Builders,

Here is something funny from Oshkosh 2019. I am making fun of the square edge of top of Randy Bush’s Pietenpol cowling; this is done in jest, as I love Randy and he knows it, he is the person laughing in the background.

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Randy is part of our Oshkosh crew every year. There is no explanation for it, but some some reason Ken Pavlou, nick named him “Pot Roast”, and the name has stuck ever since.

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If you want to read more about Randy, get a look at these stories:

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Randy Bush’s Pietenpol hits 500 hours.

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Oshkosh 2019

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Above, Randy stands beside his 3,000cc Cleanex at Oshkosh 2017. Yes, “Pot Roast” has two Corvair Powered planes, and they have more than 1,000 hours between them.

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WW.

Builders,

Below is a quick look and a video introduction to our new “Maintenance, Operations and Procedures manual

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Above, the cover: If you ar building or flying a Corvair powered plane, you need to own one of these. It is made up from data pulled together from my experience and that of Dan Weseman. Once or twice a month, we have a builder who calls us who has completely missed missed critical technical data we have previously presented in many formats. Here we have gathered critical information into a single, easily followed location. This is thousands of hours of testing, hundreds of hours writing, and all we ask of builders is to spend one hour reading it, and keep it on hand at all times, and follow it.

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Above, a look at the table of contents.

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Above, Three of the people who made the greatest contribution to getting this document into print.

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Above, a video explaining the content of the new MOP manual, and what its different about it.

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You can get your copy here:

http://shop.flycorvair.com/product-category/manuals/

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Thank you, William.

Builders,

Just a 12 hours to go before departure for Corvair College #44 At the Zenith Aircraft Factory, but we are still prepping regular parts to be shipped by SPA while we are on the road.

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Above, two STOL bowl, production parts. One is for Florida Zenith builder Ramesh Nori, the other one is yet to be adopted. If you would like to be the new owner, all you have to do is call Lisa at SPA: 904-626-7777, place the order, and it will be shipped on Thursday.  Care and feeding is easier than adopting a puppy, plus, your STOL bowl will not ruin your carpet nor chew shoes.

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Looking forward to seeing many of you at the College.

WW.

Builders,

A quick look at Sunday night, outside my hangar. Dan Weseman was looking for an intake design and a Carb orientation and model, specifically for Corvair powered Panthers with tricycle gear. Tonight was the test run, and it turned out amazingly good.

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Above, a look at the back of my test stand; Notice it is now sporting two lab grade 5 wire O2 driven Air/Fuel meters.  The test question was essentially this: If a Rotec TBI is turned 90 decrees, will it still have excellent mixture distribution to both sides of the engine. The answer is yes. This was the largest spread under power, .3 on the air/fuel ration. That is as good as carbureted engines get.

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Above, Dan runs the controls.

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Above, a look at the Rotec on the manifold. It started and ran exceptionally well.

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After tests, Dan Rachel and I ate dinner at their place and talked about a lot of stuff, ranging from airport business to the new “Ford vs Ferrari” movie. It was a real nice end to a productive weekend.

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For more info on carbs, look at this: Corvair Carb Reference page for 2020.

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Builders :

Your Friday the 13th, Full moon, question: 

Do you vote for “The Hat of Power” , “The Fez of Kamal” or “Pail of Professionalism”?  Does head wear make the man? Would you be confident enough to rock one of these styles? Who is the biggest badass if the land of Corvairs? Here your franchise counts, vote and give your reason in the comments.

