Beauty and the Beast

I don't know if you have noticed, but Southwestern Nebraska is simply beautiful at the moment. The wheat is knee high and dark green, the native grasses are a lighter green, and corn is emerging with its typically yellow straight rows. Look sharp and you might see a mama coyote hunting in the daytime, a sure sign of coyote pups hidden close by. Rooster pheasants are preening for hens alongside the road and in the canyons, tom turkeys are displaying their wares to admiring hens.

Ann and I had occasion to drive to Gothenburg last weekend and we did it the direct cross-country route. We took the paved Strunk Lake road north and then country roads to Farnam. Jog east a bit and then Highway 47 through canyon country to the city of the Swedes. Along the way, we were privileged to see mama cows with babies savoring the new green grass. A more rare sight was several mares escorting and nursing spindly-legged new colts. As a child, Ann was privileged to tend several baby colts on the ranch were she grew up and those ungainly looking little guys always bring out the maternal admiration in her.

On our leisurely return, we drove west from Farnam through Moorefield, Curtis and Maywood to join highway 83. We stopped to visit the proud owner of the new Winfield Inn at Curtis and noted the city's large new and attractive community center. It is great to see small town America obviously prospering even in today's depressed economy. God I love this country!

I am a sucker to stop by every airport along the way to check on "What's happening"? Typically, the rural airports in this season are busy with spray planes, named AgCat, AgWagon, AirTractor, AgTruck, Pawnee, and Thrush, hurriedly going about their business of protecting crops. Saturday was a mite windy and the clouds were spitting a bit of rain, so Aaron Meyers and his crew were staying on the ground.

I'd also heard a report of a Mustang sitting in a hangar at Curtis and had to check it out. Aaron let me in to walk around the highly polished genuine P-51D, huge propeller held high and awesome Rolls Royce Packard Merlin 12-cylinder engine dripping a bit of oil. Right there in Curtis, Nebraska, USofA. How in the world did that happen?

Dave Winfield, spray pilot at Curtis, whom I had spent the day Friday mentoring to become an instrument pilot, told me the story. On the 6th of May, P-51 owner and pilot Jimmy Leeward had been at 14,500 feet on his way to (or maybe from) Montana when his engine hesitated and then spewed oil all over the side of his fuselage. The pilot queried his GPS for the nearest airport and it indicated Curtis, 47V, about six miles away. Complicating the problem was a solid undercast. Talk about an opportunity to use the nylon letdown, but then, when you own an airplane worth a couple million bucks, bailing out might seem a little impractical. Cool pilot Leeward just spiraled down in the vicinity of the airport, shown on his GPS, popped out of the overcast and landed on the paved runway with no power and nary a scratch.

Safely on the ground, a quick inspection showed a softball-sized hole in the crankcase where a connecting rod had broken and pounded its own exit. It turned out that the engine had just been overhauled. Reportedly the engine rebuilder is on the way to swap in a "new" engine, worth somewhere around $250,000, to send the owner on his way.

"New" in this case means a rebuilt engine originally manufactured circa 1944. World War II was still on and Merlins were built by the thousands by Rolls Royce in England and by Packard in the U.S. The P-51 series was designed by North American Aviation and originally powered by an Allison engine. That combination proved a little disappointing, so the Merlin was swapped in and it turned out to be a marriage made in heaven. The legendary warbird sitting in Curtis was originally manufactured in 1944, and has obviously been lovingly cared for since. I rejoice in the skill of its present owner who had the good sense and courage to bring it safely back to terra firma and add another chapter to its charmed life!

After all, the Mustangs, and her sisters the P-47 Thunderbolt, were key to winning the war in Europe as were the F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair in the Pacific.

A little sleuthing revealed to me that this very same airplane, N55LJ, had a starring role in the 1995 movie, made for TV, Tuskegee Airman. Her official name is "Cloud Dancer" and her owner is a regular at air shows and warbird events all over the U.S. Home for both is the Leeward Air Ranch near Ocala, Florida. Leeward is also the home for my cousin, Mary, and husband Ray Bazemore whom I have visited and previously written. All-in-all, I place my connection with that fabled warbird in the category of "It is a small world"!

That is the way I saw it.