I was watching Fighter Squadron (1948) on TCM. A line of P-51s was rolling down the taxiway preparing to take off, and the were describing an S-pattern as they went along, from one side of the taxiway to the other. Why?
In a previous thread, a pilot who posts here (Broomstick?) mentions flying a plane which was pitched so high in the nose while on the ground that she couldn’t see directly in front of her. So, the taxiing procedure was to weave back and forth and see what’s coming.
I believe this was done with some aircraft that had poor forward visibility over the aircraft’s nose so that the pilot could see the runway. However, I’m not aware of the Mustang having that problem (though it did have a long nose).
The P-51 does have a fwd visibility problem when on the ground so S turns are a good idea.
One the ground, most “tail-draggers” have some restriction to forward visibility. The P-51 is certainly among them, with a long nose containing a big engine.
Of course, it could be worse.
One reason to use the tail-dragger configuration is to allow a big engine to swing a big propellor. Visibility on the ground is just one disadvantage, however - so there are rather few jet tail-draggers.
And worse yet.
I meant to add in films of WWII operations you’ll also see ground crewmen riding on one of the wings, usually the left, during taxi to aid in observation.
And for the true lover of long noses …
Of course, good 'ole Chuck Lindbergh’s plane was a tail dragger with ZERO front visibility! (Periscope excepted)
It seems he had rather few worries about the need to “see and avoid” during his transatlantic flight.
Just a few weeks ago, a Grumman Avenger TBM-3 rear-ended a homebuilt on a taxiway at Oshkosh Airventure. From the preliminary NTSB report (see the 3rd last paragraph), it appears that the Grumman driver may not have been making S-turns on the taxiway and simply never saw the RV. The result was very bad.
Valid, but it’s a good example of someone needing to use the “side to side” taxi method.