A Perfect Birthday Gift:

80 mph at Takeoff,

80 Cruise and 80 Landing

for 80-Year-Old

Ride of a Lifetime

Through History on

the Ford Tri-Motor

By Julie Hohman

Living under the runway flight path of the Erie-Ottawa International Airport/Liberty Aviation Museum complex, I am reminded what a busy transportation center this former regional airport has become.

I often hear from airplane enthusiasts about the wonderful facility and its programs. I also hear – quite well – the roar of a variety of aircraft from DC-3s and Apache helicopters to World War II bombers and corporate jets. All three of my children took advantage of the opportunity to fly planes in the Young Eagles Flight program; my oldest son even got a ride home in a Vietnam era helicopter from his boy scout event at the airport!

I enjoy the continuous air show over my house and all the airplane hubbub in my area – but on the ground! I had not flown from the airport at all nor too many times in my life. And as I get older I get wimpier.

So when the opportunity arose to obtain two seats aboard the refurbished 1929 “Tin Goose” airplane, motoring in to Port Clinton from Oshkosh, Wis. in July for a week of tours, I at first thought, is this for me? After all, I am afraid of heights, roller coasters and unfamiliar things.

But then I reconsidered: My dad is turning 80 in July, what a great birthday gift! I know he’s never ridden in it and I’m pretty sure he would enjoy it. As a former Pelee Islander he had flown often in small passenger planes and even saw the Tin Goose land on Pelee.

Yes, he would like to go, said Dad, also known as Roger Rollo, of Lakeside. What the heck, I decided to go, too, ignoring those silly fears.

There had been a forecast for stormy weather that afternoon but it stayed away for our flight. Lucky, because pilot Dave Ross said he won’t fly in threatening weather as safety is of the utmost importance; besides, the Tri-Motor is a “flying museum piece” and he’d drive it into the hangar at the first sign of hail, wind or other inclement weather.

The first thing Tin Goose tour participants do is attend a pre-flight briefing – how the seatbelts work, where the emergency exits are and how to find your flotation device. “We’re going to be going over some water – Lake Erie, marshes, rivers, whatever – so just in case we have a water event, you need to be able to reach down between your legs and grab underneath your seat. This is where that flotation cushion is on this airplane,” said briefing instructor Bill Shannon. Yikes, now I’m starting to panic a little.

In response to a question about speed, Shannon replied, “It takes off at 80 miles an hour. It flies at 80 miles an hour. It lands at 80 miles an hour.” The Tin Goose holds over 300 gallons of gas and 90 gallons of oil and burns a gallon of fuel a minute! There is 450 horsepower in each engine.

After the briefing, with our souvenir tickets in hand, Dad and I clambered aboard the vintage aircraft, along with seven other passengers. I decided the middle would be best. Shannon took the seat as co-pilot, alongside Ross.

We sat one behind the other on each side of the aisle so everyone had a window seat and an aisle seat! The wicker seats are in the museum, not in the plane anymore. The seat belts, we had been told earlier, are just like those from a 1957 Chevy, and everyone figured it out and buckled up. Engines on – and boy are they loud! Outside my window the noise roared. Ross described it as the sound of “13½ Harleys.” That’s 9 cylinders times 3 engines divided by 2 (Harleys have 2 cylinders). As we taxied onto the runway, then sat for what seemed like a long time while the plane readied for takeoff, I knew I could not change my mind now!

I checked for the flotation device Shannon mentioned. Next I located all three emergency exits and tried to remember how he said they opened.

“I rode a lot of planes but never one like this. That’s unbelievable,” said Dad as we began to roll down the runway. He flew to and from Pelee many times in the 13 years he lived there including Dec. 11, 1962 for the emergency premature birth of my brother in a blizzard. He’d seen the Tin Goose fly to Pelee in the ’50s carrying barrels of diesel fuel for the generator when the power cable to the mainland had broken.

As I felt the plane gain speed and rather abruptly ascend with a jolt into the pleasant afternoon skies, my heart leapt into my throat and I automatically grabbed for something to hold on to. My left hand gripped a metal rung under my seat and I hung on for dear life. We are now at 1,000 feet cruising over the Marblehead Peninsula, Cedar Point and the Lake Erie islands.

