TURBOCHARGED BARON! - Bahamas Flight VLOG

Today we're going to be flying one of my favorite airplanes, the P-51 Mustang, Quicksilver. My buddy, Scooter. Let's get this started. I'm here to give you guys a great flight. We're flying with three other Mustangs in a massive fighter formation. And we're going to go out and do some cool stuff. Fuel pumps on, all handles are up and in. Carburetor air control is locked. Right six rotor trim zero. Trim zero. Trim lights off. Fix your back. Props pull forward. Mags are off. Supercharger's low and lashed. All doors are up. Hydraulic handles in. Fuel on the fullest tank. Boost pumps up. We've got 14 pounds of pressure. We're already hot, so we're going to do a little half second of prime here. Now, the reason why I wear a mask in this airplane. I can see why. I just went tactical myself, Scooter. The reason why I wear a mask in this airplane. A lot of times we do formations, as you can hear, there's a lot of background noise. So, not only does it help me for going up front, but it also helps me tell my guys what to do when. A lot more clear. So, now that everybody's running, they look behind me. We're just waiting on dash four to start. It's not a big deal. Let these guys warm up. I'd like to welcome everybody on board. We're here at Oshkosh 2018. Scooter, I appreciate you having us on board today. Dude, anything for family. This is by far one of my favorite airplanes. It's exciting to be able to go up with you. Well, Steve, it's an honor to have you and all you guys at home. Thanks for joining us today. All right. So, now what we're doing, we have an internal frequency that we talk on. We have a tactical frequency for the lack of words. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to see if everybody's up. So, let's just see if everybody's on the same frequency here. Fighters, check on. Mustangs, check on. Excuse me. Fighter two. Mustangs, check on. Fighter four. All right, guys, just let me know when you're warm, and we'll pull out of the chocks whenever we're ready. All right, flight control, check. Everything's closed. We'll put the flaps down. Our flaps go all the way down to 55 degrees. Oh, wow. Yeah, they're barn doors, baby. That's a lot of lap angle you got there. That's a lot of drag. So, Scooter, how long have you been flying P-51s? This is my 13th year flying Mustangs. Nice. You do the whole air show circuit, correct? I do. I do between 20 and 25 shows a year. Oshkosh is by far one of my favorites. You know, we always say if aviation had a pulse, Oshkosh would be the heart. I'll be sure to link Scooter's Instagram. I'll be linking that in the description below. Be sure to check that out. And if you guys do come to an air show, be sure to look for Quicksilver, Mr. Scooter Yolk. Also, if you want to know more in-depth about aircraft, join me on iTunes, Pocket Cast, any of your other podcasting things for Air Power Podcast. Look us up. It gives you the insight into the aviation world. We even had this guy on here. You were our first guest. Yeah, I was. That was a lot of fun. So, Scooter, what is our plan for this flight today? What will we be doing? Well, dude, our plan is we're going to go up and just we're going to get four-ship proficient again with fast movers. So we call it a formation proficiency, right? These guys are going to go up and just practice the basic essentials of four-ship tactical flying. So one cool thing about this airplane, Stevo, this is a water-cooled engine, all right? So it's just like your car. You know, they call it antifreeze, but we call it cooling. It's got about 16 1⁄2 gallons in the main system. And one of the things that this airplane is known for is it can get really hot on the ground. You can actually overheat the engine if you're a downwind taxi, if you're not into the wind. That's one thing you really got to be careful of, though. That's one thing that I'm monitoring right now currently on my instruments, and I'm looking for making sure all the temperatures and pressures are rising evenly. All right, fighters, let's go ahead and pull out. Everybody push over to 18-9 for taxi. What are you doing here, Stevo? I can imagine. Oh, yeah. All right, here we go, guys. I love the sound of that engine. Oh, yeah. What engine is it on this airplane? This is a Rolls-Royce-designed Packard-built Marlin. Nice. 1,650 cubic inch, might have 1,700 horsepower. Visibility is greatly reduced in this aircraft. You see, we have to S-turn whenever we're taxiing out. We cannot see in front of us. We have a steerable tail wheel, thank goodness. And that's a big old prop you have in the front of here. That's swinging an 11-foot, 2-inch, Hamilton-standard aluminum propeller. It is a massive, massive propeller. This tail wheel is only steerable 6 degrees either way. That's it, huh? That's it. Go on this way. And here we go. Here's that downwind taxi. So the scoop