I first heard it when I walked from my car to the motel room. Somewhere in the bright afternoon sky over US highway 192 was the source of the sound. I squinted to the west for a moment and finally picked up the movement of an aircraft silhouette headed toward me. It was the unmistakable shape of a P-51 Mustang on final approach to Kissimmee Municipal Airport. The Merlin engine was throttled back and a nice series of barks emitted from the short stacks on the famed Rolls Royce powerplant. The hum of the propeller had a distinct doppler shift, descending as the little fighter flew by. I would hear this sound many times over the next seven days and never tire of it. What had brought me to Central Florida was the lure of a very unusual aviation event called the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends, called GML for short. GML emerged from earlier plans made by the Mustang Operation and Preservation Society (Mustang OPS), to host a series of seminars for Mustang owners and operators. Large numbers of veteran Mustang pilots as well as present day owners responded to the invitations. The list of invitees soon grew to include notables like Bud Anderson, Lee Archer, Ken Dahlberg, Robert Goebel, Bob Hoover, Robin Olds, brothers Bill and Charles Pattillo, Pete Peterson, and Chuck Yeager, all men who had flown the Mustang in World War II. As media inquiries from around the globe began to roll in, the staff at Kissimmee knew they had their work cut out for them in managing the burgeoning logistics of GML. An ideal base of operations for GML was found in the modern facility at Stallion 51 Corporation, a highly-respected Mustang flight training organization at Kissimmee. The meeting rooms at Stallion 51 were put to good use during the seminars, and the hangar did double duty as a banquet hall after hours. Throughout the event, executive and general aviation traffic flow at Kissimmee continued normally, though bizjet movements were often interspersed with flights of P-51s. History was in the making on Thursday, April 8, when Chuck Yeager flew P-51 "Glamorous Glen III" in formation with an A-10, F-15 and F-16 of the Air Force's Heritage Flight. Though not billed as an airshow, GML attracted the attention of the warbird-minded public, who for $25.00 a head were able to tour the ramp on Saturday, April 10th. The majority of existing Mustangs were produced at the North American Aviation plant at Inglewood, California. They are popularly known by their colorful names, commonly applied with historical accuracy to represent a particular aircraft of WW II fame. Included in the 67 Mustangs present at GML were some lesser known variants of the breed. "Frenesi" and "Moonbeam McSwine" are from the Dallas-built P-51K production run, and "Lil Margaret" is an F-6D reconnaissance variant, complete with fuselage camera ports. "Su Su II" and "Flying Dutchman" were built at Commonwealth Aircraft in Australia. Unfortunately, neither of the two US-registered lightweight P-51H aircraft were in attendance. On Sunday, a contingent of more than two-dozen Mustangs headed south to the Experimental Aircaft Association-sponsored 25th Anniversary Sun ' Fun fly-in at Lakeland, Florida. The author would like to thank event coordinator Angela West for her cooperation in making my visit to this unique aviation event possible. A word of thanks is also owed to the staff at Stallion 51 for their first-rate hospitality. It should be mentioned too, that without the efforts of the mechanics who roll out the tool boxes early in the morning it would have been just another week at the airport. When summarizing my experience at GML I keep thinking back to the 1987 movie Empire of the Sun, in which a young aviation-minded Jim, played by Christian Bale, realized he was about to be freed by Allied forces and exclaimed, "P-51 Mustang, Cadillac of the Sky!" My sentiments exactly. The following is a list of Mustangs seen by the author at GML. It is incomplete-some of those little ponies ran off before I could catch them in the viewfinder!
