We are now approaching Corvair College #24. I spent all day working in the shop on college prep stuff and building a stock pile of parts. Vern and Terry have put in a large effort with me in the last 10 days, including overhauling the run stand and making a lot of detail changes to it that will allow much faster engine changes.
In the morning, Bob Lester is flying over in his Pietenpol. This aircraft used to have a 145 cid 65 hp Lycoming on it, but Bob installed his Corvair in its place. By car, it take 2.5 hours to drive to Bob’s airport, but the Piet can now do it in 65 minutes. Bob got a 20 hour test period and flew it off without issue in 10 days. He is headed over here so we can do a weight and balance on the same electronic scales that I measured 20 other Piets on in the last 2 years. Bob reports that the planes climb rate is nearly four times higher with the Corvair. (Yes having 2 times the power can do this because planes climb on excess power, not total power. ) Bob is already signed up to bring his plane to CC#24. P.F. Beck our local host in Barnwell has his own Corvair powered Piet, so we will have at least a pair of them. I spoke with a 750 pilot who is working to fly in and we are also expecting a Cleanex and several 601’s. It promises to be a very good turn out.
The event will be a large, full-scale College held at the same location of the highly successful Colleges #19 and #21. Corvair/Pietenpol builder/flyer and Cherry Grove Trophy winner P.F. Beck, and his great crew, again are the location hosts. The prep work for the College has been ongoing for 10 months, and it builds on the outstanding work that P.F. and crew did in earlier years. We are going to close the regular registration before the event, don’t wait until it is too late to sign up.
If this is going to be your first College, I highly recommend that you read about all the previous ones at this link to our main Web page: http://www.flycorvair.com/cc23.html