underneath this airplane, one of the defining features of this aircraft is the scoop underneath. That's not the air vent for the engine. That's actually for the oil cooler and the radiator. Oh, interesting. And there's a door in the back. We call it the exit door because it either allows more or less air through the scoop. And it either increases or decreases cooling. So it regulates the temperature, and it is automatic. I do have a switch up here to run it manually in case that does fail, though. One of the cool things about it is that when the door is in the fared position, meaning that whenever the door is in the same plane of the aircraft, it actually produces thrust. I mean, you hear different numbers, but the accepted number is around 400 pounds, which is quite a bit if you think about it. Yeah. So one of the things you're really going to experience with this airplane, Steve-O, is the takeoff power. Now, I understand you're a jet guy or you're a TBM guy, but however, when we light the coals of this thing, it's going to set you back in your seat that you're not ready for. I'm definitely excited to feel the horsepower. And we are going to take off with full power. It's a myth that you can't take off with full power in a Mustang. You and I are going to do it today. Which brings me to my next thing. How do you transition to one of these things? That's what I'd like to know. Well, obviously, you're going to need tail wheel time. That is a given. You're going to need tail wheel time, and then the next thing you're going to do is you're going to need to transition to the pilot maker, the T6. You're going to need to fly that for an extended period of time. What was it like, your first solo in this? Oh, man. It was amazing. I've noticed when you're watching the P-51s fly from the ground, you'll hear a whistling noise. Yeah, so not all of them whistle, but the ones that do, it's that inboard gun barrel. If you notice on the wings, the inboard gun barrel is staggered. And the only time it'll scream or the only time it'll howl is when we put angle of attack on the airplane. So, Steve-O, what we're going to do is we're going to get out onto the runway, and we're going to stagger. So one and two, myself and gunfighter, are going to be on opposite sides of the runway. And it looks like we're pretty much full length, so we're going to probably do a section takeoff. Nice. And then three and four are going to be behind us by about 200 or 300 feet. Red and black Cessna clear. Coming up on the runway here. And now we're going to hold short. Uniform and 8-6 Tango, pull up just a bit. Mustangs apply. Affirmative. Light at four. Light at mustangs, line up white. 8-6 Tango, clear for takeoff. All right, we're lining up here on the runway. Now we're going to get on our perspective side, so I'm going to take the downwind side. See that everybody's getting ready to turn. I'm going to pull forward enough, so Tango, clear for takeoff. All right, we're clear for takeoff. All right, Scooter. We're just going to wait for four to call on. Autopilots, turn right heading 1-5-0 prior to the tower. Remain at or below 1,300 until clear of the glass delta. Light at four is on. All right, here we go. Run up to 30 inches of manifold pressure. Go. Oh, yeah. Power coming up. All right, we're going to push over to tactical. Now, one really cool thing about what we're doing is that that guy on our wing is only fixated on us. He is looking at two points on an airplane, lining them up like sights on a gun. Okay. He has no idea, situational awareness, where, so he has to put all of his trust in the lead. That lead's running 180 miles an hour currently. Look at that. Isn't that beautiful? We've got four Mustangs. Three and four are getting ready to join up. So they're going to go underneath us, and they're going to join up on our right wing. This formation is called a finger-four-strong-right, which, if you look at your hands like this, your right hand, the fingertips would be the positions of the aircraft. That's why we call it finger-four-strong-right. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell four to go behind me. So now I can tell him with my aircraft that I want number four to get out of the slot. It's by wagging my wings. Okay. Now if you watch what happens, watch out of the right wing tip. You'll actually see him move to his position on the other side of three. Him to move position. If you look at three and four, they're making room for him. Now two is going to cross under, and we're going to make an echelon formation. This right here is what makes this so cool. We're going to do some breakups and rejoins. Pretty cool. All right. