Category: Flying Planes

Builders,

A few days ago, I spoke with Gary Burdett of Lincoln Illinois and covered some notes on his upcoming first flight of his Zenith 750. The conversation was fairly short because Gary had done all his homework, he knew what he was planning on doing and all his bases were covered. Near the end of today, (Sunday) Gary called to say he had done a 30 minute first flight, and all went well, absolutely no surprises. Again the conversation was fairly short. He is planning on going up again as soon as his local weather improves. We didn’t have to speak about any corrections nor issues, he didn’t have any to speak of.

Above, Gary Burdett with the 2,850cc Dan bearing engine we built for his 750. It is rated at 110HP. He picked it up at the 2012 Zenith open house.  His firewall forward is made of our standard off the shelf components for Zenith installations. Gary decided that he was going to take full advantage of our 9 years of successful Corvair installations on Zeniths by sticking directly to our the step by step notes in our Zenith installation manual. This is the best way to insure an uneventful first flight just like Gary’s. On his first flight, Gary stayed aloft for 30 minutes. He said the OAT was a cool 60F, but the CHT on the engine never exceeded 300F. Not bad for a brand new motor, on a design with a factory 575F limit. In hot summer weather with a fully broken in engine Gary’s instalation should run 350F in climb and 325F in cruise, a very large cooling reserve on the 750. 

One of the reasons why Zenith aircraft are so popular is the amount of engine choices available to builders. Compare two well-known LSA aircraft the Van’s RV-12 and the Zenith 601/650 series. The only engine allowed on the RV-12 is the Rotax 912.  The Zenith can use a 912 also, but there are also seven other popular engines commonly installed. Zenith believes that if you are smart enough to build and fly a plane, you can probably select an engine that matches your needs. Sebastien Heintz, Zenith’s president, has demonstrated his commitment to this path by inviting many engine companies to his open houses and having a day at Oshkosh were there companies simultaneously met builders in the Zenith booth. To me, this fits with my perspective that homebuilding is about making educated decisions for yourself. The concept that a Homebuilder would be restricted to a single engine suggests both an inflexible airframe design and philosophy of post-sale control, neither of which are particularly appealing. Even the owners of certificated aircraft can select different engines through STC’s, homebuilts should have at least as much freedom.

At Sun N Fun this year, I had at least 100 people a day walk into our Flycorvair booth and ask the same two questions: What does it weigh? and How much does it cost? Any builder who has these as the primary two questions is not ready to choose an engine, period. Notice above, I said I am in favor of builders making educated choices. I told every one of the people with the two standard questions that they needed to do more homework, specifically evaluating what they wanted out of an engine, and which characteristics were important. To open their mind a bit, I pointed out that even if an engine weighed only 100 pounds and cost just $1000, it would do you no good if it wasn’t reliable. The first thing you need to know about any aircraft power plant is simply it’s reliability.

Many people think that this can be evaluated by simply asking the sales rep. What is the TBO? First, in the experimental world, companies often make up any number they like for TBO, particularly auto conversion companies. I have seen companies claim a 3,000 hour TBO on engines that had yet to have a single example fly more than 100 hours. If the engine made 100hp at 5000 rpm in a compact car, then the car would have done about 120mph at the power output that is used to fly a draggy plane. A 3,000 hr TBO says that you could take the same compact car and drive it at 120 mph for 360,000 miles without wearing it out or expecting it to break. Does that sound realistic? Think you could get a car to do 25 coast to coast trips at 120 mph /5,000 rpm? That is a pretty big goal, and it is only 500 hours.

Real reliability is a much more complex issue than a TBO number. First, reliability is about how long between a power plant breaking, not how long it is before it wears out. In WWII, a Rolls Royce Merlin was considered a very reliable engine, but the TBO was only about 250 hours. It was not an issue of how long it lasted, the vital question was would it break without warning? An engine getting tired over time is acceptable, and engine breaking is not. My perspective on how to achieve reliability is to lower the stress on the engine by running it at a fraction of the automotive rpm and HP, increase the strength of internal components by using parts like forged pistons, make the fuel and ignition systems as simple as possible, and then train the operators to really care for the engine by allowing each of them to become his own mechanic/engine expert. I would love to take credit for this as an original idea, but two other engine companies thought of it first. You may have heard of them, they had some pretty good success with the concept. Their names are Lycoming and Continental.

Beyond the basic engine, we offer several things for Zenith builders:

1) Conversion, installation and flight ops manuals.

2) The availability of every single installation component, flight proven over nine years and 70 flying aircraft.

