Washington Slept Here

Yesterday morning a pilot friend, John, who has an airstrip near Coshocton called me.  He asked if if a friend of his who was delivering a plane to an airshow in Fort Wayne, Indiana could put it in the MMS hangar for a night.  It is a rather rare World War II era P-51-C Mustang fighter plane painted in the colors of a Tuskegee Airmen squadron.  Fortunately there was space available so I told John we'd be happy to hangar the plane.



Getting fuel on the ramp between the MMS hangars

The weather was a bit rainy yesterday afternoon, but between showers the P-51 was fueled for today's departure.  I'd called my daughter, Jen, thinking it would be a chance for Chanelle and Javin to connect with a bit of history, and invited them to come see the plane. 




Jen, Chanelle, Jason and Javin with the P-51-C

After a few pictures were taken it started raining again and Jason helped the pilot and me push the fighter into the hangar.  The pilot, who is an airline pilot in his day job, invited me into the cockpit for a picture.  Even though I was pretty wet, I didn't decline the offer.



My left hand is on the throttle, right hand on the (joy) stick, and my index finger on the trigger.

After the fog lifted this morning it was perfect weather for flying and the Mustang headed west.



Towed out of the hangar into the bright sunlight

This P-51-C travels with an exhibit honoring the Tuskegee Airmen and their service in World War II.  You can learn more about the exhibit at http://www.redtail.org/.  Without success I went online to find out if this particular plane had actually been flown by the Tuskegee airmen.  Regardless, it represents a significant bit of history and it was fun to have hosted it last night.