Lauderback Shares History & Hopes Of Mustang & Stallion 51

Stallion 51 President and CEO Lee Lauderback reflected on 35 years of operations with Stallion 51. When asked about his beginning, Mr. Lauderback stated that he “sort of grew up in an aviation family… my first flight in an aircraft was with my dad. He was a Naval aviator, but it was in a North American Navion at two years old. I started flying gliders at 14, then powered airplanes, soloing on my 16th birthday. All I wanted to do was fly fighters, but going up through there, I realized my vision wasn’t quite 2020, so flying military became a major issue”.

Mr. Lauderback stated that the idea of starting Stallion 51 began from a need he saw in the industry for professional P51 training. In 1987 the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School put out a contract for “qualitative evaluation work”, to work with test-pilot students in the aircraft. We asked how the program works, and he stated “basically coming in, everybody goes to the rear cockpit first, and then on the merits of what the instructor thinks, we move into the front seat of the aircraft.” The ideal Mustang student pilot profile is someone with a minimum 500 hours of aviation experience, and some tailwheel time is helpful.

Much like during the war years, Mr. Lauderback stated that if candidates “come in with that certain skill set, then the syllabus goes fairly easy. If they don’t, then we sort of back them up a little bit, but keeping the airplane going straight down the runway is one of the basics that you sort of have to bring into the field to get it done”. It’s a very demanding syllabus, they’ve never lowered their standards, in honor of those who have completed the program, and have approximately 215 graduates over 35 years. Not everybody gets through, but it’s a great standard, and they’ve had a terrific safety record because of it”. He’s proud to be part of the warbird movement. He has over 23,000 flight hours, some 10,000 of which are in the P-51, but he added that he’s still working on building time in the P51, and learns something new every time he flies the airplane, and learns more when he teaches.

Mr. Lauderback stated “the P-51 was designed in roughly 120 days, with slide rules and drafting tables, so in a sense it’s not as pilot friendly, or forgiving, so there’s no artificial stall warnings, there’s no buzzers, bells, whistles, beepers, pusher/puller shakers, all the things that you might find on aircraft today. All we have to work with is the feel of the aircraft for the air flow separation, and that makes it a little bit more difficult airplane to adapt to and fly safely. But with proper training, its totally doable. These Mustangs are like national treasures, and my goal/dream is to never see them go to a museum and never fly again”

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