Robert Victor Ziminsky

Robert “Bob” Victor Ziminsky, 86, of Mason, NH a retired Delta Air Lines and acrobatic Pilot,peacefully departed on his final flight September 11, 2024.
Captain Ziminsky was born in Arlington, Massachusetts on April 9, 1938 to Vincent and Elsie (Lantz) Ziminsky. After graduating from Arlington High School in 1956 he proudly served in the US Army and Navy. While in the Navy he served on a carrier as an air crew member, taking every opportunity to participate in flying missions.
After his discharge and while attending UMass Amherst he completed private flight instruction through the university’s flying club. After Bob left the University of Massachusetts, a brief stint as a crop duster helped develop his skills flying close to the ground. He had already discovered the challenge and fun of aerobatics.
In 1964, Bob and a partner bought a small flying club at Hanscom Field, Bedford, MA. The club,Tech Aeroservice, Inc., offered almost two dozen planes for rental and ran a large flight school and charter service. For three years Bob put his energies into flight instruction and building the flight school. In 1967 he was hired by Northeast Airlines and became a qualified DC-9 pilot and 727 flight engineer with more than 8,000 hours of flying time in his log. Northeast merged with Delta in 1971. During his time with Delta until his retirement as Captain in 1998, Bob was based out of Boston, New York, Atlanta, and Cincinnati.
After moving his growing family to Groton, MA, Bob wanted to establish a dairy herd of Jersey cows. During this time Bob’s love of aerobatic flying grew and he started looking for a specialized aircraft that would be able to perform more demanding aerobatic maneuvers and would permit him to enter in national and international competition. Finally in 1967 he located a Chipmunk already certified in this country buying it for $8,000. He later went on to modify the airplane for better control during low-speed rolls and in knife edge flight. In the spring and summer of 1969 after completing modifications to his Chipmunk, Bob participated in numerous regional contests and that fall entered the nationals in Texas. From 1971-1975, Bob flew “New England” air shows in the United States and Canada. He held permanent authorization through the cooperation of the FAA and the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission to practice over the Groton airport, a privately owned grass strip. In 1975 Bob made the decision to sell his beloved Chipmunk prior to the birth of Robert T. knowing full well the risks involved with continued flying aerobatic air shows.
As a multi certified flight instructor, he was helpful to many private pilots giving impromptu instruction and check rides for their licensing renewal. He enjoyed flying his Cessna 180 to many fly-ins until the age of 84 and was a member of the Octogenarian flying club and Barnstormers. Bob loved his family and the home he built including the “Zim” airport grass strip in Mason, NH.