious; it was an apples and oranges paradox. One of the writer’s