I glanced over at Dad sitting across the aisle. He seemed to be having the time of his life. Good. (He later said he most definitely was.) By now I’m wondering three things: Should something built in 1929 still be in the air? Wasn’t it replaced for a reason? Is it time to land yet?

“That’s Route 2 down there,” remarked Dad, distracting me for a second. That’s about all I heard him say during the entire flight. The loud roar of the three engines makes it virtually impossible to have a conversation.

In a few minutes my left hand loosened its grip and our tour ride changed from vibrating and rough, as these planes tend to be, to pretty smooth. I am now at ease and brave enough to look out the window at tiny boat docks, houses and trees. I am in the “air show” flying over my house.

In my mind I enter a time warp back to the Golden Age of Aviation. Seven of these planes made up Island Airlines, the lifeline to the islands. For a second, I imagine our pilot as aviation pioneer Milt Hersberger. Hersberger flew people to and from the islands, as well as delivered food, mail and supplies, like Christmas trees and television sets, for 19 years without a single accident. He was called “great, just like a New York cabby,” and never knew when he would be summoned to fly someone to the mainland with a medical emergency. “He’d often land in high winds, pushing throttles, pulling and pushing the wheel, and still never missed a word relating a story,” recounted one passenger who is quoted in the museum archives.

Back in the day, passengers would have been dressed up to fly. Men wore suits and hats and women wore dresses and silk stockings. After all, air travel was considered a luxury.

In just 20 minutes or so, we are descending and back on the ground, and with a couple of jerks and a squeal, our time machine trip came to an end. It had been a blast! I’m glad I went! Pilot Ross was complimented on a job well done.

“That plane is five years older than me and it’s in better shape,” quipped Dad. “It just felt like you were floating, it went so slow. It looked so funny to look out the window and see that motor on the wing and that tire.” Tires are not retractable as they are on planes today. Dad was also impressed with the machine’s power and short takeoff. “It had a lot of power. It only went 40 feet and the tail came up, and then 400 feet and it’s in the air,” Dad recalled from our lesson. “It must be very powerful to do that.”

Ross, 62, is a retired corporate pilot from Wakeman with 45 years of experience including a year of flying the Tin Goose. His love of flying, being entrusted to pilot a “flying museum” and the people’s reactions are why he does what he does. “Everybody gets off usually smiling,” he said. “The first day when they gave me my tryout, I got done with three landings. I was just standing around and somebody came up and thanked me. I thought, hey this is pretty cool. It’s just fun being around airplanes and people who like to go for rides; and I don’t have to buy the gas!” He likened piloting the Tri-Motor to driving “an old truck without power steering.”

The all-metal “Tin Goose” was the world’s first multi-engine, mass produced commercial airliner. Henry Ford built 199 of them between 1926 and 1933. There are eight currently still flying across the United States. Some others are displayed in museums. My former journalism professor, Dr. Emil Dansker, is quite proud of the fact that he piloted the Tri-Motor that hangs from the ceiling in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

A group of volunteers headed by chief mechanic Doug Moore is painstakingly rebuilding one of the Island Airlines tri-motors that flew here during the 1940s and 50s. The Ford Tri-Motor Heritage Foundation acquired the rights and model number of a Tri-Motor that used to fly out of Port Clinton but crashed in Montana. The museum also purchased a flyable Tri-Motor from the state of Oregon in July. It is hoped that plane, renamed the “City of Port Clinton,” will offer rides to the public in September on its debut run, if work being done on it is completed, according to museum employee Tom Hilton.

Hilton said the Tri-Motor July flights, sponsored by EAA Tin Goose Chapter 1247, were a huge success due to perfect weather the first week of July and the fact that required maintenance did not fall during flight week. “It was the best year we’ve had,” he said. The Tin Goose made about 20 flights per day that week. “People kept coming for rides. We just kept loading and unloading.”

For more information on the airport/museum, located at 3515 E. State Road, Port Clinton, call 419-732-0234. Or visit these websites:

www.tingoose.org

www.libertyaviationmuseum.org

www.trimotorheritagefoundation.org

www.flytheford.com.