Some impressions about flying a real Mustang (TF-51) and some comparisons to the Spitfire Mk.IX

[ZachariasX]

TL;DR: You really, really, REALLY! should go and fly one as well!! If you are on a budget, I have made recommendations before that also apply for flying a Mustang.
The Mustang is relatively heavy on the controls, but stick and pedals are rather harmonized in control force required. It is fast and it needs to be flown faster than the Spitfire from which it differs in terms of handling like night and day. The Spit on the other jand is extremely light in control (especially pitch) but not harmonized at all.

 

The following is again (like my account of flying the Spit) just a very personal experience and viewpoint. With that I am trying to capture how the aircraft’s handling feels for someone flying for the most part or exclusively on simulators. There are tons of accounts about flying a Mustang, but most are written by pilots used to flying these kinds of aircraft. If one is used to these kind of aircraft, you will see different things in it than a 1GCACP.

If you happen to have a pilot’s license, again, bring your logbook! Logging Spitfire time does make you look smart, and logging Mustang time proves you being a very sensible person. How could you fly warbirds and not flying the Mustang?

Besides, places where be Mustangs are interesting places in general in general, as there’s usually more. And in case of Sywell, there’s… TEMPEST!

People at the Aerodrome are nice and yet they told me the Tempest is in the hangar, waiting for two years now that an American makes them a carb to go with it. All cramped up and not for public. I insisted that I will see the Tempest! and then they opened the hangar for us. Despite it being all the way in the back next to the Buchon and behind the Hurricane, it is one big aircraft! Getting finally some decent telemetry data, that would be something. But for now, just getting my fingers on it must do.

But now this is about the Mustang:

 

The aircraft. The TF-51 is pretty well known and represented BoX and in detail in DCS, hence I will not lose too many words about it. The one I could rent at Sywell (Serial 124-44703) is one of the last built and served in Korea in 1951. After that, she was shipped back stateside and was used in the National Guard. “Contrary Mary” is now painted in the livery of 84^th Fighter Squadron, 78^th Fighter Group of the USAAF station 357 (Duxford), flown by Lt. Col. Roy Caviness. It is of note that it features the uncuffed Hamilton Standard prop, as you can see on the photo of me tucking myself in in the back.

It is a very snug place back there. The pillow had to go even though the canopy is blown slightly more in the back to accommodate for the passenger. However, if you are over 180 cm tall, that will not really do with a pillow on the seat. Oh well, sitting on the bare metal seat then. As you can see I was issued a back parachute. One basically sits on top of the radiator. At least the dashboard is almost fully instrumented in the back and all the levers are there. The cockpit (even in the front) is much narrower than what I had expected before I really sat in a Mustang. While in the front seat, all the controls are readily accessible, in the back, the flaps lever is basically where you’d put your hand to scratch your b*m, but no hope for that (in case you needed it) as the harness and the chute make it inaccessible behind an aluminum plate.

The control stick is made very solid and has a big grip that is twisted such to fit the right hand. Front and back seat really give you the impression of a modern aircraft, quite in contrast to the English designs that stick some steam gauges wherever they find a place for it “down there”. Cadillac of the sky!

Takeoff. During the start and basically at all other times when the canopy is open, even partially, hold your breath. It feels like all the carbon monoxide, lead and bromide that is coming from the exhaust stacks is going straight to the back of the cabin. You risk feeling quiet sick for a while if you get your share of that. It happened to my colleague last time in the Spit. The wide undercarriage and lockable tail wheel do their job well and driving on the tarmac is intuitive, with the unnerving exception of moving the stick forward to unlock the tail wheel to pivot turn the aircraft. While moving the stick is of no consequence in the resting aircraft, once that huge propeller is turning, it gives a feeling of making her dig her nose in. But she rests quiet stable. This Mustang had been converted to disc brakes with plenty of bite. You can readily put her on the nose with them, something that does not happen with the original drum brakes.
Departing south on the hard runway, Alex in the front seat applied power very, very gradually to about 30’ (@3000 rpm), and from then on a bit faster to about 55’ manifold, at which point the aircraft few itself off from the three pointer. The gear raises rather quickly (faster than in this game) and the climb angle is roughly the same as you would have in any higher-powered GA prop. The Spitfire climbs off way steeper. But the Mustang accelerates fast and after completing half a turn, she’s all up and past 200 mph, whereupon power is reduced to a cruise setting of 36’ and 2300 rpm.

