Warbird Information Exchange

Okay, so according to the on-line resources, P-51D N5480V was owned by Frank Barrena in 1969, was shipped to Haiti that year and involved in a collision with another aircraft. The next thing noted in it's history is that Dixon Smith 'recovered' it from Haiti in 1972. (Currently flying as Stu Eberhardt's Merlin's Magic)

However, a gold & black P-51D, registered N5480V, named "Barrena's Bronco" raced at the 1970 California 1000 at Mojave as #9 with Darryl Greenamyer as pilot. I also have sources that say the aircraft was owned by Dave Zeuschel at the time.

Kinda hard to be 'grounded' in Haiti and race at Mojave at the same time...and the name "Barrena's Bronco" is probably more than just a coincidence considering the owner's name.

Can anyone shed light on the subject?

When it was shipped out of the country, the registration was cancelled, it was then reassigned to another airframe.
That is how you can search a number that used to be on a P-51 and find it is now applied to a 172.

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

SPEEDY-
Welcome aboard! If you've been watching from the side for a while you hopefully understand that we rant and rave but get along for the most part. Glad to see another Seattle/Everett area member joining us-

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

LOOOONG time browser....

I'm Hacker's big bro. The one with the Gold Wings.

Good golly isn't that illegial

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Don't touch my junk!!

I said the registration, and yes, that is legal, the serial number on the other hand is illegal to reassign.

I reserved the registation number from Carl's T-6 once it deregistered by the insurance company

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
Check out the Ercoupe Discussion Group on facebook

Hey Jack...is that B-25 ride 'offer' and pilots report from about 10 years ago still good?

Brad Haskin

Welcome aboard Brad.
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

Hi Brad,
Long time no see. Are you still in the P-3 business or out of gov't service?
We did make it to Whidbey a few years back but you didn't show
The B-25 is spread out all over a hanger in Aurora and will be going down under in the near (or possibly far future).

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Don't touch my junk!!

Bro, did you see this recent post from TJ about it?

http://www.mustangsmustangs.us/thehanga ... 51.msg5322

No, I hadn't seen TJ's post...but that pretty much sums up the same thing that I ran into.

I have photos of, as well as video of 'A' P-51D Mustang at the California 1000, gold and black, which clearly says "Barrena's Bronco" on the fuselage, as well as the N5480V registration on the flank...so there is no way that THIS PARTICULAR airframe was in Haiti at the time listed in the other sources.

I think it is in Jim Larsen's Directory of Pylon Racers where it says that this was a 'second P-51 owned by Dave Zeuschel and entered in the race' (N332 w/ Cliff Cummins being the first). I don't see Z's name anywhere on any of the Mustang survivors lists for N5480V.

I'll call Dixon and ask if he knows anything about it.

Has anyone tried Greenamyer for a comment?

T J

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Make my day, punk!

So I spent about a half hour talking with Dixon last night. His conversation was quite enlightening, and will probably require that Warbirdregistry.com and Mustangsmustangs.com have their listings for N5480V be 'revised'.

Dixon says that he and Jim Lucero (both of them were working on the Pride of Pay'n Pak unlimited hydroplane at the time) bought 'a' P-51D during the 1971 or 72 timeframe for $25K. He says that Dave Zeuschel 'brokered' the deal, but that he doesn't think Z 'owned' the plane.

The airframe had been imported from Central America, and at the time of purchase was disassembled on pallates and was stored in a warehouse in Florida. They bought it 'sight unseen' and held onto it for over 10 years, but never once actually visited it or saw it in person, eventually reregistering it as N51SL (Smith, Lucero) and selling it to Stu Eberhardt. (I guess we'd have to talk to Stu to see what condition it was in when he bought it, and what kind of paperwork was with it at time of purchase.)

Dixon made it very clear to me that it was NOT a flying or flyable airframe at the time they purchased it...it was in pieces that had been disassembled for 'some time', and did not have an engine or a prop. Additionally, they traded or sold parts from the airframe to Bob Hoover after N51RH had the 'overpressurization' accident...so some of the parts included on the pallets ended up being from THAT airframe as well. More important, the paperwork associated with it was kind of 'grey'. Dixon asked Z if there was enough paperwork to make the plane 'legal' if they ever decided to restore it. Z's answer was something to the effect of "with a data plate change or two, yes...it can be made legal".

The best Dixon can remember, the paperwork that came with the disassembled airframe was for N5480V...but he heard that that paperwork ACTUALLY belonged to a P-51 that had been flown into the side of a mountain during one of the 'uprisings' that had occurred down there. Different serial numbers. Sounds like a typical paperwork 'shuffle' that was going on during that era down there.

So my point is, the airframe that Stu flies as "Merlin's Magic" today is NOT, NOT, NOT the same airframe that Frank Barrena owned, and Darryl Greenamyer raced at the 1970 Mojave 1000. The paperwork and data plate may 'say' it is, but the airframe 'pedigree' is definitely different. The N5480V in question was in good, flyable, 'civilian restored' condition as late as November 1970. The airframe that Dixon says they bought no more than a year and a half later was "never a flying airplane", and hadn't been for some time.

Just food for thought.

Now the plot thickens. Smith's details regarding its stay in FL does lend some credence to the story Barrena's friend mentions in the post I made on Mustangsmustangs. This is from a mail I received from the same guy.



I'm a little uncertain about the part where Smith/ Lucero sells it to Eberhardt. I pulled out my old (1983 to 1986) Flypast magazines and went combing the late Paul Coggan's P-51 "type report" in reference to N51SL. In the Aug. 84 issue there is mentioning of Dr. Rodney Barnes P-51D N51SL being restored by Bruce Goessling of Unlimited Aircraft. In a later issue there is talk of an upcoming first flight by Steve Hinton, and in an early 1986 report the finished product had been delivered to Barnes by Fred Sebby the previous christmas.

We have gotten some more answers now, but some more questions as well. Where did the gold/ black 51 Greenamyer raced end up is one of them...

T J

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Make my day, punk!

Pretty standard Mustang airframe history, really.