Here is a plan I have been working on for a long time. the “Corv-air tour.” In a nutshell, We are planning on gathering Corvair powered planes to make a 14 day, multi state tour of the US in 2016. I have spoken with a number of Corvair pilots, all of whom really liked the idea. I am sharing it here, well in advance, because we are now taking suggestions for destinations on the tour, and I invite builders to write in the comments section with ideas.
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Here are the elements that we do have set;
The dates are the first two weeks of September 2016. I want to make the last stop on the tour in Mexico MO, at the Zenith open house, which will also be Zeniths 25th anniversary in Mexico.
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The tour will form a loop, made up of 200-300 mile daily legs. It need not start exactly at Mexico, MO, but the idea is to lay it out so guys who can’t do the whole tour can intercept it for a few days of flying on the segment that passes by their area. I have five guys who have said they intend to fly the whole thing, but many times this have said the are going to catch 4 or 5 days of the tour.
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The idea is to alternate nights between grass airstrip camping with the pilots on the tour enjoying the evening, and then on alternative nights, the tour stops at an EAA chapter, where area Corvair builders can drive in, see finished versions of the planes they have at home in the shop, maybe do some flying in them, and get to know other builders in person. We can have catered dinner brought to the airport and hang out late, and pilots on the tour can head to motels to take a night off from camping. This way the tour can serve both flyers and builders alike, and over the course of the tour, several hundred people can be a part of it. I would also like to get individuals to cover it with posts, videos, and notes, as it is happening.
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If the course is set out in a pattern that looks like a star shape, it is easy to scrub a day’s flying for weather without having to double the next days distance. We can also have extended legs where guys with faster planes can travel out further, expanding the envelope, so the range of the tour isn’t planned around a 75 mph Piet with a 12 gallon tank. While I assume that some types of planes will fly together for fun, the flying between points will be a loose affair, at the pilots discretion. A pilot with a 150 mph plane can sleep in and have a very leisurely morning compared with the Piet pilots. The idea is to have a fun tour, not to run an airline or plan a strike mission. I want it to be casual about everything but safety.
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On general geographic limits, I was thinking about keeping it between Kansas and Kentucky, Wisconsin and Louisiana, but I am open to ideas. To builders outside this area, I will point out that I already have pilots from Florida, California and New England who are planning on flying the tour, and with some planning, their stops traveling to intercept the tour route can be made into ‘satellite’ tour stops and a chance for builders to meet in person.
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A thought: I have been going to aviation gatherings for more than 25 years, and they are fun, but they are all focused on things being done on the ground. The Corv-air tour is an event that can rebalance this by bringing half the focus back to flying. Going to Oshkosh is great, but it doesn’t really have any of our flying at it, and a Corvair builder can’t even hear an engine run there. Conversely, the tour will be the perfect opportunity for a builder to see up close and personal, what he is working towards, to meet others and have a good time. It can be the perfect mesh of building and flying experiences, something completely focused on the purest elements of homebuilding, removed from all the consumer pollutants that fill up “airshows” and too many of our magazines. It can be anything we wish to make it, and I believe that this format will prove to be a great return to pure homebuilding.
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I look forward to reading ideas in the comments section, or you can email them to me directly. -ww.
