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The North American P-51 Mustang
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P-51 Who?   Case # 325
44-74832     N6310T     Closed
Solved by: William Yoak, Terry Colberg
P-51 Who 325
Case#: 325
Date: Nov 20 2004
By: Emil Strasser
Photo:
warbirdaeropress.com
Status: Closed
Serial: 44-74832
Registry: N6310T
P-51 Who? Viewer Responses
William Yoak
11/25/2004 22:26
This was Max Hoffman's "Boomer" at Reno during the late 70's.
Terry Colberg
02/11/2005 11:18
While I was a student during the 70's at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, I had the pleasure of talking with the owner of "Boomer", Max Hoffman several times as I was learning to fly with the university flying club. Boomer was based at Valley Airpark in Fort Collins and I was able to get an up close and personal look at the aircraft several times. Max was always gracious and willing to share his knowlege of the aircraft with me. Max was a colorful character and enjoyed doing some showing off in his P-51, which caused him to get written up by the governor of Wyoming when Max buzzed the CSU football stadium during a Colorado State/Wyoming football game.
Erik Hoffman
08/29/2005 14:19
Man I did a search on my Grandpa's P-51 I and found this, its pretty crazy. He also won best of show at Oshkosh In '76 for one of his P-40's. So I figured I should post my response.
Mike Hoffman
02/14/2012 17:05
Max Hoffman was my father, he unfortunately died in an air crash in 1986. That shot was taken at the 1979 Reno race. That is actually me in the cockpit doing an engine run after changing out a bad magneto.
Fabulous memory for me! Also great to see my son Erik had seen this and posted a thought as well, I love it. Thanks for posting this.

Mike Hoffman

Gary lambert
02/13/2015 17:28
Thanks for posting, max was a great man! He always took time to explain things he was working on when I would see him with Boomer. Fortunately I have been able to view the rebuilt Boomer a few years back after it was destroyed in s fire, I think max would be proud
Robin Foote
12/03/2015 23:44
Mike - I remember your Dad well from the Canadian Warplane Heritage days in the late 70's early 80's. He and my Dad, Dick Foote knew each other well as my Dad had a P-51 for many years. I used to fly in the shows with myDad in my T-6 or one of our Tora planes and he flew his Wildcat. I'll never forget sitting in the grass one night at the CWH show along with your Dad and just having a great conversation about how fortunate we were to fly these great airplanes and how much I reminded him of you. He spoke so proudly of you. He was a very great guy -a true "Man's Man" that belied a very sensitive, kind man underneath. Glad to have been able to share this with you. Robin
Steve Gress
06/29/2016 20:20
I moved to Fort Collins around 1980 or 1981. I new Max's plane was out at the Fort Collins/Loveland airport. I looked him up in the local phone book and asked if I could go and walk around his plane. He was very nice and said that was fine, just don't get on or in the plane. At that time Stump Jumper was parked next to Boomer, and there was a P-40E that I can't remember the N number, but no shark teeth and a drop tank. Later at the same airport the soon to be Aluminum Overcast was parked.
At the downtown airpark, at various times, were a couple of different P-51's, N167F being one of them. That was parked out back of Daryl Skurich's Vintage Aircraft. Now the downtown airpark is gone and you can't even get close to the tarmac at the Fort Collins/Loveland airport. But they were great memories!
Jay Moeller
09/26/2016 00:06
Mike, memories of ski trips and Boomer at Fort Collins. At one point there was a pic of Boomer hanging in the Smithsonian.

