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The P-51-D’s Merlin roars again

Archive 2016
13
  Friday, 09 September 2016

Thursday 8th September, 16h 30

They’re coming… the hangar becomes animated, everyone knows what he has to do, the funs cease and the tools are passing from hand to hand.
George Perez is the conductor of this kind of orchestra and directs the operations for the team comprising : a Canadian born American, another American from Seattle, a Swiss and a team of Frenchies.
George is a high skilled specialist of the P-51 with great knowledge of its V-1650 Packard-Merlin.
Sandwiches are brought for lunch and what remains is kept for dinner. At midnight, everybody leaves for a rest…

Friday 9th September

In the afternoon, as the PBY takes off for the Mulhouse-Habsheim airshow, the propeller of the P-51 is installed, coolant and oil full are done, cooling pipes and electrics connected then exhaust stacks adjusted with a smooth file to put them in place.
George and his friend Chris do the final check and control as night falls and decide start the engine.
Unfortunately, the V-1650 remains silent so another check is done and after some adjustment of the mags and their connection, the Packard Merlin starts at the first blade run. The team can finally go to lie down…

Saturday 10th September

The team is back in the morning to install the cowlings and after another check, George starts the Packard-Merlin then rolls on the taxiway to align the Mustang on runway 19 of Melun-Villaroche. He does a slow full throttle then takes off in the howling of the big engine as the whole team looks at attentively.
After a 30mn flight, George brings the big bird to the parking in front of the hangar for a final check. A smile on his face tells that everything is OK. The cowlings are removed to do a close look for any coolant or oil leak. As no leak has been found the flight to Kirchheim Teck is cleared and the three pilots for the flight to the German airshow — the P-51, the P-40 and the Yak — draw the flight plan as our T-6 takes off for the St-Junien airshow .

As I said George I was amazed by the speed of the reassembly of the engine in the p-51, he told me  mischievously: "I did it a dozen times at the Reno Air races. There we started at 16h and did it during the night!" .

 

 

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