Everybody loves a Mustang

[GX]

This is N514NH, SuSu, a P-51 Mustang, lost March 11, 2009 with my dear friend Nazy Hirani onboard. The N Number 514NH stemmed from Nazy's dream to own a P-51 Mustang by his 50th birthday. It didn't happen until his 51st birthday, so the 51 gave it some special meaning to Nazy. 4 NH, obviously is FOR for Nazy Hirani...

SuSu was restored from the ground up by famed astronaut Frank Borman in 1995 and took on her famed scheme which replicates the scheme she would have flown in had she been in service with Indonesia, where she was salvaged from in the late 70's. SuSu was named after Frank's wife Susan.

I met Nazy by sticking my hand out and shaking his at a fly-in at Falcon Field. That handshake turned into us spending every Friday morning together cleaning and scrubbing one of his 6 airplanes. It finished with us flying one of those airplanes to breakfast, and talking about life, business, and airplanes.

The relationship that I shared with him is something that I treasure to this day. Joy and sorrow are my friends because I knew Nazy Hirani, and I know that there are probably some here who knew him and feel the same way. He was so generous of everything that he had. How many other people can say that the T-6 was the first tailwheel airplane that they flew and landed, the P-51 Mustang the 2nd, and a Staggerwing the 3rd?

I have thousands of pictures of our time together. Here's just a few, and I'll add to this, as I find time to upload them, and I'll post some from his memorial service, as well.

SuSu even had her own matching Tug.

 

[Crockrocket94]

Excellent pictures, and Love the hangar shot!

 

[///AMG]

Excellent pictures, and Love the hangar shot!

Yeah that's a nice 996 in the far corner as well

 

[Itchy]

Great pics, sounds like a great guy. Did they find a cause for the accident?

 

[BeRich]

Yeah that's a nice 996 in the far corner as well

Nah, it's a 911.

 

[GX]

Yeah that's a nice 996 in the far corner as well

It's the 96-97 Twin Turbo. Not much of a Porsche guy, so excuse me if I get it wrong. He loved it because it was crazy fast, and the last air cooled turbo produced.

Cause of crash was failure to maintain control. Pilot error.

Here's the Factual http://dms.ntsb.gov/aviation/AccidentReports/d4mbzgznmzacqi45mv1d1r451/I05142012120000.pdf
and Probable Cause http://dms.ntsb.gov/aviation/AccidentReports/xdsrfs5501vepj55drpgcg551/O05142012120000.pdf
He had been on vacation for a few weeks, left the plane at the shop for an inspection, and had picked her up that day. He was out flying and playing, and came back to Stellar. Landing the Mustang is not for the faint of heart. It is difficult.

There is MUCH to learn from this incident, but am a little reserved about posting it.... Thoughts on that would be appreciated...

At any rate, he bounced the landing, adding too much power, torque rolled it to the left, hitting a block wall, and a decorative "Pilot Weather Rock" on a large wooden stand with the left wing, resulting in a 180 degree spin to left. He went into the side of Ron Pratte's hanger inverted and backwards. The crash into the hanger resulted in a fire which consumed the airframe, and made an attempt at a rescue impossible.

 

[Hacker15e]

Beautiful shots.

By all accounts Nazy was quite a man and warbird enthusiast who will be missed. I never had a chance to meet the man, but I sure heard about him from a lot of folks who did, and they had nothing but great words. A terrible loss.

which replicates the scheme she would have flown in had she been in service with Indonesia

Unfortunately, SuSu's paint scheme doesn't really replicate anything authentically. The AURI and (later) TNI-AU Mustang paint schemes did not look like this.

All the Indonesian aircraft had previously been Dutch NEIAF. Originally they were camouflaged with a big shark mouth:

The early AURI schemes were natural metal with a black or blue-and-white checkerboard on the tail.

Later they went back to the shark mouth on white when they changed the name to TNI-AU.

