As a little girl back in the 1950’s, I can remember my father Charlie and my Uncle Ned, flying from the Ohio mainland to a small island in the western basin of Lake Erie in a small rumbling 3 prop plane. The two men would load their service cycles and gear into the plane and spend days on end out on the island, fishing and riding their motorbikes. The small town they flew from was Port Clinton, just 40 miles east of Toledo and nestled among a multitude of canals, ponds and creeks that all fed into the lake which was lined with summer cottages. The island was Middle Bass Island, home to the famous Perry Monument, which commemorates Commodore Perry’s victory in the war of 1812. The city on the island was known as Put in Bay, home to the world’s longest wooden Tavern bar and the world famous singer - Pat Daley. The Ford Tri-Motor airplane was built in 1929 in Dearborn Michigan and was affectionately known by us all as “the Tin Goose”.
In last weekend’s Toledo Blade Newspaper was an article on another one of the Ford Tri-Motor Airplanes that had been restored. The Tri-Motor Heritage Foundation was offering flights out of Port Clinton at the Erie-Ottawa County Airport. H felt he/we HAD to go ride the “Tin Goose”! Tuesday, July 3rd was the chosen date and we gathered up B&C to share in this latest adventure. Bud was concerned about Carol tho, as she has a tendency to get motion sickness, but she bravely joined in. The weather was unsettled as we left home and was still hazy and overcast with a slight threat of a storm when we reached the airport parking lot and learned that all flights had been delayed till conditions improved. No problem - Jolly Roger Restaurant for fresh Lake Erie Perch dinners and a bit of exploring around the area filled up our vacant time! As we moseyed back to the airport – the Tri-Motor roared overhead! H hurried now in earnest- he wanted to fly! In the back of the hanger where the Tri-Motor was flying out of, was yet another skeleton of a plane. The proceeds from the all the local flights were to be used to restore that plane which will be parked in a designated hanger at the brand new Liberty Aviation Museum! As we waited for the plane to land and taxi to the hanger, we were given a brief history of the aircraft. We found out that there were only 199 planes made and the one we would be flying in was # 58. The plane that I flew in as a child was #38 and was sold for parts for the other 6 remaining Tri-Motors in existence! The narrow 9-passenger cabin area had one seat on either side of an even narrower aisle. The pilot area was open to the passengers who could see him work the 2 big foot petals that controlled the rudders and brakes and 3 knobby handles, which controlled the speed of the plane. On the ceiling was a pretty good-sized crank handle that was for the plane’s horizontal trim. It was interesting to learn that the original plane had NO brakes because they were landed on grass, as there was no cement landing strip back then. Due to passenger liability laws today – these restored planes must have brakes! Thank you VERY much! One by one the large engines that hung right outside the cabin windows, was coughed to life and began their roar as each prop spun faster and faster. As the knobby handles were slowly pushed forward, the plane also moved forward and rumbled out onto the runway. Holding our breath and hoping we didn’t run out of runway before the laboring plane lifted off, we all sighed with relief as she slowly reached for the sky - just in time! We never did “reach the sky” – we rose just high enough to view the scenes below as though we were looking down at a miniature train setup! You could see the tiny cars on Rt 2 and the miniature boats coming and going out of the never ending ribbons of water that lead from a million boat docks out to the calm waters of Lake Erie. The water tower looked like a dainty pearl balanced on a tiny matchstick! All four of us were snapping pictures as fast as we could press our camera buttons. H took time out to check the airplane’s speed on his hand held GPS - 65 mph at takeoff, up to 100 mph in flight and landing at 73 mph! Safely back at the hanger we continued to bombard the pilot and co-pilot with questions before sadly exiting the plane, ducking as we went because the doorway was a small oval opening just barely 4 feet tall.
Of course, the day was topped off with a stop for ice cream on our way home!
On July 5th, the Ford Tri-Motor was to fly to Kalamazoo, Michigan and then return to its home base in Oshkosh, Wisconsin the following week. If you want to learn more, go to:
trimotorheritagefoundation.org or libertyaviationmuseum.org