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Above,  Kevin Purtee When you’re a badass like Kevin, any hat you wear is “The Hat of Power.” To understand more, read: Kevin Purtee and “The Hat of Power”

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Read this to get a better look at his aviation professionalism: Thought for the Day: Two paths in managing risk and get a look at how he thinks: Guest Writer: Pietenpol builder/flyer Kevin Purtee

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Above, a Fez and wrap-around shades are the hallmarks of the man I often introduce as  “Kamal Mustafa, my attorney”. This is Ken “Adonis” Pavlou advises aviators: “Life is short, Live Large”

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The whole point of homebuilding is to get you to the self reliant mindset, where you follow positive flying examples rather than listen to people who still live in a world of doubt and fear.  You deserve to have your own adventures like Ken’s: 1,500 mile Corvair College flight in a 601XL ,

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Above, Witness “The Pail of Professionalism” (it is covered in Unicorns and rainbows)  If there is a Renaissance  Man in Corvairs, it is Dan Weseman. When it comes to stick and rudder flying, he has few peers. He learns things at an astounding rate. (Frankly, if you are a troglodyte it’s annoying) He is a born motorhead, as evidenced by this: SPA / Weseman 3.3 Liter Corvair now running and if you want to read about the last word in Corvair Performance, check this out: Understanding Flying Corvairs Pt. #2, Hardest working engine

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Make your voice heard! Polls close after this weekend, and just like cook county in 1960, feel free to vote twice.

-ww.

Builders:

Don Harper called with the word that P.F. Beck had passed this afternoon. It was a short call. There was nothing either of us could say that would begin to express the loss of a human being like P. F.  Don, who has been close to P.F. for decades simply said “They broke the mold when they made him.” I agreed. In 30 years in aviation, I have never met another aviator with the spirit and qualities of character of P.F., and it doesn’t seem likely I ever will. If you never had a chance to meet him, it will be very hard to appreciate the loss, but trust me, it can’t be overstated.

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Above, P.F. Beck in the black shirt and part of his loyal crew at Barnwell. I shot this the last hour of Corvair College #43 last november. These people brought you Nine Corvair Colleges.  – think about that; not just 20% of the Colleges held, but because of their size, 35% of the people who attended a College did so at Barnwell.  There were very detailed events, and the typical budget was over $7,000, but not a dime went to these people, they did it all as a show of South Carolina hospitality, their belief in the Corvair as an excellent way of getting more active builders in experimental aviation, and a particularly strong pride in their home airport, a facility they devoted a large part of their lives to.

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Above, P.F holds The Cherry Grove Trophy in front of his Pietenpol.  This was taken at Corvair College #21.  Left to right are Joe Horton,  Dan Weseman, P.F. Beck, and Mark Langford, They were the first four of the eventual eight trophy winners.

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Above, 2011, the fourth recipient of the trophy was PF Beck. We made the official presentation to P.F. at the dinner at CC#21. He eventually had hundreds of flight hours on his Corvair powered Pietenpol. Not only did he host 9 Corvair Colleges he attended a number of others He was a first class gentleman, incredibly modest, and a skilled aviator with decades of experience. For these reasons, everyone felt that he was the outstanding candidate for the Trophy in 2011.

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For a look at the EAA film about the 2013 Barnwell College, Which has P.F. in it,  click here: New EAA video on Corvair College#27, Barnwell 2013.

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Above, Brodhead 2013. P.F, was the head of forums that year. P.F.’s positive influence on homebuilding went well beyond South Carolina.  P.F. was a source of encouragement and factual information to countless builders. He made homebuilding a welcoming and friendly setting.

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Above,  P F Beck, seen above in his Pietenpol, This was at CC#19, the first College we held at Barnwell. P.F. eventually flew more than 300 people in his plane.

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A simple photo from Corvair College #19, with a detail that says a lot about P.F.’s personal style; If you look closely, the catering trays are almost empty. This is because at P.F.’s events, he always made certain of two things; he was always the last person in the chow line, and he lead everyone in a prayer of thanks before sitting down to eat.

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Col. John Nerges, above left, thanks P.F. Beck for his flight in P.F.’s Pietenpol. These types of smiles were what being an aviator was all about to P.F.

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Blue Skies and tailwinds P.F., you will always be missed.

