Tri-Motor Crash

[john smith]

Was that EAA's Tri-Motor that crashed at Fullerton California this
afternoon?

[Larry Dighera]

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 22:54:37 GMT, john smith > wrote in
>::

>Was that EAA's Tri-Motor that crashed at Fullerton California this
>afternoon?


Here's the story, but you have to pay for it:
http://ocregister.com/ocr/2004/09/26/

The Ford Tri-Motor replica was based at Fullerton.

[Janice]

Larry Dighera wrote:

> On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 22:54:37 GMT, john smith > wrote in
> >::
>
> >Was that EAA's Tri-Motor that crashed at Fullerton California this
> >afternoon?
>
> The Ford Tri-Motor replica was based at Fullerton.

For the story click here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-plane26sep26,1,7869105.story?coll=la-editions-orange

(Use bugmenot.com if you need a registration to view the story)

[Montblack]

("Larry Dighera" wrote)
> >Was that EAA's Tri-Motor that crashed at Fullerton California this
> >afternoon?
>
>
> Here's the story, but you have to pay for it:
> http://ocregister.com/ocr/2004/09/26/
>
> The Ford Tri-Motor replica was based at Fullerton.


Do you know what happened?

Montblack

It was operated by Tri-Motor Air Tours out of Fullerton airport. It was a
bushmaster built in 1985. The main page of the Air Tours website is
temporarily down, but google's cache still has it available. Their aircraft
info page is still up at http://www.tri-motor.com/equip.html

The aircraft is registered to an owner in Indiana.
http://162.58.35.241/acdatabase/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=750RW

I was leaving LGB after a solo x-c up into the desert when one of the guys
working the office at my flying club said "hey, come listen to Fullerton's
ATIS." He put it on speaker phone, and we heard the ATIS telling pilots not
to move their planes, and not to get in or out of them. The rumor was that
the tri motor had crashed, but that was unsubstantiated. I came home and
caught the news at the top of the hour, and their first breaking story was
from the airport. The video of the accident is truly amazing.

The plane was taking off for a test flight after some maintenance, and was
supposed to give a free flight to some cadets later in the day. As it picked
up speed going down the runway it veered sharply to the left, which was
where the crowd was for their open house (or whatever event it was).
Understandably, the guy taking the video started running. The next video is
of the tri motor in the air, having just gotten off the ground. It started
banking to the left and kept going over at low altitude, striking the ground
left wing first, then turning the plane onto its nose before sliding
horizontally. The pilot got the plane into the air to avoid the crowd and
managed to put it down on Commonwealth Avenue adjacent to the airport. It
clipped a car but the driver wasn't seriously hurt. The pilot and co-pilot
are in serious condition. Local news said one of them was ejected from the
plane upon impact. The plane is in fairly good condition - there was a small
fire but it was put out quickly. Very lucky that no one was killed. It looks
like the pilots did a good job of getting it on the ground where they did.

I recorded the segment off the news last night. I'm not sure if it's alright
to upload it, but I can put up a DivX version if it seems that it's okay.
Let me know.

-Tony
Student Pilot
39.1 Hours


>
>Was that EAA's Tri-Motor that crashed at Fullerton California this
>afternoon?
>

I mistakingly said....
> It was operated by Tri-Motor Air Tours out of Fullerton airport.

Correction - their site says it was based out of Long Beach. It seems like I
always saw it sitting at Fullerton though.

-Tony
Student Pilot
39.1 Hours

[Teacherjh]

>>
we heard the ATIS telling pilots not
to move their planes, and not to get
in or out of them. The rumor was that
the tri motor had crashed
<<

I'd find that a very odd request - not to get in or out of a plane because
another might have crashed. Q to tower controllers - Is this SOP? If so, why?

Jose


--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

[Montblack]

(Tony wrote).
> It was operated by Tri-Motor Air Tours out of Fullerton airport. It was a
> bushmaster built in 1985. The main page of the Air Tours website is
> temporarily down, but google's cache still has it available. Their
aircraft
> info page is still up at http://www.tri-motor.com/equip.html


This from their web page:
http://www.tri-motor.com/equip.html

We are aware of 8 Tri-Motors still flying:

Bob Ellis in Kalamazoo, MI (4-AT-58, 5-AT-58, 4-AT-62),
Kermit Weeks in Polk, FL (4-AT-38),
EAA in Oshkosh, WI (4-AT-69),
Chino Air Museum in Grand Canyon, AZ (5-AT-74),
Kansas City, KS (15-AT/BU-2000-1),
and ours in Long Beach, CA (15-AT/BU-2000-2).
There are 11 more reported Tri-Motors which are not flyable, but still
around.


Golden Wings Museum at ANE has a Ford Tri-Motor that is not on this list.
http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/Aircraft.html

It's the one that was at OSH this year.

This was interesting, from the History link - then go in a couple of pages:
http://www.fordtri-motor.com/

Part of C-1077 is in the Spirit of St. Louis

Bill Stout: “We offered to have Harry Russell go over Lindbergh’s plane
before he left, Harry being considerably more reliable than the local
mechanics. A very small thing may often influence a large event. Harry
looked over the equipment and found that one of the brushes in the magneto
was worn down to within an eighth inch of the end. Taking a long flight
without a replacement would certainly have meant trouble. There were no
replacements, so Harry took one of the brushes out of our trimotor and put
the worn one in its place, knowing that our trip was shorter going home, and
that we had two other engines to depend on if one stopped.”

