I am trying to find the history of P-51D 44-73129 N5480V from its sale by the Air Force up until the day Mustang N51SL flew.
The story on MustangsMustangs is this:
1963: N5480V (J. Jackson), (Tom Winship)
1969: (Frank Barrena)
1969: Haiti FAH 15650
1970: Collision with another FAH P-51 (not confirmed)
1972: recovered (Dixon Smith)
1978: (Rod Barnes)
1982: N51SL, restoration at Chino
Warbirdregistry says this:
Tony Randozza, Oakland, CA, 1958.
J.M. Jackson, Long Beach, CA, 1963.
- Registered as N5480V.
Thomas W. Winship, Corona Del Mar, CA, 1963-1964.
- Gear collapsed during landing, Santa Monica, CA, Nov. 4, 1965.
Stans Aircraft Sales, Fresno, CA, 1966.
Frank A. Barrena, San Luis Obispo, CA, 1969.
- Delivered to FA Haiti as FAH 15650, 1969.
- Damaged in mid-air collision with another FAH-51, July 1969.
- Recovered from Haiti, stored dismantled in Miami, FL, 1972.
Dixon J. Smith, Seattle, WA, 1972.
- Registered as N51SL.
Rodney Barnes, Oconomowoc, WI, 1978-1986.
This was posted on another forum.
My jaw dropped when I saw the history on this plane. I grew up in San Luis Obispo, graduated from High-school & started flight lessons in '69.
I knew Frank Barrena (Barrera??) as I used to hang-out @ the airport instead of cruisin' A&W. He'd cruise over school @ lunch on the way back from wherever, & would usually do a nice slow alieron roll. Sweet.
Frank was also a customer at the auto parts/speed shop I worked at & you can bet I always waited on him just for the chance to ask questions about the airplane & flying it.
The following was related first-hand from Frank a few years after selling the Mustang;
Seems the "Black Crown-Victoria, dark-glasses, speaker in the ear-types" arrived one day & "kindly" invited him to take a quick trip somewhere ( he didn't say where) to inspect parts of his old plane. They thought they had found it in a raid, completely RE-ARMED in some South American republic. After flying him to the planes location he assured them it wasn't his as he had a custom dash, etc,etc. He said when they told about the re-armament he about had another heart-attack, as the person he sold the Mustang to looked a bit edgy at the time. I guess the Feds are against shipping surplus armed military stuff outta the country. NO sense of humor.
Wow...my history lesson for the year.
What leaves me a bit puzzled is this, during the 1970 California 1000 mile Air Race Darryl Greenamyer raced a stock gold P-51D regd. N5480V with the name "Barrena's Bronco" written on the tail. That race was held on Nov. 15, 1970. This pretty much rules out any mid-air in Haiti in 1969. Nor does any P-51 with number FAH 15650 sound right. The Haitian Air Corps had as far as I know four P-51s, 14826, 14916, 15655, and 74600. Dienst and Hagedorn in their Latin American F-51 book lists N5480V in the El Salvador tables as nothing further known. So lets for a minute say 80V went to the FAS. Were El Salvador at that stage under an arms embargo making an ilicit flight necessary? Would the FAS have bought a P-51 as late as 1971, not to mention selling it back to the US as early as 1972 when the rest of them didn't come back until Oct. 74? Is there anyone out there who knows Dixon Smith of Seattle, WA and can get any details from him?
Any clues people...
T J