College and Western Tour update

Builders,

I have spent the first weeks of this year focused on shop work and shipping parts, and thus writing has been on the back burner. But I did want to post this note about Colleges. The sign up links for Corvair Colleges #36, #37 , #38 and #39 has been up for ten days, you can read the story here: 2016 Corvair College registration pages.

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The Colleges are steadily filling, and be advised not to delay signing up if you are considering attending. A quick look at the numbers:

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Texas College 35% full, sign up closes when it is full, or on 1st of March, which ever happens first;

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Chino College: 40% full

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Cloverdale College 30% full (be advised, limited space means it can fill much quicker than other Colleges)

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November College in Barnwell, 20%

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One of the goals of the tour is to meet as many builders as possible. Beyond the colleges, I want to have at least 10 “Night Schools”, like we did on this tour:  : A decade later: Midwest tour, winter 2005.  I also plan to visit many builders projects like this House Call on Pat Green’s 1,000 Hour Pietenpol and this Corvair House Call, Range: 335 miles. Below are some of the proposed stops the driving legs. If you are not too far off the route, and considering hosting a night school or would like a house call, write it in the comments section, or send me an email with “Tour” in the subject line.

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The travel route and some of the proposed stops:

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Leg One: Austin to Chino, April 5-20

Santa Fe NM

Yuma AZ

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Leg Two: Chino to Cloverdale April 25-May 5

Hanford CA

San Jose CA

Vacaville CA

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Leg Three: Cloverdale to Portland OR. May 10-15

Spencer Rice’s shop, Portland OR.

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Leg Four: Portland to North Dakota.

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Leg Five: North Dakota to Mexico MO

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Real grass roots homebuilding: Above is the collection of Iowa builders who showed up for the Night School in Dr. Steve’s Minart’s garage on a very chilly night in the winter of 2005. While most experimental aviation companies tout their ‘customer service’, there probably isn’t another company in experimental aviation that can match our decades long tradition of meeting homebuilders in the field to teach what we have learned. Although I am a prolific writer of both websites and paper books, I can conclusively state that I have taught more builders important techniques in person than with words. Builders need both, but almost no companies offer hands on training at many locations each year, and none of them do it for free like I do.

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….BTW, Steve has been flying the engine in the picture for nine years.

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