3) We have a separate on-line peer-to-peer discussion group just for Corvair/Zenith flyers to directly and freely share information and data with each other in a civilized productive format.

4) We have free Colleges and I still make free house calls.

5) the Corvair is fully insurable from hour number one, at the best rates.

With all of the above and the Corvair’s 53 year flight history, you might think that the majority of Zeniths would be Corvair powered. In reality, the portion of  Zenith builders we are working with is about 20%. The Corvair isn’t for everyone. If I said it was, I would be no different from an airframe guy who told you there was just one engine for his design. Over the years the 20% number has largely remain unchanged. A business man would be focused on “market share”, but I am first and foremost a Homebuilder, and I recognize that the Corvairs greatest appeal is to ‘traditional’ homebuilders, the people who are in it to learn new skills and be the master of their creation, not just it owner. That attitude was once 100% of the EAA, but today, all kinds of people are attracted to homebuilding. Most of them don’t think like I do, (some are hardly thinking at all) but nor are they required to. I am just here to work with the builders who have carefully thought out and evaluated their needs, and have made a selection at a much higher level than What does it weigh? and How much does it cost? -ww

Builders,

One of the guys who has been around the Corvair movement for a long time is Charlie Johnson. He is a very unique guy, an aerospace engineer of great experience, and something of an actual rocket scientist. In aviation circles he is best known by the name “One Sky Dog.” 

Charlie is well-known in the Dragonfly building and flying community, but he also has a lot of other flying experience from hang gliders to GA aircraft.  We first met Charlie in 1999 at a small West Coast fly in. He had a long-term plan to eventually convert his VW powered Dragonfly to Corvair power.

The Brothers Johnson, straight out of Utah. Charlie on the left and Bob on the right are both Dragonfly builders and pilots. This photo with me in the middle was taken at CC#11 in CA in 2007.

Through the years we saw him at the tandem wing fly-ins and a number of Colleges. He is good company and an insightful guy. One of the things that demonstrated that he has good judgement is that he was immune to external pressure to change the pace or plan for his own project. There was a competitive spirit to see who would have the first Corvair powered Dragonfly. Charlie would have none of it. He was not competing with anyone, he was doing things for himself. 

The first guy who flew the combination was in a big rush and did a poor job. He didn’t want to get an ignition from us because he wanted to build his own. He didn’t understand that “32 degrees of timing” is total advance, not a static setting. Flight #1 ended in a field. The guy also mutilated the Corvair to fit it in a VW cowl. If your neighbor had a Lycoming cowl for his RV-4 but wanted to put a Continental in it and his solution was to saw pieces off the Continental heads, you would think the same thing about him. Fortunately the man quit before too long and went back to VWs. There was also a second Corvair/Dragonfly, built in Minn. It worked much better, but the builder sold it to a guy who rarely flew it again. None of this affected Charlie, he just marched on to do it his way. 

The Dragonfly is not an easy plane to mount a Corvair on. Just building the mount and finding strong points is an issue. Early on, Charlie decided to use all the things he could from our regular engine builds. He recognized that having the starter on the front like we do brought a lot more room at the back of the engine and allowed the engine to be moved further back. He also selected to build a fiberglass cowl that incorporated one of our nosebowls. This solved a lot of the most challenging packaging elements. He did an outstanding job fairing this into the Dragonfly’s aerodynamics. I actually like the way his plane looks a lot more than traditional VW cowls for the design. Charlie went through some teething issues, much of it centered on a trial Y-shaped intake manifold, as opposed to the T-shaped ones we use. Slow and steady, he has advanced the plane to where it is now in flight testing. Unlike previous attempts at the combination, I think everything about Charlie’s plane is well thought out. Although he did the work for himself, I also think that he has pioneered a very good path for any other Dragonfly builder to follow.

Below is a letter from Charlie. Make sure you check out the two video links in it. Utah is a very beautiful area to fly in. Hats off to Charlie Johnson, for a job well done and setting a great example of the golden rule of homebuilding,  persistence pays.       -ww.

“William, Thanks for all of your help. Many years have come and gone since I first met you at Bullhead City.

Phase one test flying is proceeding with about 20 hrs on the plane. This last video is from Ogden to Wendover. I have my choice to go through class B over dense urban environment or avoid class B and follow Antelope Is. to the south shore of the Great Salt Lake. I think it is safer over the lake.

Below, prototype of my spinner, not so pointy as Van’s, I think it goes with the nosebowl.

