That really brings back memories. When I was just out of college and playing in Lakeside's summer symphony, we used to pay our very small fee ($5?) to fly out from the Port Clinton airport to Put-In-Bay on the Island Airlines Ford Trimotor. I remember the rumble, lifting off the ground so slowly with those thick corrugated wings, and watching the wheels stop. After several years now the EAA chapter there is pretty much along in restoring theirs. They re-fabricated a LOT of parts. Passenger fees have really changed!
SK
The island Airways was the Fords that made several daily trips like that, including the local school kids to attend school on the mainland? I think they had two or three with the rainbow on the sides. When that service ended, someone bought one and was barnstorming it through my area here and spent a month at Creve Cour Airport which is also known as Dauster Flying Field. I was out of work and couldn't afford the ride (only 15 bucks for a regular seat and 30 bucks for a right side cock pit seat) but my son Sean and i spent a Sunday morning looking it over and taking some photos. It was complete with the original "window sticker) and showed it was delivered from the factory to an address where the old Ford plant used to be in Hazelwood, MO, right near here. That's not far from current St. Louis/Lambert Airport and back in those days there was several other small fields very close to Lambert and one was near there. We got to watch the owner preflight the airplane including oiling the control surface hinges with an old fashioned oil can.
The Spirit of Port Clinton is one that the EAA leases for these tours and for rides at AirVenture each year. The main Tri-Motor in the EAA fleet is one that they bought as wreckage after it was rolled up in a ball during a thunder storm in northern Indiana or Illinois. I can't remember the town. It went through a 12 year rebuild and the jigs and fixtures used for that were used in all subsequent Tri-Motor restorations and rebuilds, including the Bushmaster series of airplanes that were built later.
It was a movie start twice! The first time was in the Jerry Lewis comedy "Family Jewels" that centered around a young orphan girls that had to pick from one of here uncles to take her in and raise her. One was a airplane pilot, and while waiting to meet him, she was day dreaming about a dashing young man flying that gleaming 707 that was parked out side. Then this old little Tri-Motor came taxiing around the nose of the 707 and she was told her Uncle was flying that! You can imagine her surprise when she met the character that Jerry Lewis was playing!
The second time was in recent history for the movie "Public Enemy". I never saw it so don't know much about it. I think it had Johnie Depp in it?? I got to work on the ground crew for the tour when it first came through St. Louis several years ago. The EAA used to never let it leave Wittman Field and only toured the B-17 Aluminum Overcast. The Ford was the airplane that the EAA carried the most insurance on at that time and didn't want to risk the airplane on a tour. But that year, the B-17 got grounded due to issues with the main spar, and since they did not want to loose all the revenue from touring the B-17, it was decided to tour the Ford instead. It was piloted by Colin Soucey, brother of airshow pilot Gene Soucey, and by another familiar face, Jerry (or Gerry) Flaugher. Mr. Flaugher was the designer of a stunt model that was published called "The Midas" and we used to see him on the contest trail. He had dropped out of stunt by that time but it was fun working with him on the ride concession. I got many, many regular seat rides and one cockpit right seat ride.
On the last day in town here before they moved on, we were prefilghting the airplane for the day. Jerry climbed up on top of the airplane through a hatch on top just behind the cockpit to fuel it, using the old broom stick method. When finished, we boarded the first batch of riders for the day> Am absolutely perfect day! I always took a seat by the starboard engine to watch the gauges (they are mounted on the engine nacelles.) This Tri-Motor has some really up-rated engines that I don't remember, but it was definitely NOT lacking for power! When they put the power up for take off, I swear that the main wheels only rotated once before the oleo struts extended as far as the cable limiters would let them! That baby wanted in the air right away! We flew out to the south of Spirit of St. Louis Airport for the cruise portion. The pilot of a Tri-Motor has his hands full on take offs and landings cranking on the trim wheels. On this trip, Jerry seemed to be really working the trim wheels hard. He motioned for me to come forward and when I did he pointed over my head and that hatch flopped open and closed! He yelled at me to try and close it. It is quite high from the floor at that point, and it is a good step up into the cockpit. I had to time my jump by jumping up from the edge of the cockpit floor to grab the wire catch. it was a funny looking contraption that I can't describe, but it kind of cammed over another wire to latch it. I finall grabbed what I needed to and got it latched . The riders were kind of bewildered. It was too noisy to talk to them, so I just smiled and waved and sat down. They got an extra ten minutes on their ride because it took that long to get thing rectified. No real danger, just damned hard to trim the airplane with the fuselage filling up with all that air! That was a fun week and I enjoyed every minute of it. I got to watch them change out a magneto on the center engine, and handle the fire extinguisher on engine start ups. They had a guy named Balky who was German and grew up near the Zeplin sheds when he was a child! great old guy to talk to. All in all, I may have about 2 or 3 hours worth of ride time in the old bird and am always ready for another!
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: Music in Paradise (Read 1077 times)
