Posted: 6/6/2012 4:56:46 PM EDT
| Need some help finding out where I can get my Dad a ride in a P-51 Mustang, he's been flying since he was 15, he's 58 and going strong. I'm financially able to do it and would lve to surprise him. His life long dream is to fly in a P-51. Thanks for the help. |
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Try this link for starters
Not alot of dual-seat P-51s out there. Would you dad settle for a bomber? Those are more available. |
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Not an inexpensive adventure
http://dw.squawk1200.net/aircraft-rides.html |
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Google "P-51 ride". There appear to be several alternatives. There's a three plane group (B-24, B-17, and P-51A) that tour the country giving rides––should say selling rides. They were just here (Scottsdale, Az). I think the Mustang was $1000 for a half hour and $2000 for an hour.
Collings Foundation This is the outfit that was here recently. Their tour schedule is on the website. I think they also have an F-4 so if your wallet is really fat, you might think about it. |
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Lone Star Flight Museum Galveston, Tx. lsfm.org we can do it. I vote for the Lone Star guys. I was down there last year, just went by to check the museum out. While I was there, they were readying the P51, F4u and F8 for a trip to Corpus. Instead of blowing me off, they invited me out to the tarmac to watch. One of the coolest things I have ever seen. I have never met a more cordial bunch of folks, and am now a contributor. |
| Too bad you don't Live near Nampa Idaho! It's home to the Warhawk museum. They just acquired a few P-51's, along with the namesake P-40 they have had. A few times a year they host certain WWII fighters. One will be P-38 days, then they'll do a P-51 days, and occasionally bomber fly ins. Aside from putting on a small airshow, they let the public crawl around em. And usually for a reasonable fee you get a ride. The last one we had a B-25, and a B-17. The cost depended on where you wanted to sit. Mid section was cheapest up to flight deck most spendy! I really can't remember what the P-51 rides went for, but it was over $500...I won't tell you how I got my fat ass stuck in the bombay catwalk on the B-17 trying to get from the flight deck to the gunner stations in back. Those airman back then were some tiny little dudes. All the big guys I hear were herded towards the C-46. |
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Lone Star Flight Museum Galveston, Tx. lsfm.org we can do it. I vote for the Lone Star guys. I was down there last year, just went by to check the museum out. While I was there, they were readying the P51, F4u and F8 for a trip to Corpus. Instead of blowing me off, they invited me out to the tarmac to watch. One of the coolest things I have ever seen. I have never met a more cordial bunch of folks, and am now a contributor. You can request ElSupremo to be your pilot at LSFM. 
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Lone Star Flight Museum Galveston, Tx. lsfm.org we can do it. I vote for the Lone Star guys. I was down there last year, just went by to check the museum out. While I was there, they were readying the P51, F4u and F8 for a trip to Corpus. Instead of blowing me off, they invited me out to the tarmac to watch. One of the coolest things I have ever seen. I have never met a more cordial bunch of folks, and am now a contributor. You can request ElSupremo to be your pilot at LSFM.
Wait, you fly those for a living? You lucky sumbitch! 
I wish I was that lucky 
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Give these guys in Kissimmee (Orlando Area) a look, although I don't know much about them, I do know they have been around a long time but since you are already in Kissimmee Florida you can check out the Fantasy of Flight museum owned by Kermit Weeks. I use to go to his place when it was down in Miami. He has an incredible collection of airplanes which he used to fly once a month in an airshow he would set up at his museum (I believe he still does). He had a list of the type of plane along with the time he would fly it. Weeks has a P-51, P-40, B-17, De Havilland Mosquito amongst many others. Fantasy of Flight Beyond all that, you can go check out a theme park if you get really bored. |
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No, I can't recall who that was. If it involved a Heritage Flight it would have been "Tuna" or "Gumby". They are our only two Heritage guys. There were a couple of older guys who flew the F8F and the F4U, and a younger guy in the Galveston Gal. I sat next to the two older fellows the night before at the Cajun Greek, and didnt even know it till I saw them doing their preflights the next morning. |
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Stallion 51 in FL will do it for some big bucks. They make it an experience beyond the flight alone and have a grade A facility.
A friend of mine did it through the Confederate Air Force (I forget their new PC name) a few years back in Atlanta. It required a "donation" of about $1500 to the CAF as I recall. He is a GA pilot and he absolutely loved it. We have a 2 seat P51 local at our airport. I keep kissing-up in hopes I will get a ride one day... |
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http://www.collingsfoundation.org
Check the schedule on when they'll be in your area. The only true TP-51C with a full back cockpit. You get to fly it from the back seat and your front seater will be a CFI so he can sign it off as dual instruction in your logbook. 
2300.00 for 1/2 hour or 3200.00 for 1 hour. Collings Foundation is a 501C3 not for profit educational foundation so your contribution may be tax deductible. 978 568 8924, ask for Ken. After he does the Mustang we can upgrade him to a TA-4 Skyhawk or F-4D Phantom here in Houston ! 
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