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell them, they're looking good. Now, boys, let's practice some echelon turners. So what I'm doing right now is we're practicing turns and echelon. Nobody should be stacked up. Everybody should be on the horizon. Look at that. That's fighter perfect. You've got the horizon cutting through all three airplanes back there. Everybody on the horizon. And now you've got to be really ginger. You've got that long arm of people out there. All right. Let's tell them we want to break up. I told them five-second spacing. Kiss them off. Set. Go. Whoo-hoo. Level the wings. Awesome. Now if we don't need for four to call in. You know, we got to work, feed. We got this. Here, just let her come on down. Look at the windows around here. It's like we're on the hospital. They're just following me along. Just a big old daisy. Everybody's rolling. Yeah, buddy. Awesome. All right. So here's what we do. Just roll it. Everybody join up on me. It's going to be a lifter. So now two's going to join to the inside. Traditionally, we always teach in fighter formation that number two joins to the inside. So the inside of the turn, he's going to come to my left wing. Atta boy, two. Looking good. He's just going to slide right on in. Now three, three is going to join up as though he was going to go on two. But he's going to go underneath. And he's going to join up on the right side. Anybody want to say anything else? You guys want to head home? She's good. All right. So we're just going to start a descent. We're going to go through this hole back over here. And we'll do a 180-degree turn and go through the hole over there. I don't want to descend through this one over the lake. So there we go. 180-degree turn. We'll go through that hole. And then we'll come up to Rupert Island on 26-6. The first job of a flight lead is to get everybody home in one piece. It's formation flying is moving a massive group of aircraft from one point to the next, obviously. So what we're going to do is, as a flight lead, I've got to look out for these guys. All right, fighters, I'm going to push to 26-6 until we're coming up on the island. Tower, four Mustangs coming up on the island looking for the overhead. Four Mustangs. Doing a two-mile initial for 36-left. Mustangs heading to the initial. Go forward. Go overhead, Mustangs. You're descending for 36-right. So I just told that element to go to the other side because we're going to break to the right once we get to Scottsdale. Good, Rock. Thank you. Square your base final turn for 36-right. You're following traffic from the opposite base runway, 36-right. Clear to land on or after the red square. After rolling out, 36-right. High-speed taxi all the way to the end for me. All right, let's try a low wing. Okay, good, Rock. Thank you. You're following the traffic about a half-mile ahead of you in the final turn now. Follow them, runway 36-right. Clear to land on or after the red square. Mustangs initial. There's going to be Mustangs overhead for the parallel. Flight of four Mustangs. Traffic's coming in on the left base for 36-right. They'll be crossing your final. Copy. Yellow RV, you're still calling me two off for 36-right, correct? Now's the time to talk about Mustang landing. Nice. 228, roger. Hold at the island. So we're in the break. And use caution for L-39. Two L-39s, you can come on in now for a two-mile initial for 36-left. Two L-39s. Say again for the Mustangs? Say it again? The number one Mustang, go around. Number Mustang, square your turn to final. We've got a disabled aircraft on the runway. Number one Mustang, go around. After landing on 36-right, high-speed taxi all the way to the end, please. Welcome to Oshkosh. All the Mustangs, go around. All the Mustangs for 36-left, go around. Go around. The L-39s, can you guys take 27, please? Two L-39s coming in. Can you guys take 27? L-39 stopped. It's not currently available. We've got an aircraft. That's affirmative. L-39s can take 27. Okay, turn north along Lake Shore and contact Tower 118.5. Let them know where you're at. Tower, do you want the Mustangs to do that, too? Mustangs, the canard's off the runway. Just enter right downwind for 36-left. All right, so set up to land for 36-left again for the Mustangs? Say again for the Mustangs? Clear to land, 36-left. Flight of Mustangs, clear to land, 36-left. Okay, we're clear to land, 36-left. Little Ford. Ford, right base, 36-right. Report two out. Big Ford, ready for departure. All right. Awesome job, Scooter. That was amazing. And you even got to see it go around, and we didn't flip over. That was so cool. Look at something. P-51 Mustang go around, baby. That's it. Not bad. Have a flight of four go around. That was exciting. Well, great job, Scooter. It was so much fun having us on board today. Dude, it's a pleasure having you and all you listeners and watchers out there. I hope to see you guys on the air show real soon. If you guys did like that video, be sure to smash the thumbs-up button, subscribe to the channel, and we'll talk to you guys someday soon. Soon. Little Ford, 36-right, clear to land. Get it.