13 replies to this topic

[Gary C]

Whilst browsing around the shop in the Brooklands Museum this very afternoon, I came upon a magazine I try and get every month, ‘Fly Past’. I wonder if anyone else out there has heard of it? It does for classic aeroplanes what ‘Classic Cars’ does for cars! The December issue has a special feature on the Mustang P-51, but more to the point, Mustangs that have been registered here in the UK. Imagine my surprise when I read the following ; ‘For the very first Mustang to be registered in the UK, we must turn to Australia. British-based motor racing driver Ron Flockhart acquired a former RAAF Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation-built Mustang Mk 20 in 1960, registered in the UK as G-ARKD, and prepared it for an attempt on the Australia to UK record. He left Moorabbin in late February 1961, but suffered a fire while taxying at Athens, Greece on September 7 and had to abandon both the record and the aircraft. The aircraft was scrapped towards the end of the decade. Undaunted, Flockhart acquired another former RAAF Mustang, this being registered G-ARUK. Sadly, he perished in this aircraft in Victoria on April 12th 1962’. Does anyone else have any more details of Ron’s demise??

[Rainer Nyberg]

Originally posted by Gary C
Whilst browsing around the shop in the Brooklands Museum this very afternoon, I came upon a magazine I try and get every month, ‘Fly Past’. I wonder if anyone else out there has heard of it?

Yes certainly, I do buy at least the odd number. I have done that since the late 1980. The Christmas issue is usually packed with interesting stuff. All my other Aviation magazines also takes up my (limited) time so I can't really get every issue of FLY PAST.

About Flockhart's accident, my records describe it like this (not much but....) :

16/06/1962 - Airplane accident (P51 Mustang) broke up in turbulence in Australia while practising for a London-to-Sydney record attempt.

[Doug Nye]

My understanding is that poor Flockhart managed to bale out of the aircraft but was injured fatally by striking the tail and may even have fouled the tailplane. I believe his body was recovered from the impact site of the main wreckage. Very sad end for a generally very popular man.

DCN

[Ian Stewart]

Doug, I think that was the gist of it. They say he was on a practice night flight and got lost. Full details are on record, including the name of his backer, but I haven't asked because I would rather remember him swearing at me on the Monte, God bless him. We were good friends, and he was a fine person.

[neville mackay]

I was always intrigued by RF's career, both because of its variety and because of his status as a "nearly man" throughout most of the decade. Although I never saw him race, I got the distinct impression that he was he was a sort of 1950's version of Derek Bell - fantastic in sports cars but never quite lucky or talented enough to make it in F1. I wondered whether people agree with this assesment and whether his long standing association with BRM helped or hindered his career? I got the distinct impression from Doug's BRM books that the Bourne hierarchy never quite believed in his talents to the same extent that RF did himself.

Neville

[David McKinney]

I rate him a little higher than that, Neville
I first saw him in NZ in 1959, when he ran the works P25 (sorry, Doug, Type 25) BRM against Brabham's 2.2 Cooper-Climax and was pretty much his equal - and aces Behra and Schell hadn't always been able to do that in the northern hemisphere in 1958
Again in NZ, in 1961, Flockhart was damn' near as fast in a "high-line" T51 Cooper-Climax as Brabham and McLaren in low-line T53s.
As you say, a very interesting and varied career and, from what I've read, a thoroughly nice chap. But I agree he was never going to be world champion.

[Ray Bell]

Didn't he also do particularly well during that 1961 tour at Ballarat?

[rdrcr]

April 12, 1962: Ron Flockhart, Scottish race car driver, died in a plane crash near Melbourne, Australia, when his borrowed Mustang P-51 propeller-driven aircraft spun out of a cloud into the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne. (read in there, disorientation)

Reportedly, the crash was blamed on Flockhart's lack of experience with instrument flying as well as his little working knowledge of the borrowed plane.

If Australia has the equivalent of our NTSB, (National Transportation Safety Board) it will have the details surrounding that crash.

[Ray Bell]

Australia does have such an organisation, but it's changed names since then...

Perhaps there's a forum for flyers with an interest in Mustangs which might have seen some comment about this?

[fvebr]

http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/old113.htm

Don't remember but i think i already gave that link in 'on this day....'

Long page but worth to read...

Fifteen minutes after the Mustang had departed, I heard a news flash on the local radio station that an aircraft had crashed at Kallista in the Dandenong Ranges. I lived nearby, and drove towards the area, passing an ambulance, which was coming from the accident scene.

Rounding a curve in low mist and drizzly rain, I came across the still smouldering wreckage of a red and black painted aeroplane. I had seen enough aircraft crashes during the war to know that this one had gone in at high speed. The tail was scorched, but recognizable as belonging to a Mustang. I felt an overwhelming sadness at the death of a pilot and this once beautiful machine.





But here is the last updates at the bottom :

NOTE: according to the book "Mustangs of the RAAF and the RNZAF" by Peter N. Anderson, the mustang bought by British racing car driver Ron Flockhart was A68-173 (not A68-113). It states that Flockhart was killed in it at Kallista, Victoria in the Dandenong Ranges on 12 April 1962. His mustang initially was registered as VH-JWB but it was later changed to VH-UWB.

UPDATE: John Laming has further evidence to suggest that it was "Old 113"

[dewittereus]

Two P-51’s were involved in Ron’s record attempt to establish a new Sidney-London record.
His backers – and the owners of the planes - were United Dominions Trust who wanted publicity for their racing team UDT-Laystall .

There were 2 attempts. First one with P-51 G-ARKD (previously VH-BVM)."United Dominions"was painted below the exhaust stacks
RF left Sidney at 10.30 am on 28 February 1961. But after several delays due to bad weather was forced to abandon the attempts at Athens due to a blown head gasket.
It remained at Athens for 4several months
On September 7 the plane suffered a cockpit fire and was left there. The fire was caused by overheating after being left overlong on ground awaiting take-off clearance..

In 1962 there was another attempt with P-51 VH-UWB. Ron crashed during a test flight after losing control in bad weather. This was on April, 12, 1962.
Wreckage and body of RF were found nr Kallista, Vicotria in the Dandenong Ranges.

Source :Mustangs of the RAAF and RNZAF by Peter N. Anderson (1975)

The P-51 was a very good plane, but demanded to be handled with respect when getting nr the limits of it’s performance.
It’s not clear to me how an experienced pilot RF was.

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by fvebr

[B]NOTE: according to the book "Mustangs of the RAAF and the RNZAF" by Peter N. Anderson, the mustang bought by British racing car driver Ron Flockhart was A68-173 (not A68-113).

It states that Flockhart was killed in it at [i]Kallista , Victoria in the Dandenong Ranges on 12 April 1962. ]

Following another Flockhart thread with this link in it. Unless there is a connection between Ron and the well known eponymous Ally McBeal actress, this is a rare coincidence of names.
Roger Lund

[David McKinney]

No known connection - the actress's mother was Kay Calista

[Lola5000]

Another racing driver that was killed in a P51 Mustang was Toorak playboy Don Busch whom in the 50s raced Jaguar XK120s,one of his cars was owned by Neil Allen and latter raced in Historics.Busch was a successful businessman whom every 2 or so years by himself and his CEO a new Rolls Royce each,from memory one carried the VIC rego of 16 or 17.
he was known to carry a shot gun under the seat of his daily driver.