Flight. The Mustang is behaving unexpected in almost any way I could previously think of it. First the sound. All you hear is a deep RRRRRRR like in the bowels of diesel powered a ferry ship. That RRRRRRR is so loud that without intercom, you could shout at the top of your voice, the other one aboard could not hear you. At cruise setting, it does RRRRRRR, at 46’, 2700 rpm it just does RRRRRRR and at takeoff power it goes like RRRRRRR. It sounds as silly as it reads, but that’s the way it is. There are no discernible wind noises up to 400 mph at all. I moved the earpieces just to check, but then well, just even larger font “r”. It is incredible how aerodynamically clean the Mustang is, and not having wind noises is obviously part of that.
After setting a cruise power of 36’ and 2300 rpm, the Mustang readily accelerates to 250 mph, its desired cruise speed. It accelerates considerably faster past 200 mph than the Spitfire Mk.IX does at +4 boost. In general, acceleration at high speeds and dives seems to be higher. After takeoff, we ventured to Duxford to zoom the tower. We felt it would be impolite not to do so, especially since it was great weather and they had some crowd there. Approaching at cruise setting, ~4000 ft altitude. Leaving throttle as it is, wingover and dive for a flyby along the runway at low level. Speed quickly picks up toward 400 mph and in both turning in and turning from the fly-past, Alex pulled such that made me some inches shorter. Now I fit back there. There is no G meter in the back, but for someone with no pillow on the seat it was enough. It is of note that during this dive, there was absolutely no change in ambient noise level. It is just the power setting  that defines your sound. If you go 200 mph or 400 mph, that is irrelevant.

Controls. The stick is what you’d expect in a modern aircraft. Going back to a more open area between Duxford and Sywell, near Grafham Water, it was “my controls”. And how is the Mustang different from the Spitfire! The ailerons are somewhat heavy, but predictable and they work as you’d expect them to. The elevator needs considerable force. When you turn, you really need to pull hard on the stick. In general, the force of moving the stick is like stowing your hand luggage when you are on an airline flight. You can do it with one hand but to be precise, you’re tempted to use both hands. An average turn maybe needs some 5 kg pull on the stick to make the nose come up, and once it comes up and the Mustang comes turning around, backpressure on the stick drops a bit, and you have to release some back pull. The steeper you turn her, the more noticeable that gets. The rudder is hard to move like in the Spitfire, but same as in the Spitfire, to move the ball, you don’t feel like depressing the pedal, but just exert force on it. It is nothing like the pedals you have on the PC for sims, where travel gives you a sense of how much input you give, but it is like they are solid and just the pressure on the pedal alone does the trick.

Maneuvering. In contrast to the Spit that hardly needs any rudder input, the Mustang does! This Mustang has the original tail. With the ones that have an enlarged tail, much less rudder is required. Yaw was indeed surprising, as the plane seemed to have a strange “wobble” on top of what could be caused by things like adverse yaw. After some maneuvering, it became clear that the plane makes an enormous gyro felt! Turning right or left needs a different foot input, like the Camel in FC! Once one factors in the expected gyro (just raising the nose will give some yaw input as well!), the plane becomes very predictable and quiet exact in handling, even though it taxing a considerable effort by the pilot in terms of force application on stick and rudder. Same as the Spit, the aircraft has no oscillation at all after you kick it in any axis.
What matters most in the Mustang, is keeping your airspeed up. In any kind of maneuvering, 200 mph is the lower limit. At speeds between 200 mph and 350 mph, the stick forces don’t change that much, nor is there really a requirement to re-trim the aircraft. Wingovers are not done that steeply, maintaining speed is more important. With the sheer speed of the aircraft, the figure looks still very dynamic even if you don't go over the top. Once one got the knack of it, it is a real joy to throw her through the sky. Starting a bit tame and keeping the ball centered while doing as announced certainly helped Alex to be at ease in the front and he then just let me do. Going through maneuvers with him telling me “Nicely done!” means something to me. This Mustang is flown like they do at airshows, hence there’s plenty you can do with it.
For aerobatics, a power setting of 46’ and 2700 rpm is used, a tad less than takeoff power. Barrel rolls are straightforward. Pull up some 20° until you only see blue over that long nose and the stick to the side and around she goes. Not particularly fast, but reliably so. Looping the Mustang is simply amazing! Dive her to ~350 mph and gradually pull up the nose, keeping the ball centered (gyro!). You can take your time and I never in my whole life did a loop with such little g force in the pull up. Just up, up she goes… over the top still fast enough for not hanging in the shoulder straps, then nose down and she gets fast. Even leveling off doesn’t need that much of a pull, you can do it as gentle as you pull her up in the first place. During the entire maneuver, there is no change in ambient sound. Even when she accelerates downwards, from some 200 mph back to some 350 mph, no change in sound. It is the aircraft where I'd feel confident to just make her point down vertically to see how fast she goes. (Just the thought of doing that in any other aircraft with maybe the exception of the Spit would give me the creeps…) She’s like an AMTRAK train that just goes her way. She’s just awesome!

