Air-to-Air Tri-Motors (Four of Them!)

Lowflynjack

Lowflynjack

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Jack Fleetwood
I went up to Mid America Flight Museum for a few photo shoots. In this one, we put four tri-motors in the air! A Ford, a Stout Bushmaster 2000, a Stinson Model A, and a Stinson Model B. I'm pretty sure this is a one-of-a-kind photo shoot!

Also... Mr. Larry Bible happend to be right seat in the Bushmaster, so I've asked him to share some videos here! You'll see a new perspective!

Stout on top, Ford on bottom.
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Top Left - Stinson Model A, Top Right - Bushmaster, Bottom Left - Ford, Bottom Right - Stinson Model B
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The Stinsons!
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I will send my “from the cockpit” videos of the photo shoot to Jack, and he will make a link available

Last Thursday evening I had the pleasant experience of riding right seat in the Stout Bushmaster which is an improved reproduction of the Ford Trimotor. After getting in and unable to find the JPI, I found three each: Oil Pressure, Oil Temperature, Cylinder Temperature, Manifold Pressure and Tachometers on the panel in front of me. Once Daniel was in formation I did my best watching all of this because he couldn’t take his eye off the wing he was flying on. Monitoring pressures, temps and watching the cowling for oil leaks wasn’t all encompassing, but watching manifold pressure and RPM while he was handling three throttles and governors and communicating a significantly low or high power setting on which motor was a new world for me. All three engines ran really sweet and flawlessly with no oil leaks or other problems thanks to the great care that Kelly and his museum maintenance crew give these aircraft. It was a wonderful experience and a wonderful vantage point for the whole event.

I thank Scott, Kelly, Daniel and all the others for letting me be a small part of this great experience. I will keep working on making these videos available.
 
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Kent Wien said:
Wow! That definitely has to be a first!

Incredible shots! Which one was Kelly Mahon flying, I wonder?

Edit: Oh, I see him in the Ford.
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Yes, Kelly was flying the Ford and I left for Christmas immediately after this, so I haven’t had a chance to comment to him about how they monitored outboard engine vitals. I could see pressures and temps right in front of me. The Ford has these outboard engine gauges mounted on the pylons, not in the panel. Kind of a small detail compared to how full Kelly’s hands were, but interesting.

And yes, we think it’s a first ever, air to air photo shoot of four piston Trimotor airplanes,
 
Yeah, Jack’s in the photo of the guy taking the photo.

I hope this doesn’t take ANYTHING away from Jacks work. His talent has been seen, appreciated and confirmed by so many that everyone recognizes the extremely high level of his work, but I think there’s an additional element in this shoot:

This is formation flying by hand that was done by four different highly experienced, highly gifted pilots with an equally experienced and talented pilot in the chase plane supporting Jacks proven skill and art level with a camera. They did it in vintage planes that are not easy to fly. There were some issues along the way as you would expect and they were dealt with promptly and professionally bringing everyone and every plane home without a scratch.

It was unbelievable having a great front row seat for the event. I thank everyone again for it.
 
Seeing those Stinson's together I get "Ride of the Valkyries" vibes.
 
So, since I'm unfamiliar with the type(s), why the variation between cowled vs un-cowled configurations?
 
Are you talking about the two silver ones?

Assuming so, the Uncowled plane is. Stout Bushmaster which was revised version began being built in the sixties. It had modern engines, cowled in a more modern way and some different construction techniques. They intended to build 1,000 of them but ultimately on two were built.

The uncowled version is an original Ford Trimotor from the twenties or early thirties. Built from 1927 to 1933 I think.
 
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MBDiagMan said:
Yeah, Jack’s in the photo of the guy taking the photo.

I hope this doesn’t take ANYTHING away from Jacks work. His talent has been seen, appreciated and confirmed by so many that everyone recognizes the extremely high level of his work, but I think there’s an additional element in this shoot:

This is formation flying by hand that was done by four different highly experienced, highly gifted pilots with an equally experienced and talented pilot in the chase plane supporting Jacks proven skill and art level with a camera. They did it in vintage planes that are not easy to fly. There were some issues along the way as you would expect and they were dealt with promptly and professionally bringing everyone and every plane home without a scratch.

It was unbelievable having a great front row seat for the event. I thank everyone again for it.
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Very well put. I always say these guys make my job easy. There are people who work on the planes, clean them, organize all of the pilots, etc. I get the cool job of riding around in a 182 or B-25 looking at all of that beauty and trying my best to capture what I’m seeing. I’m truly blessed to be a part of it.
 
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