Mustangs at Stallion 51 Kissimmee, FL April, 1999
Orig. AAF S/N |
TAIL # at event |
Current Civ. Reg. |
Unit Markings |
Aircraft Name |
474009 | | N988C | | Ain't Misbehavin' |
413016 | 413016 | NL5551D | LX-H | Dove of Peace |
| | NL51JB | B7-E | Bald Eagle |
474409 | 413317 | NL51RT | VF-B | Donald Duck |
472051 | 422051 | NL68JR | | Sweet Revenge |
412139 | 413318 | NL357FG | C5-N | Frenesi |
472145 | 472145 | NL51PT | HO-M | Petie 3rd |
413250 | 472308 | NL151DM | WD-A | Ridge Runner III |
473264 | | N5428V | CY-U | Gunfighter |
473287 | 473287 | N951M | D7-J | Worry Bird |
472339 | 472339 | NL251JC | WD-C | |
463350 | 413410 | NL51TK | E2-C | Lou IV |
511381 | 414888 | NL551CB | B6-Y | Glamorous Glen III |
484390 | 484390 | N2869D | -E | Section Eight |
474404 | 474404 | NL151RJ | CH-B | Dazzling Donna | |
| 405 | NL405HC | | |
474417 | 472197 | N6327T | FF-197 | Donna-mite |
472438 | 472438 | N7551T |   | Lady Alice |
414450 | | N6341T | B6-S | Old Crow |
474453 | 413903 | NL251HR | WD-L | Glamorous Gal |
474454 | 474524 | N151HR | YF-M | Dakota Kid |
474497 | 511471 | N51UR | PI-J | Diamondback |
413500 | | N151AB | HL-N | Flying Dutchman |
511507 | 413321 | NL921 | HO-P | Cripes A'Mighty 3rd |
511525 | 511525 | N151AF | FF-525 | Val-Halla |
511540 | 511540 | N151W | PE-R | Excalibur |
474458 | 415326 | N351DM | QP-H | Sizzlin' Liz |
511559 | 511559 | NL51MX | MA-A | Mad Max |
| 9577 | N151KM | PV-577 | |
422580 | 422580 | N2580 | RF-K | Six Shooter |
484615 | 484615 | NL55JL | | Betty Boop |
484634 | 472218 | NL151ES | WZ-I | Big Beautiful Doll |
511636 | 511636 | N11636 | CO NG | Stang Evil |
473656 | 414237 | NL2151D | HO-W | Moonbeam McSwine |
473543 | | N151TP | HP-P | Sweetie Face |
474582 | 474582 | NL6329T | FF-582 | Crusader |
473704 | | NL6168C | FF-704 | ATC-Webb AFB |
474745 | 484745 | NL851D | LL | Crazy Horse |
484753 | | NL251BP | RJ-P | |
463810 | 463497 | N451BC | TI-F | Angel's Playmate |
474839 | | NL50FS | FF-839 | Su Su II (Luke AFB) |
484786 | | N51BS | 5M-K | Lil Margaret |
412840 | | | LG-W | |
484850 | | | FF-850 | Su Su |
472922 | 472 | NL93TF | L2-W | Scat VII |
472934 | | XB-WVL | VF-T | Shangri-La |
472942 | 414151 | NL5427V | HO-M | Petie 2nd |
474950 | 414812 | NL51DT | HO-T | Slender Tender and Tall |
474976 | 474976 | N651JM | MR-J | Obsession |
475007 | 475007 | N3451D | PH-P | Paul I |
474389 | | N64824 | B6-F | |
| | NL41749 | CY-M | |
| | N86772 | C5-T | Mormom Mustang |
| 473 | NL151JB | B7- | Bald Eagle |
| | NL51YZ | NACA | |
| | N51RH | | Ole Yeller |
| | | | Miss Marylin II |
| | | | Montana Miss |
| | NL51WT | OO | Nervouse Energy V |
| | N6306T | HI-G | |
511582 | | NL5441V | | Spam Can |
473210 | | CF-IKE | WD-B | Miracle Maker |
413257 | | NL51DL | Camo | |
P-51D "Tender Slender & Tall" was one of several Mustangs at Kissimmee equipped with external fuel tanks. Civil Reg. is NL51DT
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P-51K "Frenesi" bears the name of Artie Shaw's 1939 hit song from the big band era. Civil reg N357FG
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TF-51 "Mad Max." The T prefix was applied to dual control Mustang conversions ordered shortly after WWII, as well as more recent conversions expressly for the warbird community. Civil reg N51MX
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"Lil Margaret" was built as a P-51D, but was seen posing as an F-6D, the photo reconnaisance Mustang. Two camera ports can be seen aft of the wing on the port side of fuselage. Civil reg N51BS
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CA-18 "Flying Dutchman" is a Mustang built by Australia's Commonwealth Aircraft. Civil reg NL51AB
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Cavalier modified a small number of Mustangs in the early 1960s for sale to military operators, primarily in Central America and South America. Civil reg of this Florida-based Cavalier is NL51DL
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Personal aircraft markings were common during the Mustang's service life. Nearly all warbird P-51s are painted with markings that represent WW II combat units, and many carry "nose art" that is either meaningful to the aircraft's present-day owner, or replicates that of a famous WW II Mustang. NL41749 is "Miss Marylin II."
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This Mustang was restored to the configuration and markings of its post-war service as NACA 127.
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The Stallion 51 flightline witnesses a space launch from the Cape Canaveral complex well to the east.
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Closeup view of Slender Tender and Tall, showing external fuel tanks.
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With exhaust popping, a Mustang turns final behind the propeller blades of a stablemate on the flightline
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Val-Halla photographed on B&W film is seen on final in wistful markings showing what the aircraft may have looked like had it been stationed with the 57th FIS in Iceland during the early cold-war period"
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It's pre-flight time on the taxyway, and crew, photographers, and fans wait in the hot Florida sun for the Merlin engines to start cranking over.
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Chuck Yeager brings Glamorous Glen in one more time at Kissimmee
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