Ford Tri-Motor

Friday, July 3, 2015
Totally spur of the moment. Saw in the paper that a Ford Tri-Motor was going to be in Bemidji AND would be giving rides. Hustled out to the airport first thing in the morning and got a ticket.
Then I saw a colleague from my working days who was on the ground crew for the plane. I asked how many passengers go at a time.
He said "Eight plus a co-pilot."
I replied "A co-pilot? Not THE co-pilot?"
He then said "Do you want to sit in the right seat? You'll need to pay a little more, but if it's not already taken, you can do it."
So, I did and it was a blast!
This is the airplane. A Ford Tri-Motor NC8407. It was built in 1929. This plane has been in movies and may have been flown by Harrison Ford.

The airplane

Fueling up

Pratt & Whitney 450 hp engine

Fuselage detail

Interior view. Every seat a window seat.

Me ready to board

That's where I'm going to sit!!

In the co-pilot seat grinning from ear to ear!

Looking back into the passenger cabin.

This is a very basic instrument panel.

There were 199 of these planes built.

View of starboard engine from the cockpit.

Detail of interior woodwork

Swing the Top

"Swing the Top", what's the first image that comes to your mind?

Did it have a really tall tree? Did it have a seventy-foot bucket truck? Nope? Neither did mine.

Last Tuesday, Woodchuck's Tree Service of Bemidji removed three dead pine trees, including a Norway pine that rose to a height of 100 feet. When asked if his bucket truck could reach to the top of the pine, Chuck said that no, it could only get to seventy feet. When asked if he could control where the top of the pine was going to fall when he could only reach seventy feet, he said, "Well, I'll just swing the top. No problem!"

Swing the top? Here's what he did:

After trimming all the lower branches up to as high as his equipment could reach, he tied a rope "harness" to the pine.

Tying on the harness

Harness nearly finished

Once the harness was in place, he made the cut.

Cut is nearly finished

Cut is finished

Let the swing begin

And that, my friends, is how to Swing the Top!