Corvair College #24, reviewed in photos, part one.
Friends,
Corvair College #24, the third one we held at Barnwell South Carolina, is now in the history books. After most colleges I sit down and write down a lot of thoughts and ideas that came with the college experience, mix them in with many photos and share them with builders. This review will be a little different, I’ll just let the photos tell the story with minimal captions.
We made it home only 18 hours ago. I slept less than 2 hours the night before leaving, and worked from 7:30 am until 1 am each day of the college. We didn’t leave Sunday until an hour after dark. Today we spent unpacking, as we came up in 3 trucks and 2 trailers. Pictures seem appropriate to cover the story now because my memories of the event are more of a montage of small moments rather than a story line with a central theme. In a week or two that will probably emerge out of the images, but for tonight, every picture will have to tell it’s own story.
Above, One of the first planes on hand, Jerry Baak’s 601XL with conventional gear. First time I had seen this plane in person. 2,700 cc with a Dan bearing, and all of our components.
Above, Pietenpols of Don Harper (near) and PF Beck (far). They are sister ships in almost every way, with two exceptions: Don’s is a long fuselage and it had a Ribblett airfoil instead of a traditional Pietenpol airfoil. Shortly, PF will be able to offer factual comparative data on the flight performance of each of the airfoils. On the internet, armchair aerodynamictists have pontificated about this from imaginary data for years. Thanks to PF and Don, we will have information worth reading.
Above, Jerry’s engine compartment. Magnificent workmanship. Our Heavy duty oil system fits exactly as intended with the Weseman baffling kit. Plane uses a MA3-spa carb.
Above, our standard 13″ spinner and 66″ warp drive prop combination. note air inlet rings. Jerry reports that the plane runs cool.
Above, Zenith 650 builder and CC#22 grad Larry Magruder works on his 2,700cc Dan bearing engine. It ran on the stand on the last day of the college.
Above, A look at Don’s engine compartment with swing out side panel. This plane uses a front starter and a basic 4 bearing set up.
Above, Pietenpol builder Terry Hand showed up with a very rare find. This is an original 1933 design steel tube fuselage for a Piet made to the flying and glider manual drawings. It was less than half the weight of a steel tube fuselage built to Grega plans. On the front we test fit the high thrust line Piet mount we made for Bob Dewinter’s Piet. We brought this fuselage back to our hangar to make Terry a custom mount and set of die spring landing gear legs. We will have more on this in the next two months.
Above, Corvair college #12 and #16 host Ed Fisher (left) speaks with Brother Roy. Ed has restarted the Sport Aviation Association, Paul Poberesney’s grass-roots aviation group. He has a membership of nearly 750 hard-core traditional homebuilders signed up for it. It is purely about home building, by homebuilders, for homebuilders.
Above, KR-2 pilot Dan Heath flew in for his second year in a row at Barnwell. The plane was looking sharp with a new paint job. The engine is a 2,700 cc Roy bearing engine that has many of our components including our KR/Corvair cowl. The prop is a 54 x 54 Sensenich, the Carb is an Ellison EFS-3A.
Below, father,son and grandson team of the Reddits working on their engine core, destined to be a 3,000 cc engine powering the family project, a Zenith 750.
Above, Phil Maxson of NJ with his Corvair powered 601 XL that has been flying since 2006.
Above, Brian Dempsy, long time EAA member, noted formula V air racer and former C1a world record speed holder works on his Corvair at the college. Brian’s best known aircraft is the racer “Miss Annapolis”.