Weseman baffling, not to say mine would not work, the intake “Y” seems to have been most of the problem.

(Charlie’s engine is a 2,700 cc with a Weseman bearing. -ww)

Dragonfly/Corvair 8000 MSL over Utah.

Two Video Links:

http://contour.com/stories/dragonfly-test-flight-4-climbout-ogd-to-bmc-to-ogd

http://contour.com/stories/flying-my-dragonfly-across-the-great-salt-lake-ogd-to-env

“Regards, Charlie Johnson, Ogden, Utah”

Builders:

Jeff Moores, of Newfoundland Canada, who flies his Corvair powered Merlin on full lotus floats sent us a few more pictures of his bird in action. Not only does it fly well off water, Full Lotus floats also work well on snow. Jeff pre-heats the engine before starting, but the Corvair has no issue working in bitter cold. Jeff keeps the aircraft in a small hangar that is on the edge of a lake. Once frozen, the hangar is now on a very long runway. The photos came with the short note below.

“Hi William. Some pics from flying today. The engine is performing flawlessly. -Jeff”

Outside the hangar. The aircraft has a 2700 cc /Dan bearing engine that Jeff built. It uses our standard nose bowl and stainless U-2 exhaust. The prop is a Warp Drive. The floats are made of inflated cells, the design is very versatile for this reason.

Airborne on a very clear day. Jeff Moores, northern most Corvair pilot in the world.-ww

Above, The Cleanex of Dale Williams taxis out at Corvair College #27. The story below was written 10 months before the photo.

Builders,

Back in September my sister and I drove to NJ to see my parents.  Before leaving, I had spoken with Dan Weseman about Dale’s project. Because it’s a ‘Cleanex’ and a mechanical clone of Dan’s Wicked Cleanex, Dale had worked very closely with Dan on the engine installation. Because I was going to pass within 80 miles of Dales’ place I offered to divert to make a house call on my way back from NJ.

Dan had assembled Dales’ engine for him previously, long before his airframe was complete. When he was later doing ground tests the engine exhibited a slight miss. A quick investigation revealed that the engine had broken a rocker stud, and was actually only running on 5 cylinders. To give you an idea of how rare an event this is, in 24 years of working with Corvairs I had only ever seen it happen once before. Because of the Corvairs smoothness, it was not readily apparent that it was only making 5/6 ths of its power. A less observant operator might have flown it that way, and it was certainly making enough power to take off.

After confirming the issue in the house call, I picked up the engine at Dan’s request to return it to him in Florida. Dan takes standing behind anything he touches very seriously, and he told Dale that he would replace all the rocker studs with brand new ones and test run the motor on our stand at no charge. Dan also used the time to upgrade the engine with exhaust valve rotators.

 You find out what people are like when there is an issue, not when things are perfect. This works both ways; Dan insisting that he correct the issue and Dale being very understanding about it. The task was done shortly, and as you can read below, Dale is very happy with the outcome.

Funny note: Just to show you that all airports have a self-appointed ‘engine expert’, read Dales letter. When we were having a very peaceful time in Dale’s hangar, the local expert pulled up and Dale knew that quick thinking would avoid a long lecture from this guy on the evils of Corvairs. Dale just introduced me as his brother from out-of-town, and the expert was soon on his way.

Hats off to Dale Williams, builder of the “Daughter of Cleanex” N-319WF.

William,

I can verify that you do make house calls and on short notice! It was September 3rd, 2012 while on vacation that you came by St. George Airport (6J2) to pick up my 3.0 Corvair and take it to Dan for some repair/upgrade work. We spent a few hours talking in the hangar and when the local “VW engine expert” (a.k.a. “all” engine expert) drove up I introduced you as my brother so that we could be saved the time of him giving us lessons of why the Corvair was a bad idea for my Cleanex.

I want to thank you for what you did for me and commend you for giving such great service with a personal touch. Dan had the work to my engine done quickly and I have since installed it and the Cleanex I call “Myunn” now has nearly 20 hours on it. What a combination this air frame and engine make! Smooth and powerful with the sound of “authority” (pun intended) roaring out of those WW straight pipes.

I had mentioned in another reply about the “rolled on” painting process I used. It was the same one Clarence Dunkerley used on his Cleanex. Here is the nearly final result:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/expercraft/daleandee/7316326185125987631da3.jpg

https://s3.amazonaws.com/expercraft/daleandee/40160954751259876121d6.jpg

Thanks again William. You truly may never know how much you have changed the experimental aircraft industry for the better!

