NATCHEZ — The threat of Hurricane Gustav is not going to fend of an invasion of classic planes coming to Natchez today.

The Southern Navion Air Group, also known as SNAG, is coming back to Natchez for their annual Labor Day trip and will fill the skies with their Cold War era planes.

The planes were built starting right after WWII by the company who made the famous P-51 fighters. And Navions reflect that lineage.

“It has a little bit of a look of the P-51 Mustang,” said Clint Pomeroy, director of aviation at the Natchez-Adams County Airport. “That’s why some people think, ‘Oh here comes a P-51’, but it’s not. It’s a Navion.”

And that mistake is understandable, considering that many of the planes are painted with Army and Air Force markings.

“We put a lot of military markings on them because we like them and they have a military history,” SNAG member Dick McSpadden said. “We’re a very, very patriotic bunch. We’re a bunch of flag wavers.”

McSpadden’s infatuation with Navions started at 13, as a boy growing up on Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.

“I lived about 100 yards from the runway and I just fell in love with planes,” he said. “One of my Cleveland model airplanes had a picture of a Navion and I just fell in love with it. It reminded me of a P-51.”

Flying his plane, which has Air Force markings and a Thunderbird design, takes him back to his childhood, McSpadden said.

“It may be part of the mystique,” he said. “Sometimes I think this must be how it was back then.”

Navions were used to call in air strikes during the Korean War and General Douglas McArthur used one as his personal plane.

The planes were built from 1947, shortly after the end of WWII, until the 1970s. McSpadden flies a 1950 model — with a few modifications.

“Most of the Navions flying today have been modified,” he said. “In mine, I’ve got a continental 260 horse power engine. This one cruises at 173 miles per hour. We like to talk in miles per hour (instead of knots) because it sounds faster.”

The planes originally flew at 155 miles per hour.

The group who owns these classic planes is very similar to a group of classic car owners.

“These are classics and like a classic automobile you need to know something about it,” McSpadden said. “You can’t just take it to a mechanic. We’ve got a lot of Navion experts.”

SNAG has been around since 1977 and is a very family oriented group.

“It’s a family deal,” he said. “It’s not just a bunch of guys kicking tires and drinking beer.”

The family attitude is one reason SNAG chose Natchez as a destination.

“Natchez is very popular with the ladies,” he said.

While a few pilots arrived Thursday, most will be arriving today and will practice flying in formations and spot landings. The will also take some time to tour the city before flying out on Sunday.

Pomeroy is expecting around 20 pilots, but a lot depends on the track of Hurricane Gustav.