Ford TriMotor captured by D4 / 24-70f2.8
The maintenance flight had been planned weeks in advance. No, there isn’t some mechanic hanging off a wing as you fly working on the aircraft. Maintenance flights are often a reason used to fly a plane because, because you wanna fly. Many aircraft like the Ford TriMotor needs to be “exercised”. Many flights get scrubbed, normally because of weather and I feared that would be the case this time. The night before, one of them dust storms hit Phoenix, not a giant one and it didn’t directly hit the field but there was enough in the air when we pulled the TriMotor out that morning to give me caution. The dust sure did give a weird cast to the light but thankfully, it didn’t scrub the flight. This corrugated aircraft is the reason we have commercial flight today. It’s hard to imagine these are our humble beginnings and I’m sure as passengers boarded the pilot didn’t say, it required a maintenance flight.