P-51 Mustangs at Aviation Nation

Nellis 2004 has air racing and D-day demonstrations so you know there must be some P-51s close by. A total of 8 P-51 Mustangs made it to the show.

For the air racing group you have:

• "Dago Red", pilot Skip Holm, owner Terry Bland, 44-74996, N5410V
• "Miss America", pilot/owner Brent Hisey, 44-74536, N991R
• "Precious Metal", pilot/owner Ron Bucarelli, 44-88a, N6WJ
• "Ridge Runner III", pilot/owner Dan Martin, 44-72483, N151DM
• "Voodoo", pilot Curt Brown, owner Bob Button, 44-73415, N6526D

Check out some of Dan Martin's photos, you will see that he was flying so fast that he lost the "0" from race 20 off the tail. He said it drifted down to Vegas. So if you find it around Nellis AFB, you can .... well ... just keep it ... maybe put it on your car.

The only P-51 that I did not see fly during the show Sunday was "Dakota Kid", 44-73524, N151HR, flown and owned by Henry Reichert. It was parked in the same area as the other show warbirds. Not sure why it did not fly. Get up close and you sill see a very nicely restored P-51 owned by Mr. Reichert.

The last group of P-51s would be the Heritage Flight:

• "Six Shooter", pilot/owner Chuck Hall, 67-22580, N2580
• "Val Halla", pilot/owner Bill Anders, 45-11525, N151AF

There are a few mustang pilots that go through the checkouts and the training to be on the approved list of Heritage Flight pilots. Chuck Hall and Bill Anders have been doing this for quite a while. Always nice to see 50 years of USAF. Now I want to see 60 years with the F/A-22 Raptor along side a pair of P-51s.

In all a very good showing of P-51s worth the drive by themselves.