Pietenpol 2,775 cc Corvair; Trevor Rushton from UK

Builders,

The fourth engine to run at the Corvair Finishing School #2  was the 2,775 cc engine done by Trevor Rushton, who flew over from Britain for the school.  He assembled the entire engine from its most basic components in two 10 hour days.  Because aircraft in the UK must meet the stringent standards of their LAA, the assembly required a high level of documentation, which I had to sign off as done under my supervision.

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Even with this extra time requirement, Trevor easily got the engine documented, completed and on the run stand during the finishing school.  As a crass colonial grease monkey, I am usually the champion of American ingenuity, but truth requires I say that Trevor might very well have come close to setting the record of most efficient builder at a Corvair event.  I honestly don’t think any of us could have gone east across the pond and made as good a showing assembling a Gypsy Major engine on their soil.

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The engine is a 2,775 cc “Engine in a Box” kit that Trevor purchased through SPA/Panther in advance of attending the Finishing school. If you are interested in learning more about the kit engine program, please call Rachel directly at the SPA hotline: 904 626 7777.

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Above, Trevor hard at work, measuring and documenting the case bore diameters utilizing the advanced tooling that Dan and I maintain for engine development and process quality control. The LAA governing body of sport aircraft in the UK, requires individual engines built to be documented in great detail, under supervision of approved inspectors. Trevor secured prior approval from the LAA that I could act as such an inspector on his engine build.  For builders with great enthusiasm, we will gladly match any effort they make toward special requirements. Much of the original contact and communication with Trevor was done by Terry Hand (in Happy Birthday to the USMC   story last week) who runs our “Pietvair” discussion group.

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The pay off: Trevor taking his engine through a perfect test run.  It is destined to power his Pietenpol, slated to be finished at the end of 2017 or early 2018.  After watching him work, I tend to think his time estimates are reasonable.  I told him I would probably fly to Britain to see it launched.

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Something about working with Trevor: I had many things I wanted to hear his perspective on, but we ended up speaking about the greatest UK import to the US in the last 100 years: Music. In the last 40 years I spent countless hours listening to Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Rolling Stones, all band from Trevor’s land.  I have never been to the UK, but know something about Brighton in the 1960s from listening to Quadrophenia a zillion times. Trevor said he was neither a Mod nor a Rocker, perhaps just a little of both.

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-ww.

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