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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Congratulation, Philip!Jump on in – the water’s fine. ;0)
You are getting ready to embark on a great adventure, meeting great people like William, Dan Weseman, and other builders and flyers of Corvair engines. It is a great group. Have fun at CC40. It will be a great experience.
Just curious – What airframe?
Thank you, Terry. I didn’t make the CC in Texas and only got a quick glimpse at what happened in Mexico, Mo. As I am busy working on my Ph.D., this core is a wonderful distraction when I have a moment…slow and steady 🙂
The plan is to build a Zenith 601, HD or HDS depends on what kind of wings I can get my hands on (Used, otherwise HDS if new).
I like the Mars idea by the way.
William you can’t blame (or want these people behind a Corvair conversion) people who’s ability to use Google meets that of a 4year old. These people probably have no desire, as you have put it, to have a single masculine event related to their building experience. I jest, but it seems that a lot of people even with the ease of construction due to matched holes, and quick build kits still opt for the hired guns to build their planes. I just hope people will come around and build based on the purpose EAA claims they stand for. Learn Build and Fly.
William what we got here is NOT a failure to communicate. There are some people you just cant reach!!! No matter what.
Congrats Philip. Maybe you can also attend the collage in Barnwell. As for finding core engines it takes time and a lot of research, they are out there. The owners of those engines are not aware that anyone is looking or even wants them. I will be picking up two complete engines in a couple of weeks. I do see that the prices are going up, but they are still cheap compared to the overall cost of the completed engine ready for flight.
Thank you, Bill. I live in Kansas and so far I only know of Texas as being the closest CC college. But at this point, I hope to go to Sun-n-fun and make that my next run-in with William 🙂
A fellow EAA chapter member has 3 cores in his hangar he will never use along with restored Sopwith Camel and a Nieuport. A couple of CORSA members in my town have extra cores and one’s sister lives two houses down from me. Its a small world folks…would not want to paint it though…
Thank you very much everyone! And Thank you, William, for the encouragement!
I’m sorry I just got here to respond but I am very thankful for the opportunity to work on this engine. I might be a bit slow, and probably have very stupid questions, but I enjoy the learning process and I am ok with being made fun of 🙂 Hope to meet more of the corvair family I now belong to soon!