Builders:
Above is a photo of Philip Maschke, the winner of our core engine contest.
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At Oshkosh, we had a 1964 Corvair engine core, as removed from the car, ready to rebuild. We had a drawing for it, open to any builder who bought, or already owned a Conversion manual. For builders who already had a core, I offered a $250 credit on parts if they turned up with the winning ticket. When we drew the tickets on Saturday, Philip, who had bought a manual earlier in the week, had the winning number. After congratulations, we loaded it in the back of his vehicle and he started making plans for attending Corvair College #40 in Texas.
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Philip is an interesting guy, a teacher by trade, he took his first flight in a light plane as an EAA Young Eagle at age 17. He shared that he recently took his first Young Eagle for a flight, completing a personal milestone of paying it forward.
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During the week of Airventure, we had several thousand people pass through the tent and our display, the great majority of them positive people, but among them were 40 or 50 who against all evidence of their availability, stated that Corvair core engine were either rare or totally unavailable. I brought each of them over and showed them the give away engine, and asked how rare or priceless could they be if I was willing to give one away? No answer……I suggested they drop by Continental’s display and see if they were willing to give away a rebuild able O-200 core engine.
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I have been working with Corvair flight engines since 1989, in all this time, the supply of core motors has never even flinched at the demand put on by the popularity of flight motors. It is simple math: They made 1.8 million Corvair engines. Even if there are only 2 percent of these left, that is 36,000 engines, more than the total of Rotax 912s ever built. Trust me, I would like to sell 36,000 conversion manuals and prop hubs and spend the money buying the last Martin Mars so I could ferry all our builders down to Corvair Colleges held in the Virgin islands, but alas we will likely just have a supply that will last for the next 35-40 years of homebuilding.
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Wewjr.
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