It doesn't really replicate any US paint scheme either. It is sort of loosely based on the squadron Borman flew with in Korea in the early 50s, the 44FS (with the bat logo, and the FF buzz numbers), but we know that USAF Mustangs were in natural metal finish by that time and not OD green.

 

[Hacker15e]

At any rate, he bounced the landing, adding too much power, torque rolled it to the left, hitting a block wall, and a decorative "Pilot Weather Rock" on a large wooden stand with the left wing, resulting in a 180 degree spin to left. He went into the side of Ron Pratte's hanger inverted and backwards. The crash into the hanger resulted in a fire which consumed the airframe, and made an attempt at a rescue impossible.

It's actually a mistake that's been made by many a Mustang pilot with similar results. The 2007 crash out in Camarillo, CA, which killed John McKittrick had a similar cause: too much power added too fast on a go- around. Hundreds of AAC and USAF pilots made similar mistakes when it was in military service, and especially in the 50s and 60s when the airplanes were first offered to civilians as surplus.

I don't have enough time in a Mustang worth noting, but I can say that the amount of torque that the Merlin can put out is surprising -- it was more of a reaction than I expected, even though it was briefed beforehand what it was going to do and how to correct it. A lot of pilots' habit patterns about aborted landings and go-arounds that are learned early on in GA aircraft (ergo, stabbing the throttle forward) can be deadly at low speeds in an airplane like the Mustang. It is tough to turn off that muscle memory, especially when something odd happens that a pilot is surprised by during a landing attempt.

 

[MikeD]

Landing the Mustang is not for the faint of heart. It is difficult.

There is MUCH to learn from this incident, but am a little reserved about posting it.... Thoughts on that would be appreciated...

To be more accurate, there's much to re-learn from this accident. Hirani's accident, while unfortunate, wasn't an undiscovered and new way to crash a plane of this type.

 

[///AMG]

At BeRich, 996 is a series number denoting that time period of build/MY. 930, 964, 993, 996, 997 are all 911's, just sub variants of them built at different periods of time.

 

[GX]

Few more:

This is what made it VERY real to me. She... and he were gone. (This photo has never been seen before by anyone except me and my gf.)

A few more:

 

[GX]

A few from the memorial:

Ed Newberg departs Stang for the fly-over.

Bob Odegaard of Race 57 fame landing with Cripes a Mighty.

Taxxing in for the memorial. Riding with Bob was Asa Herring, Tuskeegee Airmen.

T-6's on the flyover

CJ-6's in the initial form-up, for a "Missing Man" after deaprting.

 

[BeRich]

At BeRich, 996 is a series number denoting that time period of build/MY. 930, 964, 993, 996, 997 are all 911's, just sub variants of them built at different periods of time.

Lol sorry man, I know. Used the smiley instead of the tag.

 

[///AMG]

Lol sorry man, I know. Used the smiley instead of the tag.

ahhh I'm dumb, we're on the same page

 

[GX]

Hacker...

Thanks for that. I knew that there was a little uncertainty as to the authenticity of the scheme, and it was a topic of conversation periodically, but yours is the most detailed explanation of it that I've seen/heard. Frank Borman had said it was loosely based on his scheme, but with some "Indonesian flair" thrown into it. Turns out... Makes a good story.

As far an the actual incident goes, I, and others, feel that this could have been prevented long before the actual crash sequence was initiated. There were several factors that we always questioned... 1. He would either call his wife, or do a low approach to initiate her to come out of the house to watch him land, and to greet the airplane. 2. He would use as little runway as possible to limit taxi time. His IP who had spent many hours with him in the airplane cautioned him about rushing the roll-out and braking. Use the runway.... It was also noted that he flew the airplane more aggressively by himself than he did with pax, and that was something that was talked about...

There's these little things that had become habitual that made landing on a 60' wide runway more difficult for him. I wasn't going to get into the specifics of how to avoid the torque roll, and the go-around because I'm less than qualified to speak on it. But the stuff leading up to it... I just sit and shake my head because I'd like to think he and the plane would still be here if he were a little more direct in his approach to the ENTIRE landing sequence, and was intentional about limiting distractions with the airplane.

