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The North American P-51 Mustang
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P-51 Mustang Survivors
43-6006 N51Z
John Dowd, Syracuse KS
P-51 Survivor 43-6006 N51Z
Status: Flying
NAA Type: P-51A-10NA
Conversion:
P-51A/D
Serial #: 43-6006
Registry: N51Z
.. past:
  P-51 Mustangs Survivors  
History: 43-6006 N51Z

1943: April 3rd, Accepted at Mines Field.
1943: May 1, Delivered to Army Air Corps Ladd Field, Fairbanks AK
1944: Feb 16, crashed near Summit Alaska. Pilot, Lt. Edward W. Getter was killed.
1977: N51Z, Waldon "Moon" Spillers, - wreckage recovered, 8 year Restoration in Ohio by Spillers & friends
1985: July 3rd, first flight
1995: N51Z, Jerry Gabe, San Jose CA, Hollister CA
2005: Entered in the Reno Air Races, flown by Dave Morss. Solid performance with a new stock Allison. Race #25 turned mid 300's mph during the week.
2006: June: plan to race at Reno, but have an engine problem. The Allison is removed and sent to a shop in the northwest US for repairs. They get it back in August and install it a few weeks before it is time to leave to Reno. Everything is good. At Reno, the Allison performs very well and Dave Morss pilots Polar Bear to a Sunday Bronze Victory. Congratulations to Jerry Gabe, Dave Morss and the Polar Bear Crew!
2007: Trouble with the engine and it has to come out and go to the shop for some major work. Should be flying again summer 2007, hopefully in time to go to the P-51 Gathering in Ohio.
2007: Engine work complete and test flown before the GML. Flight to and from the GML by Dave Morss without trouble.
2010: Solid performance for the stock Polar Bear at the Reno Air Races - Dave Morss pilot
2012: April - SOLD! Jerry Gabe has owned Polar Bear since 1995. Sad to see her leave Hollister
2012: May 4, N51Z, John Dowd, Syracuse KS
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Restoration to P-51A specs by John Muszala at Pacific Fighters.
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2017: Aug, first flight - congrats to John Muszala, Little John and the crew at Pacific Fighters. What an immaculate restoration. Raced (with extreme care) at the Reno Air Races by John Muszala II (Little John). He flew very well and finished in the middle of Silver on Sunday. After the races they added some nice touches to make this A model look like an XP-51.

The Last of the Wild Horses

P-51 Survivors book featuring images from Dick Phillips and John Dienst, with Mark Phillips. To order, goto The Last of the Wild Horses. You can order online. Price is $100 for pages and pages of P-51 Survivor history and photos. Over 2,500 photos! The late Dick Phillips shared hundreds of his P-51 images with us at MustangsMustangs over the last 25 years. If you can, help support his life-long passion. I recently ordered my copy.

Thank you!
Curtis Fowles, MustangsMustangs

53 Images of   43-6006   N51Z   on file
Images of   43-6006
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Image Credits:
  Curtis Fowles   MustangsMustangs  
  Vivian Watts    
  Richard Hogan    
  Glenn Chatfield    
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