A Ride in a Ford Trimotor

A ride in the EAA AirVenture's Ford 4-AT Trimotor, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April 20 2006. Stills and movie footage.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• airplane
• aircraft
• trimotor
• aviation
• oshkosh
• eaa

[Fritztoons]

Thank you Ponto!

Great memories! In 2003 i had a go on the right seat in the flight deck. The captains name was Cody.

Pioneer airfield at Oskosh is "holy ground" for me!

[ponto]

@Fritztoons Thanks, Fritztoons - very nice to sit up front!

[KikoSPAIN]

for me, this are the most beautifull planes of the world... the planes between 1910 and 1960...

the people who flied this where aviators....

[ford9572]

Does anyone know if the Trimotors originally had electric starters on them? Or did you have to pull the propellers through by hand to start them as on single engine planes of the '20s like Charles Lindbergh's Spirit Of St. Louis?

[ford9572]

@Propliner1955 Hell Yeah Baby!!! You just can't beat the music of good old air-cooled radials!! And no autopilot/auto-throttle BS either!! Charles Lindbergh certainly didn't have those when he flew the Spirit Of St. Louis non-stop from New York to Paris in 1927, And he was in the air for 33 & half hours!!! Now there's a REAL pilot with nerves of STEEL!!!!!

[Propliner1955]

@14omega28ok Yeah, they sound bad ass, alright. They require bad ass pilots, too, or atleast guys who were tough enough to handle the challenge of flying them. None of this auto-pilot / auto-throttle / computerized flight management system from start to finish BS. You WORKED to fly these planes! You generally used two hands to move them, jockey'd a fistful of throttles, and knew how to run your engines properly. I mainly flew the DC-6 and DC-7s as flight engineer. What a thrill!

[Propliner1955]

@ford9572 Definitely! Piston-powered propliners are REAL planes! I flew them as a co-pilot and as a flight engineer and I can attest to that.I don't know if it is a guy thing or what, but the sounds and aromas do something to us guys.The take-off roll, with the power building to a crescendo, creates an adrenaline flow. There is a great sense of adventure and a certain awareness of risk; those engines are putting out maximum horsepower--will one of them malfunction? Are we prepared to handle it?

[secoraustin]

@Fritztoons Cody is a fun pilot, i flew with him in the ford a bunch, i believe i flew the ford over 41 with him in command, he actually let me fly, it's different going from a small glastar to a large trimotor like that, full flight too,

[walkertongdee]

@KikoSPAIN flied, lol that would be flew.

[ford9572]

@14omega28ok Right On Bro!!! OLD STUFF KICKED ASS!!! It sounded VERY EARTHY!!! Jets DO sound like pure horse shit!!! I'll fly on a piston-powered prop airliner ANY time!!! They're REAL planes!!!

[14omega28ok]

I love these planes because they had a nice tone to them and sounded bad ass, These new Jets sound like pure horse shit, all they are is a whinning huge ass turbines. OLD STUFF ROCKED

[XBoeingCapt]

almost STOL performance with no body in it