Jay
Cheryl L Hoffman
12/05/2017 15:54
Wow - I just found this today after running into a friend of my Dad's in Texas. I have a few tears in my eyes. Erik is my nephew, Mike is my brother and Max was my Dad. These memories are amazing. My story was Dad flying me back to Colorado to see an Elton John concert in 1976 - pulling a few Gs and into the sunset over the Rockies. He made me attend a famiy reunion in Kansas, and I thought I was going to miss the concert for family. He made sure I got to do both!! It is a great loss that my children never got to know him or this kind of flying.
Stacy Base
01/15/2019 04:52
Mike and Cheryl this Stacy your cousin in Kansas. I sure would like to touch base with you guys and see how everyone is doing. Erik if you see this will you please tell your dad to email me? Thank you.
Keith R Forrest
01/07/2020 15:01
Back in the late 70's I was taking flight lessons from my brother at the Ftc lvd airport which at the time I think the FBO was owned by Max. I spent a lot of time there and got to talk to Max a fair amount. He was a real down to earth guy and easy to talk to. One day I asked what it would take to get a flight in the Boomer just in passing, he replied" Go grab a couple of parachutes out of my office" I don't know how many people get to ride for over an hour of aerobatics in a P-51 but it is a memory I will never forget for as long as I live. When I heard about Max's accident I didn't know how or who to send condolences to but hopefully this will suffice. I remember Mike flying what I remember was a T-34 and seeing him around the airport. I have thought of Max and the Boomer often, Max even gave me a small artist drawing of Boomer that I still treasure. A really great guy, the world could use a lot more like him.
Grant Eaton
06/20/2020 17:07
I am Warren Eaton’s Son. Grant Eaton. Former Owner of T-28 D Fennec N9102Z back when Max was still alive. also based at Ft. Collins/ Loveland Colorado when my father flew it for Colorado State University’s High Altitude Atmospheric Research Program.
My father and step mother bought it from the University when the cloud seeding program was suddenly cut after the 1st Big Thompson Flood.. My father owned a High Altitude Photography Company based in Greeley, Ft. Collins Downtown Airpark and Loveland Colorado.
We flew it along with Max in his P-51 “Boomer” at air shows.
We hung out at Darrels doing maintenance and rebuilding Warbirds.
I flew with Max several times as he was among the few my dad trusted around me.
For awhile my dad worked for Max as well.
We also used to own Cessna 180 N3655C.
Both planes where used for my fathers Aviation Photography Businesss
It was bought from the previous owner at the Ft. Collins Downtown Airpark
I knew Max from the late 1960’s through until his death.
I was also friends with “Chuck “ Easton of Easton’s Crop Dusters out at Lasalle, Colorado.
My father flew skydivers back then based at the Easton Airfield in both our plane and a C-182 owned by Chuck.
Chuck passed after complications caused by the chemicals after a crop dusting accident he had before his death.
His older son Robert and I are friends but don’t talk much.
Because our last name is so close many thought we was all related.
Chuck used to own and fly a TBM Avenger himself.
He was a wild character and yet just like R.A.Bob Hoover was also a perfect gentleman.
Bob Hoover let me run his P-51 at Oshkosh Only because Max and my father vouched for me.
Max and my father and my brother and myself flew together from Oshkosh back to Ft. Collins after a show.
Boomer had a slower cruise speed then my fathers T-28 because ours was a Fennec with the bigger Powerplant..
It also had a higher service ceiling then Boomers.
It is now owned by a pilot in New Hampshire I think.
I can tell you many tales of Max and others back then.
Max sold Boomer and then later bought it back and kept it at Ft.Collins/ Loveland Airpark then along with our Warbird. He would always call us on the radio when he was rolling or climbing out as our home was just northwest of the Loveland Airpark close to Windsor.
Grant Eaton 386-561-1181
Todd Eaton
07/07/2021 17:47
Adding to my older brother's telling;
I remember Boomer doing wild aerobatics over the great plains -just like Art Scholl- backflipping flat-spinning stalling tumbling and lots of rapid rolls...
I then met him while Darrell was making the XP-51 and Max had a brakes failure in this, my Dad and Grant went out with the F-250 and lassoed Boomer's tail with a rope tied to the front to stop it as he was too low on fuel to risk any alternate airport. Later I'd see him fly his other warbirds out of Ft.collins-Loveland, and was so enthused I had Grant make each of them for me in 1/32nd scale (very accurately)... Now there are decal sets for this available!
John Curtis
05/23/2022 20:57
Max Hoffman was as fine a man as I ever met.
I lived just across from the Valley airport in the late 60s and early 70s.
I was probably 12 the first time I met him.
I loved WWII fighters and used to jump up and head to a hill as soon as I heard one of his Mustangs fire up.
I finally got the nerve up to ride my bike over one summer day and see if I could get a closer look.
I found his hanger and kind of sneaked in the door a bit since it was open.
If I remember correctly, his 2 seater 51 was yellow and black at the time, the other was silver.
He also had an AT6 or 2, can't quite remember as they didn't excite like a Mustang.
It must have been late 69 or very early 70 as he had just gotten a Spitfire as well.
I remember it was missing a wing and a bit rough.
He must have spotted me gawking and hollered for me to come on in.
He was VERY polite and even friendly to my overenthusiastic curiosity and wonder at his planes.
He showed me around and even showed me the cockpit on the 2 seater. (He had to assist me up, I was small for my age.
I knew he was busy and decided to leave, before I did he told me I could come back anytime as long as didn't touch anything or get in the way.
Times were very different back then and I think the attitude of his generation has been lost to all out detriment.
I name very few as Good Men.
Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, Richard Knipple and Max fits right in with them.
Diane G
05/08/2023 16:53
Does the Hoffman family know what happened to the RCAF Harvard? He is listed as the last owner. Thank you.
07-145 Mk. IIb 3276 RCAF BOC 5.2.42: SOC 14.12.60
(tfd to R Canadian Navy as 3276) 15.11.52
CF-OHG Fred Grindl & Frank McInnes, Brantford ONT 65/66
Robert C. Smith & Assoc. Ltd, Toronto ONT 68/70
N3276K Max R. Hoffman, Fort Collins CO 72
Jan Weilert
11/16/2023 16:00
I first met Max in 1969 two weeks after I got married I went to work for Max. I was 20 years old. Max owned countryside mobile homes in Hays Kansas. He came out to our furniture store to rent some ground from my father. I got to talking to Max And left my father to work at countryside, mobile homes. Max informed me he was moving to Fort Collins Colorado and wouldn’t be staying in Hays Kansas anymore so he introduced me to his friend Stanley Krehbiel. We were partners for 20 years.
Max would fly into Hays and buzz the mobile home park and I would pick them up at the airport. We were friends for many years. I was just a kid 20 years old and Max said you’re going up with me.
In my AT 6. He told me I was going to black out and I laughed at him. 10 minutes later I blacked out. I have lots of stories with Max. Ken Boomhower was my neighbor, and he died in his P 51 airplane Inn Colorado at the airport or Max was. I would love to talk to Michael sometime. I will leave you my phone number 913-335-4192. I now live in Overland Park Kansas. I lived in California for 25 years and now live in Overland Park Kansas. Nov 16-2023
Mike Hoffman
02/16/2024 18:20
Oh my gosh, it's been nearly 10 years since I looked at this site. So amazing and gratifying to see all of the responses! Dad has been gone for now for 38 years and I can say for sure that he would be overwhelmed! This so cool!
Case Closed!
P-51 Mustang

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