Day: June 21, 2019

Builders:

Zenith 601XL/Corvair builder and flyer Phil Maxson was here at my place in Florida earlier in the week. In addition to catching up, we shot the Oil change video, and took a few quiet moments to catch this interview style video in my back yard.  Part of the reason the topics came up was Chris Welsh, my roommate from Embry-Riddle was present, and the three of us had spent the previous evening kicked back and covering some of the same terrain.

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The Video is a lot broader in scope than the subject of Corvairs. If you have someone in your life who is yet to understand what you are pursuing in your workshop, perhaps a link to this video will shed some light to your mindset.

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https://youtu.be/DmTuBQpjl34

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Above, the link to the 25 minute interview. If you have never met me in person, here is a view of what a morning in my backyard actually looks like, perhaps very different than you might guess from just following my writings. We cover a number of topics, including the original of modern Corvair building, my evolution to the mindset of a homebuilder, and the values of mastery vs ownership.  Its not quick, if you are pinched for time, save it for a time where you can watch it sitting down with a coffee or a beer.

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If this kind of discussion is not to your tempo or temperament, just pass it. It doesn’t have any technical info in it, just ideas and thoughts.  Phil and I are prone to considering things as if we are H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan out on a road trip to ‘take the national temperature’. 

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wewjr

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Builders,

Today I received a number of questions asking for a bit of clarification on last nights Pietenpol story. In that story I tried to explain some of the planes issues.

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 If you are real new to aviation, a ‘Parasol’ is an airplane configured to look like a biplane without lower wings.  Just after WWI, this was the configuration of choice for front line combat fighters. It persisted into the 1920s, and they were the bridge between biplanes and cabin monoplanes. The most famous one today is the 90 year old Pietenpol Aircamper, but over the years, there have been a number of classic homebuilts with this configuration, and some factory built beauties like the Fairchild 22.

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In the interest of sharing some info which all Piet builders should understand, , I made a quick video using a ugly balsa representation of a parasol. The esthetics shouldn’t deter anyone from understanding the concepts.

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https://youtu.be/85mnnWOjFKI

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Note, I was tired when I shot this, I did it in one take, and without any kind of a script. I just had a phone call where I was explaining the difference between compression and column bending to a builder who was asking about jury struts. Twice in the video I mistakenly say column bending instead of compressive load. Just ignore it, thanks.

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If you have any comments or questions on the video, please share them here. If you have not yet, please subscribe to the Youtube channel. Having 1,000 subscribers will allow us to put links to stories directly in the video comments.

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WEWjr.

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