As the Spirit of St. Louis only flew an additional 101.5 hours, the part
placed on it in Mexico City from Ford C-1077 is no doubt hanging with the
Spirit in the National Air & Space Museum.

I helped with a wedding at the Museum on Saturday. There are 5 working
Tri-Motors (one Ford) all next to one another in the hangar (see Golden
Wings Museum link above)


Montblack

[Steven P. McNicoll]

"Teacherjh" > wrote in message
...
>>>
> we heard the ATIS telling pilots not
> to move their planes, and not to get
> in or out of them. The rumor was that
> the tri motor had crashed
> <<
>
> I'd find that a very odd request - not to get in or out of a plane because
> another might have crashed. Q to tower controllers - Is this SOP?
>

No.

[gatt]

"Montblack" > wrote in message

> We are aware of 8 Tri-Motors still flying:

There is one at the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville, Oregon (same
facility as the Spruce Goose.)

Hate that thing. Mostly because they took some of the seats out of it and
put it in the waist of the B-17 for the purpose of carrying potential
investors. (As a volunteer, my job was to get people into the airplanes and
strapped in, tell 'em not to grab onto the overhead rudder and elevator
cables (on the '17) and then clean their friggin' pop cans out of the ammo
boxes when they were done. I remember helping somebody who got to ride in
the nose of the fortress for takeoff, complaining that he wanted to ride the
Tri-motor. Another, in the B-17 asked me "Is this the Tri-motor or the
B-17?" Gee...let's start by counting the engines. )

-gattman
Portland, OR



> Bob Ellis in Kalamazoo, MI (4-AT-58, 5-AT-58, 4-AT-62),
> Kermit Weeks in Polk, FL (4-AT-38),
> EAA in Oshkosh, WI (4-AT-69),
> Chino Air Museum in Grand Canyon, AZ (5-AT-74),
> Kansas City, KS (15-AT/BU-2000-1),
> and ours in Long Beach, CA (15-AT/BU-2000-2).
> There are 11 more reported Tri-Motors which are not flyable, but still
> around.
>
>
> Golden Wings Museum at ANE has a Ford Tri-Motor that is not on this list.
> http://www.goldenwingsmuseum.com/Aircraft.html
>
> It's the one that was at OSH this year.
>
> This was interesting, from the History link - then go in a couple of
pages:
> http://www.fordtri-motor.com/
>
> Part of C-1077 is in the Spirit of St. Louis
>
> Bill Stout: "We offered to have Harry Russell go over Lindbergh's plane
> before he left, Harry being considerably more reliable than the local
> mechanics. A very small thing may often influence a large event. Harry
> looked over the equipment and found that one of the brushes in the magneto
> was worn down to within an eighth inch of the end. Taking a long flight
> without a replacement would certainly have meant trouble. There were no
> replacements, so Harry took one of the brushes out of our trimotor and put
> the worn one in its place, knowing that our trip was shorter going home,
and
> that we had two other engines to depend on if one stopped."
>
> As the Spirit of St. Louis only flew an additional 101.5 hours, the part
> placed on it in Mexico City from Ford C-1077 is no doubt hanging with the
> Spirit in the National Air & Space Museum.
>
> I helped with a wedding at the Museum on Saturday. There are 5 working
> Tri-Motors (one Ford) all next to one another in the hangar (see Golden
> Wings Museum link above)
>
>
> Montblack
>
>

[MLenoch]

>Another, in the B-17 asked me "Is this the Tri-motor or the
>B-17?" Gee...let's start by counting the engines. )

When I pull up to the pumps for gas, I sometimes get the question: "What is
it?"

VL
P-51/N2151D

[Paul Sengupta]

"MLenoch" > wrote in message
...
> >Another, in the B-17 asked me "Is this the Tri-motor or the
> >B-17?" Gee...let's start by counting the engines. )
>
> When I pull up to the pumps for gas, I sometimes get the question: "What
is
> it?"
>
> VL
> P-51/N2151D

Answer : "It's a plane"

Paul

[MLenoch]

>> When I pull up to the pumps for gas, I sometimes get the question: "What
>is
>> it?"
>
>In your Mustang! Just take those folks out and shoot 'em!!! <G>
>

The more recent questions are: "Is it a real one or a half scale?"
VL

[Dale]

In article >,
(MLenoch) wrote:


>
> The more recent questions are: "Is it a real one or a half scale?"
> VL

When I was flying the Collings airplanes we were quite often asked:
"How'd you get that here?"

"That" was of course either the B-24 or B-17, sitting on the airport
ramp, both of which we were selling rides in. One day I replied that
we'd had it trucked in. "How'd you get that on the truck, take the
wings off?" I gave up. <G>

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

[Montblack]

("Dale" wrote)
> When I was flying the Collings airplanes we were quite often asked:
> "How'd you get that here?"
>
> "That" was of course either the B-24 or B-17, sitting on the airport
> ramp, both of which we were selling rides in. One day I replied that
> we'd had it trucked in. "How'd you get that on the truck, take the
> wings off?" I gave up. <G>


I worked the crowed when the Collings B-24 and B-17 came to (ANE)
Anoka-Blaine, Minnesota last summer. They wanted to come back this year but
the two sides weren't able to work out schedules. I think they might return
to ANE in 2005.


Montblack