Piet builder Mark Chouinard sent in a photo of his Corvair motor mount on the front end of his plane. The airframe exhibits outstanding craftsmanship, and looks to be in the “light at the end of the tunnel” phase. From this point forward the pace of work tends to increase.
When new guys set started they find it hard to visualize how much more productive per hour they will be in the second half of the plane. Your skills will be far better, you will find a work schedule and rhythm that fits your life, you will have many trusted fellow builders to share info and enthusiasm with, and with enough persistence, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Mark’s plane is a traditional Pietenpol with a number of nice details. The landing gear combines traditional wire wheels from a straight axle gear with J-3 style independent suspension. Disc brakes are modern but appropriately sized. This view gives a good look at the Pietenpol’s structure. Mark has wisely left off the outter skins on the front of the fuselage until everything is built and rigged inside. The Gray powder coated Motor mount we made for him is one of our “High Thrust line” motor mounts. Below are some direct links to Pietenpol stories in our archives. The first three explain the concept of a high thrust line mount.
From our Brodhead 2013 coverage: “After the Forum, we conducted a Tailgate Tech Seminar. Piet builder Mark Chouinard, extreme right, extreme tall, listens as I answer questions. Mark picked up one of our high thrust line Piet Mounts for his project. Jim Boyer of California picked up another one at Brodhead for his Piet. That rounds out the first 10 of these new generation Mounts. While I have previously made Motor Mounts according to the original drawing, all of our Piet mounts from here forward will be high thrust line models.”