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Geezer

A REAL Airplane!

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Yesterday, a buddy flew in an old Ford trimotor and sent me some shots.

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gauges on the engine, stock ? Ford was way ahead of it's time they had GPS. :biggrin:

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Shouldn't that label be on the other side, with this side saying "City of Starboard Clinton"?

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Sweet!

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Same ribbed wing and fuselage structure as the German Ju-52. 

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That's a modernized panel, almost has an instrument six pack.  I got to fly one of only two Bushmasters which were replicas of the Ford Trimotor that a company thought would be useful in rough field operations (one of the perks of being an airport manager during a fly-in)..  It was a beast and a bad idea.  The rudder and elevator control was just okay, but the ailerons were tiny and sucked.  The control wheel was about 50% larger in diameter than that photo and had a motorcycle size chain instead of the steel cable shown.  In a turn you had to crank the wheel over 360 degrees and wait for it to start banking before you could apply rudder.  Felt like I was flying the Titanic.  During landing the pilot had to wrap his left forearm behind the yoke and pull to flare as he pulled the three throttles back with his right hand (and leaning forward to wrap around the yoke put his head below the instrument panel).  The landing was a controlled crash with three bounces while you wondered if you were still heading down the runway as you could not see it.  That same aircraft crashed and was totaled later that year in California during another fly-in.  Someone forgot to pre-flight and they took off with the control locks still in place.

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Someone should buy the rights to the Junkers 52 and reproduce it.  That would make a great bush plane. Much better performance and more versatile.

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There's already an airplane that does all of that even better. The DHC-6.

The Twotter also is a relict of forgotten times, but it's being made again. With an all glass cockpit and stuff...

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