Mike Nixon warbirdengine seminar

Unique chance !!!!!

Mike Nixon, Vintage V12´s, one of the most experienced warbirdenginge-specialists, will visit us in late April 2011. Mike Nixon will arrange a warbird-engine seminar (3 days) in our shop at EDTG (Bremgarten/ South Germany) !

If you are interested, feel free to contact us via email or telephonecall. We will inform you then about the costs and the course of that event.

Registration/Feedback is expected at the lastest on Friday 25th March 2011-03-14

Take that chance ! We are happy to welcome you in our shop

Achim & Elmar Meier
MeierMotors GmbH

looking for further information …..

thats it …. this is the story of the “Lucky Lady VII” hope you enjoyed my thread.

Feel free to post your pictures of 44-72773 in this thread. I would be very happy when there are some pictures of the old times, will say times when the fighter was used by armed forces.

here some pictures of 44-72773 in the civil aera

N120066 in the year 1964, source MustangsMustangs.com , copyright Howard Chilton

source MustangsMustangs.com, copyright overthere !

early shot of the Susy

in camouflage … source mustangsmustangs.com, copyright Ben Rogers

I hope you will hijack this thread with information, photos and stories ! Would be fine 🙂

Keep ´em flying !

The Lucky Lady VII

Spring 2010 …. Achim told me that the plane was sold to a new owner. I was a bit sorry and saw “my” fighter leaving the country. But Achim told me “no it stays here, storage and maintenance by MeierMotors” … I think he was very happy …. me too 😀 The new owner is Christoph Noethiger (Switzerland) and his crewchief is one of the best informed Mustang-specialists. Stefan Hangartner knew the Mustangs from their time at the “Schweizer Fliegertruppen” (Swiss Airforce), he was responsible for the immortal “Temptation” and of course took care for the famous “Double Trouble Two”. Yes, also “Miss America” was under Stefans magic hands. Christoph is very happy that Stefan is his crewchief, and I tell you Stefan loves that bird. You can see both men with that special smile in the face when they are in the shop. Its a real team and Christoph said to me some months ago “you can not ride such a fighter alone, you need a team. You will need a very good team. Stefan is friend and team”

on the left wing Stefan, on the right wing Christoph

Christoph wanted to give that fantastic fighter a new idendity. The now as D-FPSI registered fighter should get a “double name” but an unknown name in the scene. Something like “Ferocious Frankie”. Steven Atkin was contacted and he gave Christoph a list of Mustangs with “double names” … one of the favorites was “Red Dog”. Christoph´s wife decided at least 😀 and so the plane was baptised “Lucky Lady VII” .

Christoph researched of course the history of that “Lucky Lady VII”.
Some words to the wartime “Lucky Lady” and her pilot :

Col. Ernest E. Bankey, Jr. flew the P-51 Mustang “Lucky Lady VII”, (44-73045), when he was assigned to the 385th Fighter Squadron, 364th Fighter Group, 8th USAAF, in the European Theatre of Operations. He enlisted with the Army Air Corps on April 1, 1941, and after completing flight training school, was assigned to the 383rd Fighter Squadron, 364th Fighter Group, and accompanied the Group to England. He flew on the Group’s third combat mission as well as the last, compiling over 100 sorties and 500 combat hours during two tours of duty, the latter being assigned to the 385th Fighter Squadron. Mission reports from the 364th Fighter Group credit him with 10.5 air-to-air victories, 1 probable, 5.5 air-to-ground victories, with 5 more aircraft damaged on the ground. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (Ace in a day) for shooting down 5.5 aircraft on December 27, 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge, in which he made the famous radio call: “I have 50 Jerries cornered over Bonn!” He was also awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Clusters, the Air Medal with 9 Oak Leaf Clusters, and the French Croix De Guerre with Palm. Col. Bankey retired from the United States Air Force in 1968, and then worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California on deep-space projects, some of which are still flying to the outer edges of the solar system today.
Sadly, Col. Ernest E. Bankey was not able to see the resurrection of his plane, he passed away in the early summer 2009 in the USA. But Christoph is in contact with the son of that famous pilot, perhaps we will see a “reunion” of the “following generation”.

wartime shot of the Lucky Lady VII

and the “Lucky Lady VII” in 2010

the Freiburg scenery 🙂

we write the year 2007, exactly 30th september ….

