JohnH

I was scheduled for a P-51 mission and went out to bird and cowel was
off and Mech was sitting on engine changing plugs.

I stood around and kept asking how much longer it would take and he
finally put cowel back on and said OK.

I jumped in and fired up and caught my scheduled flight at end of R/W.

About 20 minutes after take off I got a very rough engine. Jettisoned
my bombs and 5" HVAR's (rockets) in ocean and limped back to base.

After landing and taxing in the engine had a whoosh whoosh sound to
it. Everyone on line stopped and looked at me as I taxied by.

Parking and pulling cowlings found 3 plugs had unscrewed and were out
of their holes and three more had unscrewed and were in with only a
couple of threads still holding. The Merlin doesn't run good on 9
cylinders and probably would not have made it home if the other three
had finished coming out. Luck of the Irish )

Never again in my long flying career did I ever stand and push the
Mech's to finish repairing my bird. Told them to call me when finished
and went an got a cup of coffee.

Big John
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On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 22:24:40 -0500, "JohnH"
wrote:

I'm thinking some youse pilot types just might have some interesting war
stories to share...

www.crazywarstories.com


(Big John, I'm looking in your direction!)