Ford Tri-Motor

1929 Ford
Tri-Motor














450 hp.

Pratt & Whitney

















Cabin & Corrugated

Aluminum Sheet












Casts a Nice Shadow

Siding At Last

Man what a great day! I took a half day off today to go check out the 1929 Ford Tri-Motor at the Valparaiso airport. Sure glad I did. It was a beautiful day for a plane ride and I took advantage of it. The ride was about 15-20 minutes long. Not a long time in the air but enough to get the feel for flying in the oldest commercial passenger plane still flying. It was an Eastern Airlines plane long ago and while it's a far cry from any commercial plane of today, it was state of the art 80 years ago.

The engines sound like they should be in a pro stock dragster at idle. As soon as they throttle up they smooth out and sound really cool. It didn't take much runway to get airborne, either. With about 1300 horsepower, I don't suppose it should. We flew at about 90 miles per hour, I think. It was loud and your feet could feel the vibration the whole time but man was it a gas. The inside is all nicely done, everyone had a window seat - mine was right next to the engine on the left side of the plane - and everyone left with a smile on their face.

I hit Menard's for some supplies while I was up that way and then came home and went to work on the barn. As you can see from the photo, I got some siding hung. It goes pretty quick. I should be able to get everything on the bottom without any extra hands but I'll need some scaffolding and a helper when it's time for the second story. That shouldn't be too bad other than the height and all the angles and trimming. As long as I take my time I should be able to get it looking good without too many mistakes.

I need to see if my long extension ladder will get me up on the roof to replace the panels I took off for the lift. I need to practice my knots before I get up there, though. I'm going to tie myself off for that job. Park the truck or the tractor on one side and throw the rope over the top, do one side then the other. Not taking any chances.

Don't know how much I'll be able to get done in the next few days. I think the Missus and I are going to be watching the grandkids over the weekend. Plus, we've got an in-house show at the gym Saturday night. I'd like to hit the barn project pretty hard while the weather's nice but the grandkids trump everything else.

Back to normal tomorrow. Ain't it a shame.