Dale Williams
N319WF @ 6J2
Myunn a.k.a. “Daughter of Cleanex”

Builders,

About a month ago word got out that Don Harper’s Piet was ready to fly. The first flight of some aircraft are anticipated by fans of a design because the particular rendition is of great interest. Other first flights are looked forward to because the creator is a salt of the earth, well liked guy. In Don’s case, both are true, and when the plane did its first test hops, word went out in Pietenpol circles that Don was now “in the club.”

I spoke with both Don and PF today, and heard the good news that the plane is now fully operational. The pictures below were taken at Corvair College #24, where Don and friends all pitched in with our local host PF Beck to run an outstanding event. Even from a distance, the plane shows a lot of craftsmanship and attention to detail. There are numerous small details that are very clever, the kind of stuff you would never see looking at 200 RV’s at Oshkosh. As neat as these are, the most talked about detail on Dons plane is that it utilizes a Ribblet airfoil in place of the original Pietenpol section. although they plan to release comprehensive data from testing later, neither PF or Don are leaking any preliminary data. For right now they are focused on running a low risk flight test program at Barnwell, their home airport.

Above, Pietenpols of Don Harper (near) and PF Beck (far). They are sister ships in almost every way, with two exceptions: Don’s is a long fuselage and it had a Ribblett airfoil instead of a traditional Pietenpol airfoil. Shortly, PF will be able to offer factual comparative data on the flight performance of each of the airfoils. On the internet, armchair aerodynamictists have pontificated about this from imaginary data for years. Thanks to PF and Don, we will have information worth reading.

Above, A look at Don’s engine compartment with swing out side panel. This plane uses a front starter and a basic 4 bearing set up. Both Don and PF are master old-school scroungers and skilled fabricators. These two aircraft are some of the least expensive examples of the type. When PF’s plane was done about 6 years ago, he told me that he only had $6,800 in the whole plane, including the engine. While most Corvair builders elect to buy a new carb or pay for an overhauled one, Don worked to put his own together out of parts, and spent the time to tune it. He has some small stuff to be corrected on the engine, and Grace and I were glad to help him out with this as a small thank you for all his work at several Colleges. In short order the plane ran great, and PF reports that it is a strong runner. Both planes fly 64 x 34 props that PF made.

 Don Harper, (left) and P.F. Beck at sun n fun 2009. What is the best thing you have in aviation? It might be your plane you created with your own hands, engine included,…or it might be having a life long friend who loves all the same things about flying that you do. Don Harper doesn’t have to choose, he has both. I can make a pretty good case that he is one of the luckier guys in aviation, but I would also gladly say that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.-ww

Builders:

In addition to the four ships highlighted earlier in the week, here are a few more selected Corvair Powered Piets. I drew these photos from our regular website Flycorvair.com. We have a lot of others, this is just a sample. There are a number of other well-known Corvair powered Pietenpols like Virl Deal’s 1,000 hour bird that I am saving for a second post. If you have a Corvair powered plane and have not sent us a photo in a while, please do, we would like to have it in a follow on album.

Above, P.F. Beck getting ready to take off. Photo Taken at Corvair College #12. PF was the host of Colleges 19,21 and 24. His aircraft has flow more than 200 passengers. It has electric start and a very quiet exhaust system. PF was awarded the Cherry Grove trophy in 2011 as ‘Corvair aviator of the year.’

Above, Shad and Gary Bell’s Piet in flight. Aircraft is based in Ohio. It has made a number of appearances at Brodhead. Gary and Shad came to CC#7 to get started on their engine. It is a modern 100 hp Corvair with electric start. The plane has a very nice finish on it, accomplished with industrial latex enamel. If you ever hear a fool say something like “latex paints make planes look like houses” ignore them. There have been Oshkosh grand champion aircraft painted with latex systems.

Above, Tom Brown’s pietenpol, flying since 1982.  Although it has spent its life in a cold climate, and it has competed with all the other beautiful aircraft that Tom owns and has access to, he has still managed to put nearly 1,500 hours on it. By my count, it is the highest time Corvair powered aircraft in the fleet. We did a weight and balance on this aircraft and it came in at a feathery light 624 pounds. This is 125 pounds lighter than one of the A-65 Continental hand prop aircraft at Brodhead. It is a very effective demonstration that it is a myth that Corvair engines are inherently heavy. Good aircraft building technique is far more important than which engine you choose when shooting for a lightweight plans built homebuilt. The engine is a BHP conversion without any modern updates, yet Tom has never put a wrench on the inside of it in the last 30 years.

