From 747s To Triplanes

For Terry Presley, the love of aviation started with a small Folker tri-plane model he built as a child. His love has continued to the point where he's an addicted hang-gilder pilot for fun and flies from the right seat of a 747-400 for Northwest as a day gig.

At this point, for some reason... Terry regressed. After hearing about a Fokker tri-plane project that was actually started for the EAA museum before being abandoned when completed aircraft was donated to the museum, Terry decided to take over the project just for want of seeing the plane fly.

Ten years later... after 3,000 man hours of effort, with the help of a whole lot of help from very generous friends... the immaculate red & white tri-plane has 75 hours logged in the sky. 

Terry personally flew the plane all the way to back Oshkosh from Atlanta Georgia for this years show. 

"You can actually feel this plane when you're flying it.  That's something I can't do in a 747," Terry says. "The triplane a challenge.  A 747 is actually easier and flies like a lot of other airplanes. No plane in the world flies like the Fokker."

FMI: www.airventure.org