Pick up the latest issue of Warbird Digest. There’s a nice color photo of Mr. Cruise taxiing out at Mojave, CA with Matt Jackson riding back seat. The caption states that he recently soloed the P-51 for the first time.

I did a few annuals on that one, surprised he finally soled it as his mother has more time in it than he does. When it came back for the 2nd annual it had done all of 4 hours in the previous 12 months, I think it was up to almost 14 hours by the 3rd annual & I can tell you that it’s a complete PIG to work on as the cockpit is fitted out like a bloody Bentley. Try TWO DAYS to change the fuel gauges & fittings down on the floor (normally maybe an hour max)because half the damn aircaft had to be dismantled to get the floor boards up.
Previous owner is in construction, so the Merlin is painted “Construction Orange” so it looks like it came out of a JCB… :rolleyes:

As for his love life: His hangar at SM had a HUGE NZ flag on one wall…. that went in the trash the day Nicole walked.. 🙂

He took off in the helicopter & left the photographer there? LOL

It’s actually outlawed in several places & altho it does have a very finish nice initially it’s not very durable & starts to look like crap after as little as 6 months. It’s fine if you are happy with repainting everything at least once a year, otherwise it’s a complete waste of time & money.
Modern paints are FAR superior & given the correct specs can look EXACTLY like the original finish. As much as I like originality there comes time when it’s just not practical & paint is a prime example.
I think the only 2 countries still producing this stuff are the UK & Nigeria.
The Spit I did for Wright Pat is painted with DuPont Centari & is way more durable that cellulose… just a pity that the powers that be insisted on Irish linen for the tail feathers instead of S**** so that was an exercise in futility.

You might run into more problems trying to get the stuff made in the correct colours for your application. My step-brother (he owns Akron Paints) supplies Ford at Eastleigh & some of the larger DIY chains with their “own brand” paint etc & he won’t touch cellulose.

er, apparently the brand of aircraft covering that starts with “St” & ends with “its” doesn’t get past the censor on here…

Anthem to the Sinclair C5

Moggy :p

Which was effectively killed off by the sketch on Spitting Imagae that showed the Artic driver mowing em down & plastering “kills” on the door of his truck 🙂

…. So what was the cause of the other U2 crash at ‘tiri?

Theres a “secret” junk yard out at Borrego Springs with all sorts of stuff stored there, most of it belongs to Carl at AeroTraders & i seem to recall there being large B29/50 parts….

How far do you have to run to get a pigeon airborne?

A bit less than it takes to get a coconut laden Swallow airborne… 😉