Participation in Discussion Groups and Colleges.

Builders:

At the most basic level, my work is simply sharing what I have painstakingly learned over 25 years with builders who will use this knowledge to understand, create and master the power plant on their homebuilt aircraft. Yes, we make and sell parts, but we do this to provide the hardware of learning. Aviation is full of consumer products that people buy and have with no understanding, but that is on the other end of the spectrum from my work.

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The information flows through a number of paths, including both of our websites, the manuals, DVD’s and videos, emails and phone calls, and speaking with builders in settings as large as Oshkosh and as focused as making a house call to their shop.

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We also have two other very important paths, our private Zen-vair and Piet-vair discussion groups ( “Zen-vair” and “Piet-vair” Discussion Groups, your resource. ) and our Corvair Colleges ( Corvair College reference page ) These latter paths are excellent sources of learning for builders who are using our information and parts to become the creator and master of their own engine.

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I have said in countless places, that our colleges and discussion groups are just for people who want to understand and follow the parts methods and processes that 25 years has shown work. I am under no obligation to have people at colleges trying to fix junk from bankrupt LLC’s  ( “Beautiful” Garbage from a bankrupt source ) nor am I required to have endless discussions of what might work ( Sherpas. Part #2 ) on our private groups.  Although I constantly promote other business and sources that work for our builders, I don’t allow our discussion groups to be used to promote businesses that have a poor track record.

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There is a sub group of personalities on the net, who will decry my choice to stay focused as “Censorship”. The same people often like ideas like private property and individual freedoms, but for some reason I am a tyrant for insisting that our private events and groups not have the anonymity and chaos that is available on hundreds of other aviation discussion groups like “Corvaircraft”  If you want to learn why I choose to be focused in our efforts, get a look at this: Thought for the day: “Censorship” on the net .  Years ago, I wrote 400 technical posts for open internet groups, mostly on ‘Corvaircraft’. I have tried both open and focused private groups, and there is no question that my time produces more learning and builder progress in our private groups and focused Colleges. My life, my choice, I suggest reading this and making your own: How many flying seasons? With whom will you spend them?

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The last few days saw two people on the open net group “Corvaircraft” say that I censored their comments and bumped them off our private Zen-vair discussion group.  The implication was that I was a censorship tyrant. They neatly forgot to mention the actual issue, or that I had spoken to them about it several times, including an hour long phone call the night before I cut off their ability to post on the private group.

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The actual issue: Both of these people are friends and supporters Of Roy Sarafinski of Roy’s Garage. Both of them disagree with my choice to no longer promote his work ( Sources: Group 1500 – New cylinder head source ) They were both using my group to get around this. I spoke to them about it, and they made the choice to continue.  If they don’t like the results, they could form their own groups, or even go out and put on 34 colleges promoting their path, but is suspect they will just spend their on ‘Corvaircraft’ complaining, I find it mildly ironic when people do this, they are often taking the position that I am somehow the major impediment to people building and flying Corvair powered planes, and that my work of the last 25 years is a net negative in Corvair powered flight.

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That exact argument, presented on any open internet homebuilding group will always bring verbal ‘high fives’ from a wide array of personalities, all chiming in. If you speak your mind in public for 25 years writing stories like this: Homebuilding, Mt. Everest and Sherpas. and Unicorns vs Ponies. and The cost of tolerating fools, you will make ‘enemies’ of a large number of people who spend all day at their keyboard, people who will chime in on any negative mention of my name.

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I get plenty of hate mail from people who hate southerners, (I am a Yankee) hate people with long hair ( I have had short hair most of my life) hate Americans ( I spend a lot of words pointing out our failings) and hate smart people ( I wrote this about myself Lifestyles of Troglodytes ) Be assured that each of the 735 stories on this site offended at least one person, and a few dozen of these people are always willing to chime in to call me an egotistical tyrant, seemingly unaware of the concept ‘there is no such thing as bad publicity’ and their contribution to my efforts.

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On the open web, people will always try to claim I randomly exclude people I don’t like, and that there is some type of mass list of people that have been excluded from our Discussion groups and Colleges. Having just 2 of more than 100 builders on our Zen-vair group loose their ability to post there hardly constitutes a land slide. In 34 Colleges, I have told 3 people to leave, and specifically told 2 others they were not invited. 34 Colleges times an average of 50 people is nearly 2,000 builders. 5/2000 is a very small fraction.

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If you want to Come to a College, or you want to sign up for a private discussion group, don’t let anyone tell you that you are not welcome. I have a very broad range of builders, and they all get why I have chosen to stay focused on progress, not debate. If you came to learn and build, than we have a place for you.

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“Zen-vair” and “Piet-vair” Discussion Groups, your resource.

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Above, Phil Maxson with his Corvair powered 601 XL at Corvair College #24 in Barnwell SC. Phil Maxson goes to 3,000 cc for his 601XL Phil is the moderator of our Zen-vair discussion group. To debunk the idea I only work with people who are like me, a Comparison: Phil is a white collar corporate exec. and is actually a southerner. I am blue collar Yankee, He has kids, I have none; We belong to different political parties, we have different faiths, and he is a very smart guy and I am a monkey. Phil happily drives a Prius, and given the choice, I would rather be caught wearing a dress and smoking crack. When it all boils down, the only thing we have in common is being motivated to share what we know about, learning building and flying homebuilts.

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In the history of 34 Corvair colleges, I have thrown out 3 people. As mentioned here: Would you allow a combat Veteran to be called a “Whack job”? I tossed the first one for insisting it was his ‘right’ to say anything he wanted to an 82 year old veteran in my hangar. The second was a person who thought it was his right to use the word “Nigger” repeatedly (Note: this person was from New England not the south) and the third was a person who felt he had the ‘right’ to attend several colleges and never sign up to evade paying his share of the local hosts expenses.  All three of these people later went on the open net ‘Corvaircraft’ group and used many opportunities to tell people what a bad person I am, although their comments forgot to mention their respective credentials as an asshole, a racist and a thief.

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