New Pietenpol, EAA #1279, French Valley CA

Above is the 1279 Piet at Brodhead, the national Pietenpol gathering in 2010. Steve and his crew brought it all the way from CA to have it on static display in WI.  That year it was displayed both at Brodhead and Oshkosh. While the plane was at Brodhead, I put it on electronic scales and did a full weight and balance on it to allow the 1279 guys to make adjustments to the plane before it was covered. While my work is alternative engines, I am all about getting people flying, and I have a very high degree of airframe expertise. The W&B was part of a large multi-year project I undertook to weigh 30 Pietenpols of all types and publish comprehensive data in the Brodhead Piet Association newsletter. Is there any one out there that thinks the ownership of Rotax is doing things like this for the good of homebuilders? Only an internet newbie to homebuilding would value an instant response to “E-mail sent from a Verizon Blackberry” over having an accurate weight and balance done on your actual aircraft, (at no charge to anyone.)

Steve was invited by the EAA to put on an indoor display on the project all week at Oshkosh 2010. His presentation was extremely well received. I stood in the back of the last one with the EAA’s Director of Homebuilding, Joe Norris. At the end of his presentation, I gave Steve a special present: the cast aluminum valve covers that flew on our own Pietenpol  years ago. He was moved. While I had previously seen 50 chapter projects that were bound for oblivion, it was easy to see that Steve and his crew had what it took to finish and fly their plane.

Later in 2010, when I was in northern California for Corvair College #18, I made sure I reserved time to travel all the way to the southern end of the state, and I personally came out to inspect their project for a few hours, and meet with members of 1279 that I didn’t make it to Brodhead. Again, I think of this as effective support, not the appearance of it.

As Steve’s letter explains, they had an engine issue on ground testing. In all of our manuals, I specifically state that the plane is to be tied down and run at full power for 2 minutes without any type of compromise. When the 1279 guys did this, their engine lost power, and they were quick to investigate. They sent me photos which revealed that a poorly done spark plug helicoil was hanging in the combustion chamber and acting as a glow plug and tripping off detonation. With the assistance of West Coast 601/Corvair builder and pilot Ken Smith, the issue was quickly and inexpensively resolved. Steve later wrote me a letter thanking me for the flight ops manual that gave detail information on first flights and the two-minute test. He directly credited this information with preventing a disaster on the first flight. He said the plane ran well before the two-minute test, and without it, the first flight would have likely ended very poorly. Again, this is the kind of support we are focused on providing.

When the engine issue was being corrected by Ken, I took the time to track down the home phone number of Scott their test pilot. Although I had never met him, I had no hesitation to call him up at home. We had a very productive late night call that covered every detail that a guy who had never flown a Corvair powered plane might need to know. This was over an hour of time well spent. I was able to offer Scott insight not only on the Corvair, but on the specific plane he would be flying, having made the house call to see the plane in person. Combine this with knowing the builders and the guy working on the engine and having personally owned the same airframe/engine combination, and we were able to have a lot more useful combination than shallow non-truths like “it should fly like a Cub.” 

Again, if there is any other alternative engine guy out there offering this kind of support, send me his name, I’d like to meet him. We would get along great. In reality, most companies don’t make house calls because there is nothing in it for them. They already have your money, they are moving on to the next sale. Most of them would be just fine if your plane was never finished or flown, their legal departments know that this is the best liability position for them. Think I’m kidding about this? Hang out very late at night at Oshkosh with me and I will take you to the bars where only the industry people go. Pull up a bar stool next to the polo shirt clad reps on their tenth beer and you can hear this type of commentary yourself. These people still rub elbows with me because I write entertaining stories like “Unicorns vs Ponies” and because they know I can write exposing things about our industry all day long and it isn’t going to change the fact that 95% of the people arriving in experimental aviation are pure consumer mentality, and have little or no interest in becoming an aviator, through the traditional Learn Build and Fly passage.

If your 2013 plan is to expand your personal capabilities in aviation, and be the master of new skills, and do this in the company of like-minded builders, then you are a 5 percenter, and you have come to the right place. I don’t have the capability or the intention of trying to change the minds of people who are only looking for a consumer experience. We are here to work with builders like Steve and the 1279 crew who are committed to really meeting the challenge of getting everything they can out of homebuilding, not just having another surface experience in a life of surface experiences. If the majority of our industry doesn’t care about traditional homebuilding, don’t let it bother you. I have always focused my work on traditional builders, and we will be here to offer them real support for the long run.-ww