National Air Tour Starts Today

Back in 1925-1931, the Ford Reliability Air Tour was run to prove to the general public that flying was a safe and reliable mode of transporation. Today, the National Air Tour is recreating the 1932 tour, which was planned but never run due to lack of sponsors during the Depression. I took a hop over to Willow Run (KYIP) to see these planes yesterday, and they are beautiful!

Check out www.nationalairtour.org for more information. If the tour is coming to an airport near you, take the time to go and see it.

Anne.

The Tour was in Minneapolis today. An INCREDIBLE DISPLAY of old Iron! And the PRICE in this day and age of fees for everything.....AN AMAZING....ZERO.....NADA.....FREE.....

If it comes your way, be sure and check it out.

Gonna be in Ft. Worth, TX. on Sunday. I wouldn't miss it for anything.

Will be here tomorrow at 2pm....

http://www.nationalairtour.org/tour_cities/tour_city.cfm?tour_cities_id=10

sj

Anne, I hope the Zantop boys took you out to the best bars in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, etc.

S.F.
Nick

Nick, no they didn't, but since I flew over there, that wouldn't have worked very well. I'm lucky - I get to see these planes twice! They started from Willow Run, and will return there at the end of the tour. I just hope all of them make it okay.

Anne.

Latest news from the N.A.T.:

Due to strong headwinds the National Air Tour is delayed approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours on the route from Minneapolis to Mason City to Des Moines. We are also scheduled to arrive in Kansas City today (Thursday September 11th) -- this is looking increasingly unlikely due to the latest weather forecast. If we need to remain in Des Moines overnight we would anticipate landing in Kansas City approximately 11:30 a.m. weather permitting.

If inclement weather is encountered it is possible that individual ships my land at airports not on the schedule and re-group with the tour later.

Safety is our #1 priority and weather delays, while regrettable, were a fact of life on the original National Air Tours just as they are today. If your city is on the schedule for the schedule for Thursday, Friday or Saturday, please check the city schedule for the latest information. Each city page has a weather forecast as well… just go to the specific city page and click on the weather icon.

Today's schedule:

Due to a strong band of thunderstorms running virtually from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada (and right across our path from Des Moines to Kansas City), the National Air Tour 2003 is now planning to begin arriving in Kansas City at the Downtown airport beginning between 11:30 to noon on Friday September 12th.

At the Airline History Museum we will have lunch re-fuel and offer the public a chance to see these wonderful aircraft. Departures will begin after a lay over of approximately 2 hours. We wish we could have made it to Kansas City per the schedule on Thursday but the weather made it virtually impossible.

Tonight, Thursday night, we will be staying in Des Moines, Iowa.

Based on the drizzle and 200' ceiling here in KC, I am not expecting them any time soon!

sj

Unfortunately, this one will be late...
********************************************************************************
** Report created 9/12/2003 Record 4 **
********************************************************************************

IDENTIFICATION
Regis#: 414H Make/Model: EXP Description: EXP- 5ATS FORD TRI MOTOR
Date: 09/11/2003 Time: 2208

Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None Mid Air: N Missing: N
Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
City: DES MOINES State: IA Country: US

DESCRIPTION
ACFT ON NATIONAL AIR TOUR, WAS ON VECTORS TO ANKENY ARPT TO AVOID THE
THUNDER STORM OVER DSM ARPT. WHEN ABOUT 6 MI S OF ANKENY ARPT THE PILOT
DECLAIRED AN EMERGENCY DUE TO NUMBER 3 ENGINE. 45 SECONDS LATER THE PILOT
REPORTED HE WAS MAKING AN EMERGENCY LANDING. RADAR AND RADIO CONTACT WAS
LOST AT THAT TIME. SHERIFF AND EMERGENCY PERSONEL WERE ALERTED. ACFT
LANDED IN A BEAN FIELD. DES MOINES, IA

INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0
# Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:
# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk:

WEATHER: SPECI KDSM 111259Z 24014KT 10SM -TSRA FEW012 OVC048 22/19 A2987



OTHER DATA
Activity: Pleasure Phase: Cruise Operation: General Aviation

Departed: MASON CITY Dep Date: 09/11/2003 Dep. Time: 2208
Destination: DES MOINES, IA DSM Flt Plan: UNK Wx Briefing: U
Last Radio Cont: 8 MI NE DES MOINES ARPT
Last Clearance: TURN L 350 DEG

FAA FSDO: DES MOINES, IA (CE01) Entry date: 09/12/2003

Hmmm one of my buddies is flying one of the tri-motors in this. I wonder if he was involved...

sj

steve said:

Hmmm one of my buddies is flying one of the tri-motors in this. I wonder if he was involved...

sj

Click to expand...

This one is Scenic's from Las Vegas... I think Bernie Godlove's Son (can't remember his first name) is flying it...

All the planes and pilots are listed in the link in my first post on this tour.

Although the report shows only one crewmember and no passengers aboard, I thought that there would be more people, at least one more crewmember. And I'm not sure about this, but weren't there three engines so that if one went out, it would still fly?

I'm glad I got pictures of all the planes before the tour started!

Anne.

annestoy said:

All the planes and pilots are listed in the link in my first post on this tour.

Although the report shows only one crewmember and no passengers aboard, I thought that there would be more people, at least one more crewmember.

I'm glad I got pictures of all the planes before the tour started!

Anne.

Click to expand...

Probably an error in the report... If the airplane is still over 12,500# GW, as all the Fords were, it requires two pilots...

I got a field approval for the Ford we had to lower the GW to 12,499# GW and we could fly single pilot... I think the field approval was eventually rescinded... Evergreen has the airplane now...

I just saw someone involved with the Tour and they told me that the "Emergency" was because of HAIL and to avoid damage to the Ford they set it down in the bean field.