Ford Tri Motor question

[Rick_Nelson]

I just joined the group and have a question and will try and make this very short. I recently flew in the EAA Ford Tri Motor N8407 on its tour through Jacksonville, IL. A Ford Tri Motor was actually the very first airplane I flew in and was that was around 1971 or 72 at Oshkosh when my dad took me out of line for a ride in a Breeze and got me into the FTM. Max Conrad was the pilot on that day and my dad knew him personally. He took my picture outside the airplane with myself, Max and my cousin. I believe I was 11 or 12 at the time. I have torn my house and shop apart trying to locate the photo of the FTM that I flew in back in the 70's to see if it was N8407 but cannot find the photo anywhere. Incidentally, the Breeze that I was going to take a flight in ground looped on the taxiway from turbulence when a Chinook helicopter flew over it on its return taxi. Neither pilot or passenger was hurt but this will give you some timeline of the year I flew.

What I am trying to determine is if that was the very same airplane as N8407 that I just recently flew in. I believe it is the same aircraft, now with a different paint scheme due to the lengthy restoration that was done starting some time after 1972. I know N8407 had GLEN on the side prior to the restoration but for the life of me cannot remember if the one I rode in was painted that way back then. Is there anyone out there that knows what FTM's were at Oshkosh in 1971/72 or which one Max would have piloted in that time period? I have spent dozens of hours on the net trying to find information to no avail. Thank you in advance.
Rick

[skyranger]

I give my Grandson a Tri Motor ride every other year and he has flown 3 different ones at Oshkosh .

[champ driver]

Chances are that NC8407 is indeed the Tri-motor you flew in back at Oshkosh '71 or '72. It did have a different paint scheme from todays with Glen on the side because it was owned by Dale Glen at the time. It was involved in a freak windstorm accident at Burlington WI in 1973. The EAA bought it from the insurance company and later had it restored. It's currently on tour in the summer months.

Read this article on page 12 and 13.
http://members.eaavintage.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/VA-Vol-8-No-12-Dec-1980.pdf

7887

[lynnlpitts]

Yes, it is the same. The GLENN Trimotor, NC8407, was based east of Burlington, Kansas, south of Topeka. He used to bring it to Miami, Oklahoma for maintenance where I got to help work on it. My late wife, Joyce and I flew on it in 1972 at Oshkosh. Tickets were five dollars and ten dollars to fly co-pilot. We scraped up enough money for me to fly it and enjoyed it. I remember that it had a double angled mirror on the glare shield and I asked the pilot about it and he said that is the way he synchronized the props, each side of the mirror reflected the right or left engine prop, while the front prop was above the mirror and he finely adjusted each prop until the image was matched. I've mentioned this to the pilots flying it today at Oshkosh and they never heard of this and there is no mirrors installed.

[thomaspanton]

Hello everyone, I'm also new to this forum and glad to be a part of this forum. I don't fly any yet but looking forward to purchase a new Ford Tri Motor. Thanks Rick, great input, nice to see you here.

[Floatsflyer]

Hello everyone, I'm also new to this forum and glad to be a part of this forum. I don't fly any yet but looking forward to purchase a new Ford Tri Motor.

Hi Thomas,

Welcome to the Forum. Please correct me if I have this wrong. You don't fly(meaning you don't have a pilot's license or certificate of any kind?). And you want to buy a Ford Tri Motor, a new one at that(new ones haven't been built in over 85 years!).

Question: Why?

Thanks,

[thomaspanton]

Hi Thomas,

Welcome to the Forum. Please correct me if I have this wrong. You don't fly(meaning you don't have a pilot's license or certificate of any kind?). And you want to buy a Ford Tri Motor, a new one at that(new ones haven't been built in over 85 years!).

Question: Why?

Thanks,

Thanks a lot, Flyer for your welcome. Hey guys, I don't have a license or certificate and an Airplane, so I don't fly it yet. But I am planning to purchase a new one.
That's all.