Deane's P-51 Ride

Deane Judd won the EAA Raffle First Prize - a ride with Dan Martin in his P-51 "Ridge Runner". Below is his ride report, click on any of the thumbnails for a larger photo. Thanks for the report Deane and thanks Dan for the generous raffle prize donation.

Saturday, June 5, I had my prize ride with Dan Martin and his P51. As luck would have it, Dan and his son had been invited to an invitation only barbeque at Paso Robles, approximately 80 miles SSE of Hollister, but his son was unable to attend. So Dan asked if I would like to go instead and count that as my winning ride. It took me about 2 nanoseconds to say yes!

So I arrived at the Hollister airport on Saturday about 9:30. Dan towed his plane out to the ramp to wait for another P51 that was coming from Stockton, which we were to fly formation with on the trip to Paso Robles. The other P51 arrived about 10:15 and parked nearby. The following pictures show Dan’s plane, “Ridge Runner III” (472308), on the ramp, with the Stockton plane, Terry Tarditti’s “Comfortably Numb”, in the background.

We soon climbed into the aircraft to begin the trip. For those that care, I should note that neither of these aircraft have dual controls. I am told that only a very few P51s were ever built with them, and these were used for training. The rear seat area originally was for something else (gas tank?), but now is for passengers to sit back and enjoy the ride.

The next pictures show the back of Dan Martin just after engine start followed by taxi out and run-up.(In many, if not all of the pictures, the P51 prop looks like it is stopped, but that just is due to the fast shutter speed of digital cameras.)

We did a formation take off and flew together all the way to Paso Robles as seen in the following pictures. (The other airplane’s passenger forgot to bring his camera – he’s done the ride multiple times – so I don’t have any picture of me in the air in Ridge Runner. But suffice it to say I’m sure we looked just like the Mustang pictured. I think they are the same model, P51D)

The pictures above show departure from Hollister, en route and approach to Paso Robles, and the last shows us turning final to 19.

The next pictures were taken by Dick Borg of Dan and me in Ridge Runner, taxiing in and being towed to our parking place.

The next set of pictures was taken on the ground at Paso Robles. As you can see it was quite a show. The party was put on by a gentleman named Chuck Wentworth - clearly a man with many friends and interests. You’ll also note that Strega was there – another Reno racer - along with Dan’s Mustang.

I should mention that at noon we were provided with lunch of tri-tip, chicken, tossed salad, baked beans, and garlic bread, along with water, wine, and beer (water only for Dan and me.) We also were given a tee shirt and baseball cap with the logo, “Antique Aero 2010, 15th annual barbeque”.

Getting towed and taxiing out to leave. After two or three pictures of Paso Robles, the ones that follow show that all was not simply straight and level flying~ :>)

We did several barrel rolls, including some during which we stopped at each 90 degrees of bank. All were beautifully performed, with positive G throughout. Then we did a little more formation flying on the way back, with the other Mustang heading for Stockton when we were about 5 miles south of Hollister.

After the other Mustang departed, we headed for home. Base leg for Hollister runway 24 is shown on the right. We landed at Hollister at about 3pm, and I must say that I had an outstanding time.

So, I really fell into the “E ticket” on this one. I had two memorable flights and a memorable day all together. If you ever get invited to Chuck Wentworth’s Antique Aero event, go! And if you can go in a P51? It’s heaven.

Deane Judd
Cessna R172K (XP)
N1514V