Landing. Again, here it makes itself felt that the Mustang is aerodynamically cleaner than the Spitfire. The flaps are conveniently used as speed brakes, facilitated by the fact that using the first notch is permissible up to 420 mph! In airshow formation flying, the first two notches help a lot in keeping your place in the formation. Yanking the throttle forward and back like we do in the sim, that is just not done. You just set your configuration, and then you fly accordingly. And you take your time to set manifold and pitch. Also, the engine can accelerate faster than the governor, hence just firewalling the throttle is an open invitation to over speed your engine.
In contrast to the Spitfire that basically has two speed ranges, one above 140 mph for all up and one below 140 mph for all down, the Mustang has more flap settings and you start using them earlier, wheels go down at 170 mph. You do this out of an overhead at some 2000 ft and use the turn to bleed speed, throttle down and trim some 7.5° backwards. If winds are bumpy or if there are crosswinds, then the last flap position is not really used, but a bit more speed is kept to wheel land her. (It is mostly done like that.) Throughout the approach, the Mustang is flown a good 20% faster than the Spit Mk.IX. The Mustang crosses the fence at maybe some 120 mph indicated and touches down on the main wheels at ~100 mph, whereupon you retract the flaps to settle her completely.
All down three-pointers can be difficult, as one risks that a wing lifts, and that you end up going sideways, scraping your wingtip on the bitumen. That would be then the last flight of the day. Same as with the Spitfire, she rolls straight and you let her roll to the end of the runway. Like this, you are easy on the brakes and you have to get there anyway to get to the right taxiway.

Overall, it is astonishing how different the aircraft is from the Spitfire. Again, I take my hat off to @AnPetrovich and @Jason_Williams for giving us a sim, where the Spit and the Mustang are different in a way they should be. Some things like the strength requirements to move the stick can’t be represented properly in the sim, yet again, what you can make of the planes is how it should be.

 

Some comparisons between the Spit and the Mustang as well as other aircraft. As said, the Spit is remarkably different form the Mustang not only in control (you can fly the Spit with two fingers at 250 mph, but the Mustang will always ask for all your strength) but also in performance. The Spit feels like a very light, small aircraft. It is absolutely handy in control. This is especially true with the baby-Spits like the Spit Mk.V, that or pilot Alex compares more to a Cap10 in handling. A very honest aircraft that always tells you how she is doing.
While the Mustang does have a relatively gentle stall that even makes it felt somewhat before it happens, it is still relatively easy to accidentally stall the aircraft. Should you really lose the Mustang that way, you better have a minimum of 5’000 ft. of air below you. As there are no sound cues in the Mustang about the speed and neither is the speed felt that much on the controls, it is easy to slow her down too much, especially if one is not used to ease up on pitch once you brought her into the turn. The Spit on the other hand doesn’t need any pitch in a gentle turn and only little in a steeper turn. She also keeps her speed up easier with her big wing an one ton less weight.
It is quite clear that the Mustang is the higher performing aircraft than the Spit Mk.IX, despie the latter having a considerable better (steeper!) climb. But in a one on one dogfight, the Spit makes maneuvering performance more accessible to the pilot, you have to work much less for the same maneuver. I don’t think I could follow myself in a Spit through maneuvers when flying a Mustang. On the other hand, the Spit clearly doesn’t have the legs of the Mustang. The differences in acceleration from 200 mph to 250 mph are just too big. It takes like a minute in the Spit and maybe 15 seconds in the Mustang.
Still, the Mustang gives you the same confidence in control as the Spit does; she’s just a very different animal.
This in contrast to the Buchon that requires a tad more care to operate. Besides the fact that I don’t really fit in there (especially the back!), the Buchon is more work to fly. Although in principle as maneuverable as the Mustang while in its sweet spot airspeed, as soon as it gets fast the elevator becomes restricted. It becomes restricted in such a way, that they will not loop it at low levels during airshows, but always roll out the loop. As it gets fast, moving the nose up as you require it becomes too much of a gamble. And no, trim is no solution. You can do that up there, when you still have 3 km of air between you and game over and stick your hand down there trying to help yourself out, but moving the hands from the stick at low levels when you basically can count to five until game over, that is simply an unsound proposition.
It is of note that the radiator flaps of the aircraft almost act as speed brakes and (especially in case of the Hurricane or the Spit V) are conveniently used to regulate your airspeed in formation flying. With the rads fully open, the Buchon requires every yard of runway to take off at Sywell!
Formation flying is a bit of work if you bring a Hurricane. Besides the fact that it has no bulkhead in front of the pilot, flying one is a *hot* experience. Also, as it only does 190 mph in cruise and every other is going 250, you have to cook a bit more thoroughly in order to maintain your place in the formation. Other than that, it definitely can be commended on being about the most benign aircraft. I am sure it served Britain well at a time where they ran out of well-trained aircrews.

 

But now, you go and fly a Mustang! With that, you actively help keeping that piece of history airborne. Do a good thing! Have a heart and adopt a Mustang!

[ACG_Cass]

Awesome write up @ZachariasX!!

[J2_Seya]

Thanks that was a great read. I'm very envious of your flights

[JtD]

Thank you for taking the time to write all that down - it was a great read!

[ZachariasX]

1 hour ago, JtD said:

Thank you for taking the time to write all that down - it was a great read!

Thanks. Thought I had to share that. It was really a great day at the aerodrome with great people. My friend and I had the plane for the whole afternoon, burned one wing tank of fuel each and putting her through her paces. That's another difference between the Spit and the Mustang. Coming back after a good hour of flight with the Spit, you got to tip up the tanks again. With the Mustang, you just switch to the right tank after taking off for the next 1+ hour of flight. I doubt this was the last time I rented a Mustang...

[CUJO_1970]

Very well written Zacharias - thanks for sharing!