Builders,
Vern and I were welding in the shop last night until 1AM. In a few minutes, I will be back out there and working all day. Vern and I are working on a very large batch of motor mounts slated to go into power coating on Wednesday. We have less than two weeks to CC#31, and we are in the phase of back to back 14 hour days. It is productive, and many parts are headed, to builders this week, not just to people headed to the College.
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I have laid off writing in recent weeks as we move closer to the College and the end of the year. Some people miss that I do most of the writing when I am on the road, and don’t have access to the shop. I also go through phases where I am convinced that few people read the stuff in detail. The counter on this site is nearing 700,000 page reads in 33 months, but at a recent college I asked 40 builders if they had seen the detailed story Balancer Installation. Exactly zero out of forty had read it. Not very encouraging.
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If you would like to review your own reading list, click on this link to 200 of the 589 stories on this site, they are listed in groups. 200 Stories of aircraft building. In the last 5 years, I have seen less than 5 hours worth of television total, but I have read more than 200 books. Everyone can spend their time how they like, but I get a lot more out of reading than entertainment. If you want to have a Corvair powered plane that serves you, that you really know, reading will be the best path to get there.
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Behind the scenes we have had some real advancements in parts and shop ability. We have had a long wait for intakes because the friend of mine who owns the robotic tubing bending company that made them for us for 10 years has become astronomically wealthy by switching from producing parts for the aircraft industry to the medical industry. O2 concentrators are much better revenue that fuel injection lines. By appealing to our 25 year friendship I have gotten him to agree to make 3 years worth of intake pipes in a single run, and we should have these just after CC#31, and will shortly be sending them out as the flanges and brackets for them are already made.
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This fall I have invested countless hours in getting our Jacksonville cylinder head source perfected. While Mark at Falcon still makes fine heads, his back order list is at least 6 months, and in many cases it has been well over a year. For builders moving faster, we have our new source here. We have had several rounds of test and production heads and we are close to having heads on the shelf to exchange. Right now I have 36 pairs that I own personally lined up to be processed. More news shortly.
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Even shop capability like our cleaning and blasting cabinets are being upgraded here to shorten the time on items like 2000HV oil cases. I bought a compressor so powerful that it can relentlessly hold 175 psi against an open 3/16″ blast gun nozzle. Yesterday the electrician was in the hangar installing a dedicated 100 amp line to run the unit. You can never have tools too big or industrial.
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If you have an important question, please send it to my personal email directly, with a number and time I can return the call. It will likely be too loud in the shop today to hear the phone, but I will be glad to get back to you. -ww.
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vern builds a wicked three wheel motorcycle too!!!
William, first of all you need to realize that there is a large community of people who follow your blogs for all of the right reasons. There is a dearth of intelligent commentary in our society,and most well balanced people relish good, well thought out dialogue and commentary. While I have not started my Corvair project yet, I have been reading your site for four years and have forwarded your thoughts on many different subjects to many friends who have no ties to the Corvair movement. Universally the responses are very positive in nature and congratulatory to me for sharing the thoughts of someone well read who has a great philosophy of life. Your ongoing commentary about your farther, life choices, and self help philosophy strike a chord with many people that you never would imagine. I would bet that many other readers pass on your “stories” as well. Remenber, if you are touching just one person positively any time you publish your thoughts, you are making a huge difference to the world around you.
Just a note to say thank you, and I look forward to meeting you in person in Barnwell next week!
Randy Cary
Could not have said it better myself. I look forward to this blog every day. I also find myself re-reading the archives because every piece of necessary information is there.
Jeff Moores
Corvair/Merlin
Please keep the articles coming. I, for one, check the site almost every day and am always excited to see a new article.
William,
As I prepare for my engine assembly, I have been reading your site, many entries over and over. When there is step by step assembly details with photos, I copy them into my Engine Notes’ Word document as I will be bringing my laptop into the shop on assembly day. I will have your DVD’s, building manual, and these notes nearby to condense into my Engine Building Log. I noted your response to the question on reading the harmonic balancer blog entry. I didn’t remember it either, but it was in my Notes. I think there is a difference between reading and note taking. Having gathered the notes for later use, I dismissed the memory of reading them, knowing they will be reviewed before use.
I find your part numbering system very helpful in focusing my time at buying parts, readying the parts for assembly and backing this up with the technology to assemble with the right information.
As I am one with an Intake system on order, I am glad to hear there is vendor supply coming to you. My goal is to have my engine assembled by New Years.
I also forward your inspiration to other builders and flyers. I especially like the comments that opinions that are against the laws of chemistry and physics are sorted out at the airport.