This 1928 Ford Trimotor lives at the Liberty Aviation Museum on the grounds of Erie-Ottawa International Airport (Port Clinton, OH). It was on tour with the Fly the Ford program culminating at the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, WI
I flew this plane as co pilot, quite a once in a lifetime opportunity, flown a Piper Tomahawk when I was 13, this thing is like flying a kite but strapped to it LOL, but wasn't too hard, a bit tricky but I followed the pilot's lead and it turned out great and would do it again :)
I’ve spent a good portion of the last 40 years flying airline aircraft, both jet and turbo prop. As the equipment and technology gets better, the job gets easier and more boring. In the days of the Trimotor airline pilots were way more skilled and I’m sure the job was more satisfying.
@@alexandersheppard1997 Correct. At some or other human factors course I had to attend the facilitator presented the following statistical data. If the accident rate per passenger mile flown that was experienced by the post WW2 large piston airliners like the Lockheed Constellation etc, was applied to todays jet transport industry and the passenger miles flown, it would equates to around 5 hull losses per week. I guess there are around 5 per year world wide. As an interesting aside I assume you are aware of Elon Musks suggestion that we could use his latest vehicle Starship for point to point travel on Earth. Sydney to London in 30 minutes kind of thing. The Space Shuttle program lost two vehicles in 135 flights. NASA has stated that in the future a 1 in 500 loss rate would be acceptable. Apply 1 in 500 loss to todays airline industry flights and it equates to approximately 40 thousand crashes per year. Riding a rocket at Mach 25 ain’t the same as riding a Jet liner at Mach 0.8
You say they were more skilled, but I’ll bet you the farm that one of the more skilled pilots from 90 years ago could not fly a new airliner, but I’ll bet you any old airline pilot today could fly a ninety year old airplane.
@@SGTDuckButter Being in the industry I think the exact opposite would be true. Do you think todays technology was developed to make the job harder, and by extension the operation less safe? All that is required is adequate training. An old friend of mine (now deceased ) flew the first generation of jet transports. He would navigate across vast expanses of ocean using a periscopic sextant that he would take star shots with. What’s more the only hydraulic controls were the rudder and spoilers. These days we download a flight plan into the airplane’s FMC ( flight management computer) and let the plane navigate itself via GPS. All documents are on the iPad when not too long ago we would carry hard copy and it took forever to find the information required. All take off and landing performance calculations are done on an app on the iPad where once we would have to get it all from tables in a very large folder.
As a teenager I'd watch one of these give rides to people at the local air show. I couldn't afford the $50 fare then. I finally bought a ride at age 72. Not only a ride but in the co-pilot seat no less. The pilot offered me the controls after level off and I got to fly it for 15 min. What a rush. I'm a former army flight instructor but never flew anything like this.
My Dad (yes, my Dad) flew these back in the late 20s/early 30s out in the western states. He was an early air mail and very early airline pilot. Born in 1896, he left home in SC and headed for California to join the army and learn to fly. He ended up a flight instructor at the Presidio in S.F. under (then) Captain 'Hap" Arnold. Discharged in 1919, he rambled around until he started flying air mail up/down the west coast in the mid 1920s. He died in 1957, after a spectacular 41 year career in aviation. I was fortunate enough to fly on the 'City of Wichita' when it visited Venice (FL) a few years ago. A beautiful 20 minute flight aboard what seemed a big graceful bird soaring at 1100', doing about 80-90 mph. An unforgettable experience!!
Many years ago, (back in the early '60s) I got to take my first airplane ride in this machine. There appeared at our local airfield a Ford Trimotor that had some sort of tour going on and it would stop at the lesser airfields and do several flights around the town while carrying local elementary school kids. All one had to do to get a ride was to show up at the right time. Announced the day before at schools on Friday, Saturday morning was go time. My first impression was that someone had built an airplane out of a Quonset hut. Yes. A flying barn. In retrospect, I was probably nervous enough already, it was sort of unnerving to see an airplane made out of what your great uncle parked his tractor in. Inside at the pilots station were those two steering wheels. But most unusual were the manual starters: each engine had a rubber pull start handle *identical* to the one on the Briggs and Stratton powered lawn mower I made my summer cash with. Each handle protruded from the dash in the center of the console above the two steering wheels. This did not make me feel very safe. I've searched and Googled everywhere, and I can't find a single picture of those starter handles. I know what I saw, and the reason it stuck in my memory so well was because I actually asked the pilot about them. His reply was that they were for manually starting the engine. Considering how large the engine was, I'd prefer to believe they were for just rolling the engine over on a cold start without fuel prior to start...
I got to fly in this plane once , they said it was a little tricky how to handle it. and I replied by saying it feels like a Harley-Davidson in the sky.... I really love these old trimotors
I don't know how many of these are still flying but one left the warhawk Air museum about 12 years ago and I have a video of it on my RU-vid from the ground perspective. The sound is unmistakable.
I don't know the proper name for this yoke I think . but those steering wheels are bad ass. I love air planes . not the airliners . and I'm scared to death of flying.
The two-blade props were common back than. They fitted a two-blade cooling fan to the Model A consisting of two pressings; they were prone to losing a blade! (from experience)
I was privileged to sit in the copilot seat today at Wooster, OH in this plane with the same pilot. The pilot even gave me the controls for a bit. It was awesome! I was surprised how sluggish the controls were. What a great airplane though. An experience I will never forget.
I got to fly in the Tin Goose at Rosecrans in St Joseph, Mo several years ago and it will forever be a cherished memory. I wore a camera and posted the whole video on Vimeo.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV, Jesus Christ is the only way....
OMNIVERSAL AWARENESS?? Oh, YEH!! First you need four GALLONS of JELL-O and a BIG WRENCH!! ... I think you drop th'WRENCH in the JELL-O as if it was a FLAVOR, or an INGREDIENT ... ... or ... I ... um ... WHERE'S the WASHING MACHINES?