And there WERE distractions with that airplane. Bringing a Mustang or Corsair onto a ramp is the ultimate distraction. Going to breakfast or flying into Cable, or Carlsbad was never "routine". We needed to account for AT LEAST 45 minutes after landing to sit and talk about the airplane. And on departure too. It's not like "Poor me, I date the hottest girl ever...." just what comes with the territory. I was totally unprepared for it the first time that I flew with him in SuSu. We flew the T-6 for 6 months before I was offered a ride in SuSu. Flying a T-6 into someplace, and flying SuSu into a place are two completely different experiences.

I'm leery about posting that because of the appearance of the "Monday quarterbacking", or being critical, and I'm not. It just sucks to have lost a friend, and a beautiful airplane, to an incident that was absolutely preventable. But, enough time in this biz and you learn that 90% of these are preventable...

 

[MikeD]

There's these little things that had become habitual that made landing on a 60' wide runway more difficult for him. I wasn't going to get into the specifics of how to avoid the torque roll, and the go-around because I'm less than qualified to speak on it. But the stuff leading up to it... I just sit and shake my head because I'd like to think he and the plane would still be here if he were a little more direct in his approach to the ENTIRE landing sequence, and was intentional about limiting distractions with the airplane....

Airplanes will bite you in the ass if you don't respect them, some more than others. Get complacent and place your mind elsewhere when you shouldn't, especially knowingly, is a recipe for disaster as demonstrated. It's unfortunate, but true.

 

[Hacker15e]

I'm leery about posting that because of the appearance of the "Monday quarterbacking", or being critical, and I'm not. It just sucks to have lost a friend, and a beautiful airplane, to an incident that was absolutely preventable. But, enough time in this biz and you learn that 90% of these are preventable...

Personally, I think it's what departed comrades would want us to do, especially if it was their mistake that we could learn from. I know that if I go west in an airplane, and it's because I screwed up, I'd want my buds to analyze and nitpick everything I had been doing so that they could learn what not to do in a similar situation. I'd want them to do it and not feel guilty, but more feel like I was helping them stay alive.

I think it's good that you're talking about it -- I certainly didn't know Nazy, his background/experience, nor what his airmanship/judgment/behaviors were, but it sounds like you have a little insight into it. As someone who has that knowledge, it makes you more qualified to talk about it than any of us.

There are definitely some safety issues in the warbird community currently. Some of it has to do with the types of people who are generally current owners of warbird (fighters and trainers especially), but it mostly has to do with some of the behaviors they exhibit. At the warbird clinic at OSH in 2010, the CAF's Safety guy, Doug Rozendaal, stood in front of the gathered fighter owners and operators and gave some tough love. He indicated that the previous year's fatal accidents had all been caused by pilot error, and that we/they all needed to take a hard look in the mirror and figure out how and why that was the case.

The prevailing opinion was that there was a lack of mentorship for the current generation of warbird owners and pilots, and that was leading them to make occasional dumb decisions in the cockpit. There are obviously multiple aspects of the issue, and many varied reasons why people felt this was true, but it still comes down to that same old thing we talk about in every aspect of aviation: airmanship.

Unfortunately, airmanship itself cannot be taught: it is gained through experience, both good and bad. I know I've personally grown my airmanship through poor decisions I've made in an airplane which fortunately did not injure myself or others or bend metal.

 

[Murdoughnut]

Just an aside - is it legal to restore the guns and use them - like at a private range or something? Just curious - seems like something the NRA would be all over.

 

[Hacker15e]

Just an aside - is it legal to restore the guns and use them - like at a private range or something? Just curious - seems like something the NRA would be all over.

It is possible to do the NFA thing with the guns, but very few attempt to do it. Too many potential pitfalls with an investment worth many $ millions.