![]() If you are a fighter pilot, you have to be willing to take risks”. He expressed his philosophy regarding fighter pilots in the quote: “There are pilots and there are pilots with the good ones, it is inborn. Olds is also known for his impressive achievements as Commander of the 8 th Tactical Fighter Wing who cared for his Airmen and as skilled F-4 pilot during the Vietnam war. Scat VII, a P-51 Mustang once flown by triple-ace fighter pilot Robin Olds, flies along an F-16C Fighting Falcon assigned to the 480th Fighter Squadron. It was restored and is still flying around Europe in the same color scheme it had nearly 75 years ago. The P-51 that arrived to Spangdahlem, named SCAT VII, was his seventh airplane and the last one he flew in World War II. Robin Olds (1922-2007) was a triple-ace fighter pilot that flew in both WWII and the Vietnam War, scoring a total of 16 air-to-air victories by the end of his career. The plane attended an event which saw also the participation of Robin Old’s daughter, Christina. Robin Olds visited Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany. On May 28, 2019, the restored P-51 Mustang once flown by Brig. Here is a link to my web pages on the Mustang, there are excerpts from my manual and other photos there.The plane, named Scat VII, was flown by the iconic triple-ace fighter pilot during WW2. I guess you could apply some marks with a small brush, 1/2" is. I doubt any of the numbering would ever be visible in an assembled aircraft, and the wiring around the engine was in conduits. Wiring was numbered in the Mustang, with one, two, or three digit numbers. ![]() The marks were of various color combinations and were 1/2" wide. There is a similar list on control cables but it is very long and very little if any of the control cables on a Mustang are visible on the assembled airplane. Here is the part that says how to mark tubing. The Mustang served in nearly every combat zone. Possessing excellent range and maneuverability, the P-51 operated primarily as a long-range escort fighter and also as a ground attack fighter-bomber. In the back of the P-51 manual there are pages and pages of that kind of detail, but it would be very hard to see even at 1/24 scale, and almost all of it is buried inside things. The Mustang was among the best and most well-known fighters used by the U.S. There were standards for markings on wires, cables, pulleys, hoses, tubing, and more. Bomber crews had the separate harness so they could stow the chute itself, but the fighter pilot had it on all the time. I think a fighter p[ilot did not have a separate harness, it was part of the parachute. Yes, the seat belts were not connected to the parachute harness in any way. There was the oxygen hose from the regulator to the mask and a cable that went from under the seat to the base of the control stick, but other than the wiring for the pilot's microphone in his oxygen mask or a thoat microphone and the headset in his cloth helmet there wasn't much hanging out or visible in a wartime Mustang cockpit. The Mustang had a petty clean cockpit, in the way of wiring and hoses. That one kept you in the seat in negative G maneuvers. On the Stearman we had a fifth belt coming up from under the center of the seat which we also attached the same as the shoulder harness. Notice how the shoulder straps are twisted up, that's how they always seemed to end up, so you had to untwist them and get the two metal ends next to each other, and then somehow keep them like that while you got the lap belts arranged and then latched the whole mess together. Huge numbers were available surplus and they were used in a lot of homebuilts. I know from personal experience that the Stearman, Ryan PT-22, Mustang, N3N, and T-6 all had these belts. Pictures of the belts are below, in a P-47 seat. From the P-51B book, the lap belt is a B-11 (34G 1646) and the shoulder harness is AAF Type (41G 8725). There was a rear seat added with full dual-controls. The fuselage tank was omitted and the radios were relocated. ![]() ![]() The US belts did not change, to my knowledge. A two-seat version was created and designated TP-51. It was not the same as the British types, which came in two flavors in the Spitfire depending on whether they were early or later production. When the lap belt was released by lifting the lever on the buckle everything came loose. The shoulder harness belts had metal fittings on the end that slipped over the seat belt end fitting and were trapped between that fitting and the buckle. I have the Erection and Maintenance manual for the P-51 B and C, which says the Mustangs had the usual seat belt and shoulder harness type. ![]()
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