**The OFFICIAL All Sims Air Tour Thread**

A Ford Trimotor flew the original Tour, I believe it carried some of the organizers and journalists, so I thought it deserved an appearance in our recreation. Livery is probably fictional, one of Gary Smith's creations (my complaint with his site - no differentiation between real, fictional, and semi-fictional liveries).

A grey day at KAGC (in reality our area is currently experiencing clear sunny skies and daytime temps around 50F).
kagc.jpg

kagc2.jpg

KHLG, Wheeling Ohio County Airport; opened in 1947 with DC-3 flights for TWA and Capital. 160 miles to go.
khlg.jpg

Cruising 4500ft at 100kt.
cruising.jpg

OA00, Taildragger Airport, Cambridge OH; no info other than it is privately owned, opened in 1988, and requires prior permission to land.
Oa00_taildragger.jpg

KCMH, Port Columbus International, in the background; renamed in 2016 to John Glenn International ("CMH" stands for "Columbus Municipal Hangar", the original name of the airport in 1929). A Naval Air Station during WWII, over the years it also hosted production lines for the F-100, RA-5, T-2, T-28, OV-10, and T-39; in the eighties it hosted Concorde flights. KCMH was the home airport of Jerrie Mock when she made her 1964 flight around the world in a Cessna 180. This Trimotor will pass over my home, about 4 miles WSW of KCMH.
kcmh.jpg

Twenty miles out and my view seems somewhat obstructed
20_mi_out.jpg

Drop to 2800 ft to get below the clouds and look for I19, which boorishly has no navaids (and sounds like an interstate highway). And there it is
i19.jpg

225 miles in an hour and 54 minutes
done.jpg
 
FWIW, there was a National Parks Air Service; in business from 1927 to 1938, when it merged with Western Air Express (which eventually became part of Delta). But they never flew Trimotors, and I've found no evidence this livery is accurate, though the logo is. They flew a single route from Salt Lake City to Ogden to Pocatello to Butte to Helena to Great Falls; advertising two planes per day. Originally operated a pair of Stearman C3s on an airmail contract, then passenger service with 3 Fokker Super Universals, a Boeing 80, and 3 Boeing 247s.


National Parks Airways Super Universal.jpg
(Note the two wheel cart under the tailwheel. This was common from the huge Gotha and Staaken bombers of WWI through the early thirties as an easy way of handling large aircraft on the ground. The long handle is just visible to its right, a man would walk behind the plane using this handle to steer the cart, and thus the plane. Must have been an odious job, given what the propwash would have kicked up from the airfields of the day.)
 
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Leg25 KAGC->I19 Greene Co Jackson
The weather forecast predicted a ceiling of 20,000 feet, but in fact it was much lower.
leg25_ceiling.jpg
We were forced to descend to below 3,500 feet. There was a lot of light turbulence, but...
leg25_limitVFR.jpg
Fortunately, Amy's precise navigation and the US22 road (although barely visible) led us to the I19.
leg25_I19.jpg

LEG26 I19->KYIP
As soon as we flew over I19, we were flying under IFR.
By the time we reached Springfield, the sky had cleared. leg26_undersun.jpg

Unfortunately, it didn't last. As we travelled north, the sky became overcast. As we approached KYIP, the clouds cleared again.
leg26_KYIP.jpg

And finally, the last finalleg26_final.jpg

After a long taxi ride, we turned off the engine. Last night at the hotel. Amy mischievously took a bottle of Bollinger Champagne (James Bond's favourite) out of her cooler bag and we toasted our memories and dreamed of other adventures.
leg26_theEnd.jpg

The end?
 
It is an interesting story, particularly her exploits in the Middle East, where they didn't believe a woman could fly a plane. Mock's Cessna was virtually a flying fuel tank, the "desk" on the right of this photo is the top of a tank, another was behind the seats.

jerrie_mock_cpit.jpg
 
Jerrie was under immense pressure from her husband to complete the Flight, and she wished she could have more opportunities to do some of the things she wanted to do and see.
 
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