John Markinac's Nieuport was built 3 or 4 years ago by Dave Wheeler, a former MMAC member. Dave is a very good scale builder and an even better hand painter. He wasn't interested in flying it anymore and gave it to John, who flew it numerous times at the Millis field. In fact, he and Mike Kenney's white Stearman had a midair while attempting to fly in formation several seasons ago. Fortunately, both models landed safely.
The
Nieuport is powered with an OS FP40 equipped with a Pitts-style muffler.
The white Monokote covering is dusted with white paint to dull the finish
to look like fabric. The bull's eyes, stitching and the albatross symbol
on the fuselage are all hand painted.
"The model is difficult to handle on the ground and easily ground loops on both takeoff and landing," John reports. "In the air it requires a lot of rudder input to track straight while climbing and to maintain coordination during right turns." He continues, "I've flown it at Crow Island and at Otis on the Cape. A year ago I ground looped and cart wheeled during a landing in way too much wind and broke the upper and lower wing spars in two places each. The model looked like a Corsair!"
John made the necessary repairs over the past few months and thought it was time to give it another go. "This was not a maiden flight by any means," John said. "It was just something still to good looking to leave in the back of the garage!"
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