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A Tale of Two Planes It
all started with a Ziroli DR1 triplane. Actually
two Ziroli triplanes. Herman Cholewinski
is a long time scale flyer, model designer and a very talented craftsman and
model builder. He built the Ziroli
DR1, flew it, and then built and flew his own design DR1 in 1/4 scale. Refining
his design, he began construction on a 1/3 scale DR1.
Meanwhile,
my dad, John R. Shelton, Jr., and I collaborated on a Ziroli tripe that we found
hanging in a hobby store. It turned
out to be a good flyer. We attended several local fly-ins with it, and met
Herman at a charity fly-In at the Indy Southside Club.
He was flying his 1/4 scale tripe. We exchanged complimentary remarks
about each other's planes and before you could say "Anthony
Fokker," they were both fired up and flying around the patch in formation.
What a gorgeous sight it was! As
time went on, Dad and I sold our tripe and began our search for another project
to share. We discovered that a 1/3
scale Sopwith Pup built by Greg Hahn was available. My dad, envisioning what
might be, quickly purchased the Pup. We
went to several local fly-Ins with it and, quite by coincidence, met Herman
again at the Diabetes Charity Fly-In sponsored by the Indy Southside Club. His
1/3 scale DR1 had been completed and was early in its shake-down flights.
It was a museum scale airplane, and “beautiful” doesn’t begin to
describe it! Does a 97.5 static
score and Pilot's Choice at the Mint Julep
better describe it? Absolutely!
We
had time to say "Anthony Fokker" a couple of times, but soon, they
were both fired up and flying in formation.
What a rush! The seed was
planted. We didn't know it
then, but we had just experienced our first "Mission Oriented Flight".
Over the next 3 years we attended several local fly-Ins and flew the
tripe and pup, dog fighting our way to a modeling experience extraordinaire!
These two planes now hang in the reception area of Crew Training
International (a business in
(Please click on the images below to see them larger)
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