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| 08 | Voodoo in a crowd-pleasing high-g turn. This highly modified North American P-51 Mustang was the 2013, 2014 and 2016 Unlimited Class champion of the Reno Air Races. The pilot for these wins was Steven Hinton, Jr. The P-51D-25-NA (original s/n 44-73415) was built in 1944 by North American Aviation at Inglewood, California, for the United States Army. The aircraft was then transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force as a Mustang IV with serial number 9289 in February 1951.
| 09 | My fire-breathing beast for a week. The Mooney M20V N240CV (the 240 referencing the max speed of 240 knots) Acclaim Ultra was one of the finest single-engine, high-performance aircraft I have flown. It’s smooth, very fast, and handles like a Porsche. The G1000 NXi avionics package, with Mooney’s unique data-entry keypad with physical keys, was a pleasure to use, especially on long flights. Making the approach and landing at Reno-Stead in the Mooney was a thrill of a lifetime.
| 10 | The Duchess of Dakota is a C-47 Skytrain op- erated by the Dakota Territory Air Museum at Min- to, North Dakota. One of the C-47 pilots in WWII was Murray Lawler, who was born near Temvik, North Dakota, in 1921. On September 17, 1944, Lawler’s C-47 delivered troops of the 82nd Airborne Division to a jump site near Groesbeek, Holland; and the next day towed Waco gliders filled with supplies to the same area. Lawler’s original C-47, Duchess of Dakota, was destroyed after the war, but in
2004 a C-47, the one we see here, was bought and restored by Bob Odegaard of Kindred, North Dakota. In honor of Murray, this plane was painted like the original Duchess of Dakota and is now on display at the Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot.
| 11 | One evening, prior to the races in 2017, I was walking around the flight line at Reno-Stead before head- ing to the hotel. There was a little party going on in one of the hangars, so my colleague and I poked our heads in to see what was going on. The folks inside invited us in. To our amazement, two of the most storied Reno racers were inside to avoid the anticipated weather that evening. We’ve already learned about Voodoo.
Strega is a highly modified P-51 Mustang, owned by Reno’s legend Bill “Tiger” Destefani. The name of the airplane means witch in Italian. The aircraft’s original operator was the Royal Australian Air Force (A68-679) from 1945 until 1948, the same year it was approved for disposal. Until 1981, the aircraft was on display at the Warbirds Aviation Museum in Mildura, Victoria, Australia. In 1980 Dave Zeuschel pur- chased and shipped it to the United States and rebuilt it as a racer. In 1983 the current owner Bill Destefani acquired the aircraft as N71FT Strega.
In 2017’s Unlimited Class Gold Final event, Strega, flown by James Consalvi, edged longtime rival Steve Hinton Jr. in Voodoo, for the overall win.
16 • TWIN & TURBINE / September 2023