I just wanted to insert a couple of things that I have done this fall. The first is going to a fly -in in Bartlesville the end of September to see and ride in a very rare airplane. Ford only built 199 Tri-Motors and the one owned by EAA is the last flying. It was the first totally enclosed airliner, making a breakthrough in commercial air travel. One of the other ones was restored by the Tulsa American Airlines employees which is hanging in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Daddy designed and built the fuel management system for it. AA flew it for a few years before turning it over to the museum.
The engines are not original but the rest of the plane is. The 1929 Curtis-Wright 300 hp engines are not available so they use 450hp Pratt & Whitney's from the Beech 18s that are readily available. The plane needs little runway and cruises at 85-90 mph. I found out that the rides were $70 but they sell the front right seat for $100. So I put up the extra for that. I told the pilot, who was a Delta A320 captain, that I was a former flight instructor so he knew I could speak somewhat intelligently about the plane. I never dreamed that he would turn it over to me after we got in the air! What a hoot! The control is a big circular stearing wheel that is used to herd it through the sky. It was stable but took a lot of effort to get it to go where I wanted it to.
The next activity was going water skiing at the ward campout. The water was glassy at Eufala lake - perfect for the tow. Walt Bowers had brought his boat because he wanted to make sure I got to ski. The bishop was sitting on the shore and had heard that I hadn't skied in a very long time. So when I instructed Walt to get me up on both skis then come around so I could drop one, the bishop burst out laughing and bet me that I would fall on my face when I attempted the drop.
I quickly realized that it took a lot of strength to ski and I wasn't going to last long. I bought my own skis since nobody ever had skis to suit me and the ones I got are pretty nice. The ski slipped off so easy and I left the bishop with egg on his face! He later told me that next year he will make sure I have more opportunities to try my skis. It was a fun ride, which I repeated a couple of hours later. Then Walt hit a submerged log and bent the saft on his boat.
1 comment:
that's so fun, Dad! Wish I could have seen it.
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