This will be the squadron colors my B model will fly with. Thats me sitting in the rear cockpit with the ground crewman checking my seat belts. The plane displays the markings that Col. C. M. McCorkle used in the Mediteranean theatre. He got 6 kills in Spitfires then 5 more in this plane. He was still flying it when the war ended, He assigned all of the new D model Mustangs to the new replacement pilots and kept this one as his exclusive fighter. The Col. was the 31st Fighter Group commander and led missions with as many as 60 Mustangs following. He stayed with the B model because, when the enemy was sighted, He had a 20 mph speed advantage over the D models and could get a first shot. He may have been the only veteran fighter pilot still flying a B model at the end of the war. Every time they are in our area, my pit crew guy, Bill, insists that we go see it. It is his favorite plane, and the markings are also easy for an old f**t like me to see from the ground.
On this flight the pilot demonstrated maneuvers, then let me fly them. He had me repeat some because I was a little too conservative. This was the fastest I have ever flown at low altitude (close to 300) and I don't remember if the airspeed indicator read Knots or Mph. I did turns around a point, wingovers, and several dives to high speed with a pullup to a military roll. At RC warbird events I like to do a long vertical climb, but I was advised by the "experts" that warbirds didn't do that. Then I witnessed this plane, "Betty Jane" at an airshow, come in low and fast, to the runway center, then pull vertical and go straight up for a mile before leveling off. I don't let the "experts" tell me how to fly my P-51 model any more.