Saw at an airport this morning

[Wayne Collier]

    I’ve mentioned on other occasions that I feel blessed to have lived much of my life near small airports.

I saw this earlier today. One cowl was removed so it may be undergoing some sort of maintenance.

[Wayne Collier]

From the front

[Wayne Collier]

Hiding in a hanger. If the photo comes out clear enough to see

[Dan Berry]

My first plane ride

[Steve Berry]

Very cool!

Looks like the little municipal airport in Grand Prairie.

Steve

[Wayne Collier]

Very cool!

Looks like the little municipal airport in Grand Prairie.

Steve

Actually Mt Pleasant TX

[Joe Gilbert]

Bushmaster rear aircraft

[Dan McEntee]

Bushmaster rear aircraft

   Yeah, of the three that they built ( I'm pretty sure) only two are left now? Once crashed on take off after the pilot forgot to remove the rudder locks before take off. That one had some St. Louis ties, don't know if I remember all the details. Chris McMillin has time in the type I think and he'll know. We have a few small airports here in the St. Louis area that attract a lot of unusual traffic and some interesting "fly ins." If I let myself, I could become a full time hanger rat really easy!
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[Joe Bowman]

The Mid America Flight Museum, located at Mt.Pleasant Tx. airport has some very nice aircraft.  I'm going to fly the Ercoupe over there one day and take a look around (after the weather cools down).

[Matt Colan]

The Mid America Flight Museum, located at Mt.Pleasant Tx. airport has some very nice aircraft.  I'm going to fly the Ercoupe over there one day and take a look around (after the weather cools down).

Give me a call when you do Joe! I’ll meet you there, it’s only an hour from the house

[Dan McEntee]

The Mid America Flight Museum, located at Mt.Pleasant Tx. airport has some very nice aircraft.  I'm going to fly the Ercoupe over there one day and take a look around (after the weather cools down).

  Of all things to watch on TV, I ran across the pilot episode of "The Flying Nun" on TV the other day just channel hopping. Nothing else on, and I actually watched it a lot when it was on originally, so I sat through the episode and there was a scene where the male lead in the show "Carlos" was taking a date for a spin in his twin Piper Aztec ( I think it was.) I don't know where they filmed that but the airport they shot that scene at showed them driving past a line of GA aircraft of all types, but there had to have been at least a half dozen Ercoupes all lined up in a row! All those twin rudders made it kind of hard to count and the camera was moving kind of fast. I don't think I've seen that many lined up at Oshkosh! That is one of my favorite airplanes and if time, money and space allowed I would own one. I just love the look!
   Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Joe Bowman]

Will do Matt.
Dan, Yes its a neat little airplane.  When you realize this airplane was designed and first built in the mid 1930's, the performance and design features are remarkable.  Fred Weick was just trying to build a safe airplane
that anyone could fly safely.  Guess what? Its an airplane and you can still get yourself into trouble.   

[john e. holliday]

Got a ride in a tri-motor at the KCMo down town airport during an air show.   I was in the seat right across from the door.  That thin little lap belt didn't feel safe.  Watched the gear extend as it got up to take off speed.  Thought he was going to land in the rail yards on landing.  Then the gear shocls collasping as the plane slowed and the tail wheel touched.   

[Steve Lotz]

I've flown in a Tri-Motor. Never seen one with cowlings though.

[Dan McEntee]

I've flown in a Tri-Motor. Never seen one with cowlings though.

     That is a Bushmaster, not a Ford Trimotor, as much as it may resemble on. My memory is a little fuzzy on how the Bushmaster ties in with the EAA Ford Trimotor. The EAA machine was rolled up in a ball during a thunderstorm at the Hale's Corner airport. i forget who owned it at that time, but the EAA bought the remains from the insurance company and set to rebuild/restore it. This is where I don't remember which came first. Either the EAA hired a guy to build a new fuselage and the resulting jigs for that were used to build the Bushmasters, or vice versa??  The Bushmasters were originally built for hauling smoke jumpers I believe. I didn't think to google the name before typing this but doing the same will fill in the blanks. The rest of the story about the EAA Tri-Motor is that they located to original dies for forming the corrugated skin, and contracted with Alcoa , I think, do do that work. When finished Alcoa handed the material and the dies back to them and requested that they never be contacted for that again!! The EAA machine has been around long enough now that it is undergoing a major overhaul, and they take VERY good care of that airplane. I have had a lot of rides in it over the years, including a right seat ride, and worked with the EAA as a volunteer for the concession when they came through St. Louis selling rides one year. It's a very nice airplane and I hope it's back in the air soon. It was not in service at Oshkosh this year, at least I don't remember seeing it.
  Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[Tim Wescott]

Yes, but what is that stretch limo in the background?  Is it a Checker?

[Dan McEntee]

  It certainly looks like a Checker, but my memory of the airport limos is that they had a door at every window. The only on that comes to mind as an illustration os the one in the movie "Dog Day Afternoon" with Al Pacino in it in the scene at the end. And it was the station wagon type.
   Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Dave Hull]

The bushmaster that crashed was taking off from Fullerton, California. They forgot to remove the gust lock(s). Stuff like that happens when you have a big crowd at an airport and procedures and routine go out the window. I had always heard that they felt the market was in Alaska...?

Dave

https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-bushmaster-2000-fullerton

[Dan McEntee]

The bushmaster that crashed was taking off from Fullerton, California. They forgot to remove the gust lock(s). Stuff like that happens when you have a big crowd at an airport and procedures and routine go out the window. I had always heard that they felt the market was in Alaska...?

Dave

https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-bushmaster-2000-fullerton

   That's the one I referred to earlier. Bud Fuchs used to be a TWA pilot here in St. Louis. Definitely quite a,,,,a,,,, "Character!"  I think I still have his business card here somewhere. Had several smaller airplanes he operated to sell rides and such from a local airport, and would take them to Quincy, IL for the free fall convention they used to have there. He would take a Beech Staggerwing and a Navy N-3-N. McMillin would fly the N-3-N to do inverted parachute drops. Bud decided to sell those two airplanes and buy the Bushmaster thinking he could make more money on rides and jumpers. Needed some one to fly the airplane from out west to St. Louis. Bud was not known to "overpay" his fairy pilots!! The pilot chosen for that flight ran the airplane out of gas over Tucumcari, New Mexico and had to do a dead stick landing on I-40. Some how he managed to get the airplane here for some new trim, paint and such. Sold rides at airshows and such, and decided to take the plane back out west. The result was the crash described in your link. I'm not sure of the fate of the other two, if I am correct in the idea that three total were built.
   Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee