Friends,
Here are some of the letters sent in. On the topic of Pietenpols;
Pietenpol builder Harold Bickford writes:
“Thanks for posting this William. The article certainly adds to the information base re: a Piet with Corvair. I’m assuming the Lycoming weighs about what a Continental 65 weighs, i.e. 170lbs. so about 55 of the 95 lbs would be from the Corvair. The performance and CG advantage for the reasons stated are incentive enough to use the Corvair.. I am curious at what gross Bob’s Piet is operating given that the typical gross per Pietenpol is 1080lbs. As an aside enough 1/4″ x 1/2″ was processed over the last two days to make the ribs for our Pietenpol. A band saw, planer and Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators are three useful tools/items that I’m glad are in the shop. – Harold”
Harold, the photo below is our Pietenpol at Brodhead 2000. We flew it up from Florida in 14 hours. We stopped about every 2 hours to take a break and gas up. The empty weight of the plane was 734#. On every one of the loaded take offs the plane was leaving the ground at 1270 to 1280 pounds. At other times we flew the plane as high as 1360 pounds. It was really limited by space, not weight. In air cargo slang it “Cubed out instead of grossing out.”
Bobs Piet in the story is 739# empty. He has an 18 gallon fuel system. The 8oo fpm number refered to the plane with full fuel and two 180 pound people in it on a 70F day. The piet is a very strong plane when it is well built. The traditional 1080# gross weight is a number that was based on a Ford engines climb performance limitations. Bob’s previous gross weight was limited to 900 pounds or so on a very hot day for performance reasons, and maybe 1100 pounds on a very cool day with a long runway. These types of limitations on his aircraft are effectively removed by the Corvairs power.
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Builder Sonny Webster writes:
“Saving weight to increase climb is like saving money to increase profits – eventually you run out of places to cut. To increase performance in a sustainable fashion you will eventually need to increase power/revenues.”
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On the temps article with the Wagabond picture;
Builder Jerry Mcferron writes:
“Would you please post the real world cruise, climb, and useful load numbers for the Wagbond?-Jerry”