Above, a photo of Kevin Purtee’s Pietenpol airborne. This plane flew 340 hours in a few short years before being heavily damaged in an accident in 2012. The rebuild is well underway. The engine ran with mild updates at CC#24, where Kevin and Shelley were awarded the Cherry Grove trophy for 2012.  Kevin credits his wife Shelley Tumino with much of his success. They hosted CC#22 in their home state of Texas. His engine is a modern electric start 100 hp and a Dan 5th bearing.

Above, Bob Lester of FL with his  aircraft. It was powered by a 65 hp Lycoming, now a 100 hp Corvair. This is a radically different aircraft than it was a few months ago. It when from barely having a positive rate of climb with two people on a hot day to being able to climb 800 feet per minute at the same load and conditions. It now has safe and smart-looking gear that works correctly. The Mount, spring gear and intake were built at our shop. The plane is 25 mph faster now on the top end. The engine is equipped with electric start and a Dan 5th Bearing. It was built at CC#17.

Above, Harold Johnson’s ‘Big Piet’ at Brodhead.This aircraft won Best Auto Engine Conversion at Sun ‘N Fun in 2010. The Big Piet builders completed and flew 5 of the 6 planes started, a record in group project success. Their first visit to our hangar was back in 2003.  The planes met with great reviews for both their operation and their attention to detail. They have 28″ wide steel tube fuselages. They all have modern 100 hp engines with electric start and MA-3 carbs.

Above, Frank Metcalfe’s plane at sun n fun the day before the tornado. This plane and her sister ships, the ‘big piets’, exhibit extraordinarily high craftsmanship. As many people know this aircraft was extensively damaged by the tornado. The plane is currently being rebuilt.

Above the plane of Bruce Laird who is also one of the big Piet builders from Carrollton. If you look closely you can see Frank’s airplane in the background. Like Frank’s, Bruce’s aircraft was extensively damaged. If these were factory built aircraft, they would have been considered totaled. But these aircraft are different. They represent years of hand work and care. They will not be written off as the majority of damaged aircraft at Lakeland were. The same hands that created these aircraft are  back at work, making them right again. I look forward to seeing these planes again in 2013.

Above is Gardiner Mason’s Pietenpol, photographed before it was damaged in the tornado. The plane is now repaired and flying again. The plane had made its public debut at CC#19.  Debugging his aircraft was the subject of an 18 page set of notes on cooling systems that we wrote. After working with us, the plane flew beautifully. After the tornado I spent some time with Gardiner at the show, and he was stoic about it. Everyone wanted to say they were sorry when they spoke with him and buy him a beer. It made me think about A.E.Houseman saying, “Ale does more that Milton can to justify God’s ways with man.” The plane has a 100hp Corvair with a Dan 5th Bearing and electric start. If you have an hour to learn, read the 18 page report here: http://www.flycorvair.com/pietengineissue.html On the internet there are a small number of critics that take every opportunity to say negative things about Corvairs and my work with them. Read the report and understand that while negative internet vermin type their bull, I am doing things like rebuilding Gardiners engine for free, running the Weight and Balance project and hosting Corvair Colleges. Take your pick on who benefits Pietenpol builders more. I don’t need to be thanked for doing things I want to, but I take a dim view of being criticized for it.

Above,Randy Bush of TN. at Brodhead with Miss Le’Bec (it is a combination of his girls’ names coined by his wife). His aircraft was seven years in the making. A consistent work of craftsmanship, the plane’s creation spanned both easy and hard years in Randy’s life. Many people new to homebuilding think that it is something you do if life is treating you great and you’re rolling in dough. Here is reality: The most successful builders I know understand that hours spent in your own shop, creating things with your own hands, is a vital part of a worthwhile life, and that this reality will be most evident at the hardest of times. Learning to make things is a crucial investment in your own sanity. Does it surprise anyone that really happy people always have a way of being creative? The plane has more than 400 hours on it. It has a 100 hp Corvair with electric start and a Roy 5th bearing.

Above, Kurt Shipman of Illinois with his Pietenpol at Brodhead 2009. His super clean installation features one of our Electric Start setups, Falcon heads and a standard rebuild straight out of our Conversion Manual. Kurt is a 39-year-old ATP who flys for the airlines.  A prolific ‘internet personality’ made the claim that Corvair Powered Piets all have ugly cowls. Kurts cowl housing his starter is so ugly that when he flew it to Oshkosh for the first time the plane won the Bronze Lindbergh trophy, as the 5th best homebuilt at Airventure. So much for critics.