Elmar gave me a phone “Matthias, we will get another Mustang, approach today about 15.00”. Wheww another Mustang. Another Mustang, what a message for me. The Huntress was already a sensation, but two Mustangs at one place in Germany … wow. As you might know, Germany is a “green” country, will say cars with electrical power, lots of bicyclettes, Freiburg is called “Green Village”. It is very very difficult to get acceptance with warbirds, there are lot of people against the Freiburg airfield cause those aircraft are so loud …… we talk about Cessnas !!!!!!!! ….. and now such an angry loud gasolin guzzler approaches Green City 😀

Not so easy …. the last time Freiburg inhabitants saw Mustangs 1944-45. The fighter is well known by the older people, the shape, the sound …. no good memories. As later in the year the “Darlin Ann” hammered over our house in Freiburg, my mother (91 years old) said in a very special calm voice “son, this was a Mustang”… she did not saw the plane, it was too fast, she only heard it … it was the particular sound of that fighter bomber. Mustangs often attacked Freiburg city in the late stage of the war and shoot at everything which moved. My mother said, that they called those Mustangs “terrorplanes”. She had some luck and was unhurt in the winter 1945 as such a “terrorplane” attacked her in the streets of Freiburg. Thats also history …. Freiburg is not so easy for a homebase for Mustangs.

30th September 2007…. waiting on the Freiburg airfield …. Tower: “fast plane approach from west” …. and we heard that fantastic sound of the Merlin engine… wide curve from west to east, and in line with the tarmac then full throttle …. I will never forget that sound (sry for the poor quality of those shots, but I was too nervous and I had a bad equipement)

…short final on EDTF

the old MeierMotors shop EDTF

a very very happy Elmar Meier

some close up´s

What a day !

No probs.
…..Just as an aside and with no intention of hijacking the thread, does anyone know where D-CACY is now?
From reading the assorted mags OFMC seemed very enthusiastic about restoring it back to flight given its genuine FAA pedigree.
Alas it never happened, for the moment anyway… 🙁

sorry no idea, my last information was “Duxford” and “downunder”.

D-CACY (ES3617) was not a target-towing-plane, it was the target herself 🙂 They used the plane for fly-by´s , for ex. to calibrate the weaponsystems. This manoeuver was called “ZD1” means “Zieldarstellung 1”, in english “target-display”. Yes, they didnt fired a round on this ship :diablo: D-CACY was the only singleseater and that bird was delivered from the Netherlands.

All tow-tugs were doubleseaters, will say MK20. With those Mk.20 (TT.20) they flew “ZD2”-operations. The plane towed the target (several hundrets meter behind the plane) and the AA-guns fired on that target. The target was equipped with electronic to count the hits. The second place in the cockpit belonged to the target operator. They operated 17 (another source says 16) doubleseaters and one single seater in Luebeck. 5 of them crashed.

Later this job was made by those ugly Broncos 😀 In my active time I fired some 20mm rounds at the target towed by those Broncos. I had placed some hits, but never brought a Bronco down. I was not a very good gunner :diablo::diablo::diablo:

Matthias
Can you let us know which Sea Fury FB.11 project this is?
Thanks

I am sorry, I dont have further information about that ship.

Mustangs in Germany … yes there are some of them in EDTG for storage and maintenance 😉

P-51D D-FBUN, private owner “Ex-HuntressIII”
P-51D D-FPSI, Christoph Noethiger, Switzerland, “Ex-Darlin Ann”
P-51D “Big Beautiful Doll”
TF-51 D-FTSI, private owner
TF-51 project in progress

I think that this is unique in Europe

In fact I love those ugly angry radial-engine-birds :diablo: more then those sleak inliners and of course I am so happy that there are SeaFuries around here.

In my ears nothing can top a Centaurus “towing” a SeaFury in the blue sky …..

Thanks for the update. Do the engineers often walk to the other Mustang to check if it’s right what they’re doing?

Of course ! Its perfect when you have a similar aircraft in the shop, will say it makes work easier and you can cross-check your doing everytime. Its better to compare the things at a “living object” than in the handbook or construction plans. Of course they use handbooks and constructionplans too.

Focke Wulf Fw190 A8/M D-FMFW

Looks so much better, more pics please Mattias!

I am sorry, no more inflight pictures, but some pictures from the shop yesterday
🙂