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Builders,

With the help of Phil Maxson, I have started a new Face Book page just for builders who are working with our Corvair flight engines to share stories pictures and videos. It is titled “WW Flycorvair”.  You don’t have to be on Face Book to read it, you can just directly get there with this link:

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/1117842541937300/

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For the last several years we have used a Face Book Page “Corvair College” to post things on, and it’s still there for the time being, But I wanted to switch to a Face Book page with the same name as our Youtube channel. We first tried renaming the page, but this was repeatedly blocked by Face Book with a zeal appropriate for preventing nuclear war.  Youtube has it’s own Channel rules which only make sense to the PC warriors at their HQ in California, I follow them, but I protect my sanity by not trying to make sense of them. This is the YouTube channel:

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtg0vELIaWV7NoSEHNzpHwQ?view_as=subscriber

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Anyone can read the new Face Book page, but to comment on it, you need to join the group. This isn’t a big deal, just click on the link, if you choose.

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Now, the bigger picture: I have posted about 10 stories on the Face Book page, and in their description or in the comments, I have included links to applicable technical stories on my blog: http://flycorvair.net or from our Youtube channel.  This is a partial demonstration of where we are going with with information this fall.

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Flycorvair.com is best understood as my store of products and my historical library;

Flycorvair.net is my collection of 1,200 technical stories written in the last 8 years.

WW Flycorvair, the Face Book page will function as your 24 hour news channel

and WW Flycorvair the Youtube channel with be the video arm to support the mission.

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The last link of the project you can directly help with: I have to reach 1,000 subscribers on the Youtube channel before they will allow us to direct put hyperlinks  into the descriptions of the videos. If you have not yet done so, please subscribe. When we reach the threshold, I will then be able to directly link all the applicable stories on Flycorvair.net to each of the new youtube videos as we upload them. This will make it far easier to any builder to access the in depth technical background of each subject he has just seen in a video. It is a goal I’d like to reach in the next 60 days. As I write this, we already have 760 subscribers, but we still need you.

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Thank You, WW.

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Above, the introductory video for my Youtube Channel. Builders love the videos, but a fair number of people have said the background music wasn’t soothing. When Ken Pavlou and I set the channel up, we were at a bit of a loss on what to use, because the   fascist copywrite police at Youtube will close your channel if you use even a snippet of any known song. The solution was at out fingertips: I had a 2004 CD of a band named Hercoma, and we chose the first song. I knew it would be ok, as it is the work of Ron the Drummer. 

 

Builders,

One of the best known Corvair powered planes in the world is now in finish paint, and it looks great. This plane is a many year project of a very interesting husband and wife team from Long Island, Jim and Ginger Tomaszewski. The plane has about 20 hours of flight testing on it now, Jim is going to start the second half of Phase one testing this week.

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Below the video link are links to a number of the stories I have written about the project over the years. In retrospect one of the humorous things about this plane is  this question: Were there more internet ‘experts’ who said it could never fly, or were their more RV conformists who compulsively needed to say “That isn’t an RV” even though Jim never said it was? I don’t know the answer, I’m an aircraft mechanic, I don’t keep mental illness statistics. In the end it is a stunning achievement, and the fact it is an excellent tool for exposing compulsively negative conformists is just a small side benefit.

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Click on the picture to see the video. Read more about the plane here: JAG-2, Corvair Twin, Photos, Videos and Drawing.

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Other Videos:

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Videos of taxi testing…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ktkfWR_xdsE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K7uT0BvTKrE

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Video of first flight…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gb4xl_XDJcQ&feature=youtu.be

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 Above, a Corvair College #31 photo of Jim and Ginger with their engines twin 3,000 cc Corvairs, first class motors with Weseman billet cranks and 5th bearings. The engines use all of our parts, including 2400-L ultra lightweight starters.
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Here is a link to a story about the engines:

12 Cylinders / 6.0L of Corvair Power for JAG-2 run at CC#31

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Here is a link to a story with many details about the design and construction of the airframe:

JAG-2, Corvair Powered Twin, Jim Tomaszewski, N.Y.

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-ww.

 

Builders,

This is the first official announcement of the details of Corvair College #45, which will be held this November 14-16th in Deland Florida. We are doing this by special arrangement at the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase. (https://www.sportaviationshowcase.com)  I have working most of the year with Jana Filip, the director of the Showcase, and this will be a productive College in really motivating setting. 

