re: If you had the money, what WWII plane would you buy to fly?

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As was the case in '08 at GLS. A sad day for all.

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bullshite. In the words of Yeager and Olds, the P-51 could do for 8 hours what the Spit could only do for two.

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Yeager never flew a Spit.

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By the time I came to the end of the runway, I suddenly became very businesslike. I felt very professional as I cleaned up the flight deck. As I lined up in the center of the runway, I ran down the checklist one more time, making doubly sure I had locked the tailwheel. Junior said he figures some Grumman test pilot forgot to lock it once and that's where the name Bearcat came from. I hit the brakes alternately to make sure the tailwheel was firmly locked, made sure I was perfectly straight, and froze the nose attitude in my mind so I'd remember it when I came back to land. I'd been told that the direction I was heading when I let the hammer down was the direction I was going to go, so I made sure I was straight with the world. The night before, I had calculated the power loading of the Bearcat and it came out an unbelievable 3.5 pounds per horsepower, as compared to 12 pounds for a Cherokee or 5.5 for a Mustang. As I started the throttle forward, I remembered the figure and my hair stood on end.

I figured that tiny tailwheel would be my salvation in controlling the torque, so I sucked the stick up to my navel and fed the power in as fast as I could without inducing too much torque/P-factor. The acceleration was absolutely unbelievable. The noise wasn't as bad as the Mustang's, but the acceleration began to blur the sides of the runway. By the time I had full power, the airplane felt as if it were going to lift off three-point, so I neutralized the stick and let the tail come up. I was amazed, frightened and exhilarated all at the same time.

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My overall impression of the airplane is one of total amazement. The performance is beyond anything we civilian types can understand. The aerial handling is an absolute dream come true, but at the same time, the takeoff and landing characteristics make me think it should have been named Pussycat instead of Bearcat.

This may be one of the most dangerous aspects of the aircraft. It is so stable and relatively easy to fly that you could become overconfident and get yourself sucked into a corner your talent can't get you out of. There are certain things that you just don't do with that much power up front. You don't let it get close to stall, because there's no warning buffet or partial stall. And you want to treat the throttle with the same respect you'd give a hand grenade. When such a small airplane is hooked to such a big engine and propeller, all power changes should be on the timid side. Even though it shows no torque when flown gently and correctly, I have a hunch you'd only forget the tailwheel lock once. That power would also break you of any habit of lifting the tail too soon. In my rather limited experience, if you treat the airplane with respect, it's possibly the easiest flying fighter ever built.

The great Al Williams, who flew a Bearcat as the last of his famous Gulfhawk series of airshow airplanes, once said, ".... if you bail out of a Bearcat, it'll head for the nearest airport and land." And I'm inclined to agree.

It's really too bad the Bearcat is a little on the homely side when compared to such things as the P-51 or the Spitfire, because it's head and shoulders above them in pure pilot excitement. Funny thing, through—it doesn't look nearly as homely once you've flown it.

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