First flight... John Paul

[Neal Nurmi]

No, not the P-51C -- Sorry! This happened long ago and far away. Actually the fall of 1985, in lovely Livermore, California. I'm heading down to the Warhawk Museum down in Nampa Idaho tomorrow for the B-25 weekend, and wanted to bring some presents, so scanned some old slides.

Back then in 1985 I heard through the grapevine that John was doing the first flight of his P-40N project, so after work I headed over to see what might be happening.

So John has resurrected a hulk. Bellied in, stripped, and left lying in a field for twenty years. He's bent tin, wired, plumbed, started the thing up, taxied a bit, and really does have an airplane after all this effort.

The time has come...

[Neal Nurmi]

Of course a proper warbird first flight has to have a chase plane! Just so happens that a good friend of John's is a Korean War ace, and happens to have a Mustang hangared at lovely Livermore...

[Neal Nurmi]

So off they go. Everything goes well -- the thing really does fly...

[Neal Nurmi]

And this is what it feels like, to do a first flight of a machine you've built...

[sdennison]

Very cool story! Thanks for sharing.

[Jack Cook]

Ya OK but has he flown his new B-25 yet

[sdennison]

Jack, does that mean he can fly fighter escort for himself? Cool!

[Neal Nurmi]

Well Jack, I guess I'll see this weekend...

[oscardeuce]

That Captain "Wild Bill" Kelso (John Belushi) in the cockpit?

Congrats, and excellent work!

[sonichound]

Thanks for sharing those pictures Neal. I remember when Bob Love enlisted my brother and I to help move pieces of that plane from one hangar to another before they were assembled and thinking how cool it was that I had a piece of a P-40 in my hand. Just another day at Livermore back then.

[Mustang51]

Remember sitting behind Bob Love in his Mustang in formation with a B-25, T-28, Lloyd Hamilton's Sea Fury, Bob Reiser's P-63 and John in the P-40. What a flight....... culminating in a huge dogfight (for real) between Bob and Bob Reiser..... no holds barred

[Neal Nurmi]

So who won?

[Mustang51]

Both gentlemen retired to their respective corners... fuel was limited due to the long flight for filming. Bob Love headed the ANG Mustang ops and was Korean MiG Killer and Bob Reiser was Pacific P-47 driver. It was flashing white (Bob's P-51) and red (P-63) interspersed with blue brown and green. One of the best moments in my flying life. There is one shot in a tv documentary that shows the start of the fight. There is a second where the film crew were taking the B-25 and you can see Bob's P-63 flash climbing rapidly up through the formation. That's where it ended but Bob Love was doing the same on the other side of the film ship.

I can remember the Bobs before the flight having a quiet conversation and that must have been when they decided to see what happened. After we had done the major part of the filming and we were headed back I can also clearly remember Bob partially turning his head , telling me to really tighten my belts then asking "... You ready....."

As I said, one of the best moments of my flying life.

[Neal Nurmi]

I can well imagine, That P-63 was an ex-racer with considerable mods remaining at that time -- certainly somewhat lighter and cleaner than stock.

And Bob Love was Bob Love -- enough said on that matter for anybody who was lucky enough to know the man...