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For the last decade, our November flagship Corvair Colleges have been held in Barnwell SC.  These were spectacular events, for a look check out this video made by a professional EAA film crew dispatched to cover #27: New EAA video on Corvair College. All great things do pass, and the Barnwell crew has more than earned their place in Corvair history, and a well deserved stand down. This year, we are holding our flagship College in Deland, about 75 miles south of us.

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I’m getting this notice out now, because we are just 83 days away, and if you are heading to the College, today is the day to get a plan in gear. If you want to build a motor or advance your project, you will need parts, and now is the time to check in with SPA so they can make sure you take delivery of all the stuff you will need. Calling in or ordering on line is actually more important than the sign up, which we will have next week.

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.Above, I give a hands on demonstration of setting the valve adjustment on a Corvair. We have now been holding Corvair Colleges for 20 years. They are outstanding opportunities to learn.

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Above is a really good video which Rachel shot and edited at a previous Barnwell Corvair College. It is an excellent look at builders having a fun, productive time.

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Colleges are a lot of fun. Bill “Snow suit” Beauvais, does his best “Captain Morgan” pose with his minutes old Pietenpol engine.To get a look at this tradition, read: “Captain Morgan” Contest at #39

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 Get a good look at David Koshinski’s smiling mug. This is the face of a very happy man. What produces this expression? The satisfaction of having an engine that you built with your own hands, an engine you really understand,  lay down a perfect break in run. This will be available at #45 for builders who decide to act and advance their project this year.

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Is there an on line sign up for this College?

Yes, I will have a link to it posted here within a week.

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Is there a fee for this College? 

Yes, Signing up on line for College #45 is required, The on line link will have the pricing, which will include a three day all access pass to the DeLand Showcase. Many previous Colleges have had catered food, but for #45, we are encouraging all people attending the College to patronize the food vendors who will be right on site at the Showcase. The technical support we offer at the College is provided without cost to builders, the costs of the College on line just represent the entry fee and costs of the very large commercial tent which the Showcase management are providing for us. We only have 45 slots available for the College, make sure you sign up early.

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 Will there be a chance to build an ‘Engine in a Box’ at this College?

Yes,  builders who would like to buy, assemble and test run a 3.3L “engine in a box kit” at this event can. For an overview of the 3.3 engine read this story: Build a 3.3L Corvair at the May 18-20 Workshop/Open house. You can also select one of the smaller kit engines. If you are interested in one of these motors, do not delay, please Contact Rachel at SPA/Panther at 904-626-7777, so yours can be ready.

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OK, my project needs progress, what do I do? 

First, call SPA at 904-626-7777, or call my number 904-806-8143. We will be glad to speak with you about making sure you are prepared for the event. Making plans early is the key to making progress at the event. At the last hour of a College, prepared builders often say some version of ‘I can’t believe how much I learned and accomplished.’ No one has ever followed that statement by saying ‘I regret being smarter and advancing my goals.’

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Keep in mind:

 We will also be glad to transport for parts like cases cranks and heads back to our shops.  Even if you are just planning on having these worked on a few months later, sending them back with us gets them in the system and gets the ball rolling.

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Will you be test running the motors?

Yes. We will have my test stand with us, and perhaps run as many as 15 of the engines being worked on.  The goal is positive exposure and progress, but above all else, learning.

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Will there be flying Corvair Powered planes there?

Yes, we have already heard from 7 Corvair powered planes planning on attending. The Showcase arrangement allows for easy demo rides and demonstrations, something virtually impossible at Sun n Fun or Oshkosh.

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Is there on site Camping? are their Motels? 

Yes. The airport has good camping for people who fly in, but we are looking at designating a local campground off the airport where Corvair College people can gather.  The town is a mile from the airport, and it has a number of hotels and motels. Do not wait too long to plan, they fill up, the Showcase website has maps and lists of places.

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 For more general information and Corvair College Links:

Corvair College reference page

Corvair College History….in photos

College engine build options for closing the case

Basic Corvair College Skills, examples of learning

College Tech

Running an Engine at a College, required items. #2

Running an Engine at a College, required items. #1