Did I See a P-51B??

Back from spending a lovely week of vacation out on Block Island
off the coast of Rhode Island, reading about the disastrous Sydney
to Hobart sailboat race of 1998 (probably not a good read while
vacationing on a sailboat) and then Ed's book "When Thunder Rolled".

Perhaps Ed's book got me into a r.a.m state of mind more sensitive
than needed, but on my last day before shoving off to Buzzard's Bay
and home, I rowed the dink to shore to do my final bike ride, and
ended up with a real r.a.m style treat.

I'd spend much of the week watching the circuit of a beautiful AT-6
in WWII colors flying about overhead. He'd been flying every day,
all day during the entire week and I came to believe he was perhaps
giving rides. A dark blue top with gray underbelly. Looked like a
really beautiful restored/maintained aircraft.

But on this final day, as I pedalled in to Old Town harbor preparatory
to hopping on the boat and shoving off for points eastward and home,
a very loud and powerful, yet smooth sound made it to my ears. I
looked up expecting to see the now familiar AT-6 zoom by but instead,
there was a sleek nosed prop aircraft in silver finish and big black
and white stripes on lower body and wings hauling up over Great Salt
Pond eastward out to sea. A P-51 over Block Island!!!

He was really booking and as he turned to make another climbing circuit
of the island, it *looked* like the invasion stripes on the fuselage
went *way* high aft the cockpit. Couldn't really tell, but it *looked*
like a P-51B, not the more common D variant.

Is anyone flying a P-51B in the New England/NY/NJ area? He headed out
over the W to WSW ocean in the direction of NY or NJ. Are there any
"razorback" mustangs flying, and would anyone be flying one in the Block
Island area this past week?

Very nice aircraft. Red nose, silver, and invasion stripes, but
couldn't get a good look at details from my vantage point. I'd have
made an effort to bicycle out to the airport had I known a mustang
was on island!

Block Island is among my favorite places on this earth, and the BI
experience was greatly heightened by that short brief, fast, climbout
last Saturday. A real unexpected thrill.


SMH