WIX Archives

Cavalier Mustang / Piper Enforcer project

Posted by Randy Haskin on Tue Dec 23, 2003 03:46:12 PM

TJ asked this in a thread below:

"I see my old friend Dick Phillips are referring to something about you and Cavalier Mustangs, so snap to attention young man, and give us a quick briefing on this subject. I am kind of interested in those Florida reworked 51s!!!!"

The best way to describe this right now is that I have a writing "project" that covers Trans-Florida Executive Mustangs, Cavalier Mustangs, and the many incarnations of the Piper Enforcer.

I've been working on this over two years and already have quite a lot of material (in the neighborhood of 30,000 words right now, with at least another 10,000 expected). My main intent was to write a complete history and detailed technical account of the Piper Enforcer, mostly because I was curious and there was no single source covering it. Of course, the deeper I got into the project's lineage at Cavalier, the more I realized there was some good material to write about there, as well, which has also not been covered in detail in a single source.

I think eventually I'd like to produce two different bodies of work -- one which talks in detail about Cavalier and their civil and military Mustangs, and a separate piece detailing the Enforcer, including the project's history at Piper and the flight test in the 80s.

For better or worse, I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and the more I have researched this subject, the more I have come across errors in what has been written thusfar about the Cavalier Mustangs and the Enforcer. I'm constantly hunting down better sources to pinpoint accurate answers, and to ensure that what I write does not simply re-tell information (errors included!) that has already been written.

The exciting part is that so far I've gotten some great information from interviews of people very close to the programs. David Lindsay's sons, Ed and Bob, have provided tons of help so far, and if this stuff ever goes to press they have an amazing collection and photos I hope to tap into. The stuff on the Enforcer is especially good (that's my main area of focus right now) and includes some never-before-heard accounts of the test program from the '71 and '83 test pilots (Jim Tilburg and Prof. David Lawrence).

I'm always searching for better information, of course, so if anyone has anything they feel might be of help, I'm open. I've already received articles from Tulio Soto, Joe Schiel, and great help from Dick Phillips. Thanks, guys.

But, don't hold your breath on this one too much waiting for it to be published. I don't forsee being done with this within the next year. I'm a full-time Air Force pilot, so I work on this thing on weekends and after work after my wife and son go to bed! Plus, I'm pretty ambitious about people I want to interview and other research I want to do, and that's tough to fit into my schedule.

Oh, and even after I'm "done", there's still that little matter of finding a publisher and editor, right?

So, for now it's just a fun project and labor of love for me. Hopefully it will become something, someday!

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