P-51 Mustang Ride with legendary pilot Doug Rozendaal

[Matt Gunderson]

What a day yesterday. Started off pretty terrible: furnace broke, stress at work, and a trip that I had spent 5 months preparing for nearly fell through. I was pretty beat down but decided that I would still fly with a student to Mason City MCW for the monthly Third Thursday fly-in.

Then while standing in the hangar talking with some friends, Doug asked me to hold his helmet, I was confused what was happening. He grabbed a headset and asked me to follow him outside. He climbed up on the Mustang and told me to hop in. My lucky day finally arrived! Man, all it took was 6 minutes in my first P-51 Mustang ride to completely turn my day around. Still wearing a grin from ear-to-ear from last night! What a fantastic day!

Not sure if someone told Doug I was in desperate need of a major uplifting experience, or if he just somehow knew, or it was coincidence, but that was just the thing I needed! Thanks Doug for the awesome experience!

Apologize for the video quality...obviously I was not prepared for this! Enjoy!

 

[ActiveAir]

Lucky man!! I'm jealous. Doug is a great guy. I met him in KC a couple of years ago at an airshow. He was flying the Red Tail Mustang.

 

[pburger]

That's pretty freakin' awesome!

 

[RyanShort1]

You did pretty well for unprepared on the video.

 

[gkainz]

That is abso-freakin-lootly AWESOME!

 

[eman1200]

noice!

 

[lancie00]

Totally jealous!!! I have to ask, is Doug based out of there or was he just visiting? Lucky man...

 

[Gerhardt]

My days should suck like that.

 

[midwestpa24]

Third Thursday at MCW is always a good time!

 

[Matt Gunderson]

Totally jealous!!! I have to ask, is Doug based out of there or was he just visiting? Lucky man...

Doug is based at MCW. The Third Thursday fly-in is open to the public and you are more than welcome to come to the next one in April. Grills usually fire up around 6PM.

 

[lancie00]

Doug is based at MCW. The Third Thursday fly-in is open to the public and you are more than welcome to come to the next one in April. Grills usually fire up around 6PM.

Thanks! Being from Fort Dodge that sounds like a great burger run!

 

[midwestpa24]

Thanks! Being from Fort Dodge that sounds like a great burger run!

It should be mandatory!

 

[RyanB]

Very cool Matt!

 

[benyflyguy]

Super cool thanks for sharing.

Seemed like a lot of water in those fields in the beginning of the vid.

 

[Matt Gunderson]

Super cool thanks for sharing.

Seemed like a lot of water in those fields in the beginning of the vid.

I noticed that too. The ground is extremely saturated from all the snow, and risk of flooding is high all over Iowa.

 

[Unit74]

That’s a $1k ride for sure.... you are very lucky!

 

[Scott@KTYR]

Wow that was great

 

[Lowflynjack]

I did a photo shoot with Doug last year with a plane that belongs to Jim Younkin. I can't share it yet because the story is pending, but it was and awesome experience. He was the only one allowed to fly the plane and I was only one who has been allowed to take photos of it in the air... quite an honor.