Ford Tri-motor acrobatics

[jslugman]

One of the great benefits of being a volunteer at Pima is the people that surround me. I was at the volunteer Christmas dinner last night at a table with some great folks (one an electrical engineer on the B787!) when they got to talking about this guy who used to do acrobatic demos in, of all things, a Ford Tri-motor. Lo-and-behold a link in this mornings e-mail pointed me to a short video of such:

http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/ford-tri-motor-aerobatics-video-1_552.html

*gulp*

[Joe Copalman]

What the what?

This is awesome.

Along the lines of Bob Hoover's no-engine demo in his Shrike Commander or Bobby/Matt Younkin's Twin Beech demo - but in a madre-freakin' Tri-Motor!

[David Loera]

great video

[wingsnstuff]

Great video.  It almost looked like he stalled in on the funky roll.  The recovery at the end looked a little strange...of course it all looked strange...it was a frigging trimotor.  Thanks for sharing.

[Jay Beckman]

Great video.  It almost looked like he stalled in on the funky roll.  The recovery at the end looked a little strange...of course it all looked strange...it was a frigging trimotor.  Thanks for sharing.

Looks like he let the rudder center up too soon.  Watch again and notice he's got full rudder going in which means it's really more of a big, sloppy snap roll than a smooth axial roll.

Letting the rudder out before wings level makes the entire airframe wig wag from side to side coming out it.