"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


Dudley Henriques wrote:
Actually it's 5 minutes. WEP on my V1650-7 Merlin in the 51 could be
achieved by breaking the throttle gate . I never used it...actually never
needed it really. Under 5000 feet, normal max power at 61 inches gives
you all the power you need to exceed the operating limitations for the
engine, and at altitude on cross country, I was more concerned with
saving a buck by not stressing the engine anyway :-)


What version did you fly? I've never had an opportunity to get a
first-hand account of what flying one was like.
Were they really as squirrelly on takeoff with the drop tanks as I've
heard?
Thank God they decided to put the Merlin in it. That was a match made in
heaven.

I flew a D, as well as various other prop fighters as a civilian operator.
Never flew ours with external tanks. The airplane is stable on takeoff if
flown correctly and I wouldn't anticipate any specific issues with the
external tanks except the extended run. I believe the only caution on the
external tanks was for high speed buffet above 400 mph.
We had the fuselage tank removed and only flew the Mustang using the 2 mains
at 92 gallons each.(90 usable)
If you are interested in a pilot report on what it was like to fly the D, I
did one for the Warbirdalley site some years ago at the following ;
http://www.warbirdalley.com/articles/p51pr.htm#pirep1
Hope you find the report interesting.
Dudley Henriques