 Above is a photo of Texan Hans van der Voort’s Corvair powered Air Camper at the Southwestern Regional EAA Fly In. His NX15KV won the Tony Bingelis Memorial Award for Best of Show there recently. Tony Bingelis was the greatest how-to writer homebuilding ever had, and Texas was his home turf. I’ve yet to see it in person, but everyone who has says Hans’ airplane is outstanding. How do planes with such ‘ugly cowls’ keep winning trophies? Hans’s plane utilizes a Zenith carb and one of out stainless exhaust systems.

Above, the Jim Ballew of OK, lands his Piet. It is a traditional BHP conversion. What is notable about Jim is that he also has a Corvair powered Davis DA-2 and a Corvair powered 601XL that he has built and flown. When a man has 3 Corvair powered planes you can be assured that there is a lot to like about the powerplant.

Above, BHP’s last original. This plane has 800 hours on it today, it lives at Brodhead and belongs to our friend Bill Knight. We did the weight and Ballance on this plane two years ago and overhauled the engine last year. On the outside it looks just like BHP made it, but inside it has a nitrided crank, Arp bolts forged pistons and one of our Black prop hubs and hybrid studs. Look closely and understand that BHP kept the thrust line low because he had the stock automotive blower fan on the engine, which sticks up higher than our electric starter set up.  BHP’s Corvair Thrust line was very near the location of the Ford’s thrust line. It was a familiar location, but if you look at most classic planes, the thrust line is closer to the top longeron. Note that the last original has the main axles far forward and it has die spring in a tube gear like we made for Bob lester’s Piet.

Above, the Pietenpol of Duane Duea of Minn., at right, (and Kurt Shipman’s at left). The photo was taken at Oshkosh 2009. Duane’s aircraft was completed in 1972 and is so true to Bernie’s plans that I initially mistook his aircraft for Bernie’s first Corvair-powered ship, which resides at Oshkosh in the Pioneer Airport. This aircraft has approximately 1,000 hours on the clock. We spent some time with Duane at our booth, where he reflected on the privilege of knowing Bernie Pietenpol in person. This aircraft is nicely complemented by Kurt’s, which was completed in 2008, 36 years later. Although Kurt’s aircraft retains a very classy, pure look, it takes advantage of all of our research and development.

If you’re a Piet builder or just a fan of Corvair powered planes, I hope you have enjoyed ‘Pietenpol week.’ We have a lot of shop work over the next 72 hours, but I am going to get in a mail sack update this weekend and also get an engine building series started for next week. Stay tuned-ww.

Builders,

In keeping with the developing “Pietenpol Week” theme, today Vern and I drove about 2 hours to the northern edge of Florida to make a house call on a Corvair powered Pietenpol that has been flying since 1977. The plane is the handiwork and pride of a builder named Pat Green. Even though I have known him for 15 years and we live in the same state, Pat and I don’t often have a chance to get together.

Above, Pat’s Pietenpol. It has more than 1,000 hours on Corvair power. The installation has always been very close to BHP’s plans externally, but internally Pat went to forged pistons and an OT-10 cam more than 10 years ago. He was flying long before I started working with Corvairs, but he was never reluctant to adopt any improvement that my testing revealed. His original conversion manual from us was one of the first 50 I had printed, I have known him that long.

Many years ago he flew the plane to Corvair College #9, where he was much appreciated by Piet builders in attendance.  In the years since, we have been very busy and Pat was deeply involved in the hour by hour care of his late wife. After beating a few health issues of his own, Pat paid a visit to our hangar where he explained that his personal plan was to get back into flying full-time and really enjoy all the elements of it that he used to before greater responsiblity took priority. A key element of this was switching from a traditional Bernard Pietenpol hand prop/blower fan engine to one of our electric start systems. He had been hand starting the plane for 35 years, but being 77 and having had back problems, he thought going with key starting was a safety issue, and made the prospect of operating the plane solo a lot more appealing. From that point we made a plan for a house call and to get him a running start on a conversion to electronics doing the starting.

Above, a shot of the original BHP/blower fan conversion from an angle that illustrates why an engine set up this way doesn’t fit well with a high thrust line engine mount. engines with starters and J-3 eyebrow scoops can utilize a higher thrust line and still fit inside the shape of the fire wall. The Prop hub is an original BHP model. It is mounted by the original short flywheel bolt in very deep wells. I developed Hybrid studs 15 years ago to improve the mounting of the prop hub for engine with more output than traditional BHP conversions. A BHP hub can not be used with any of our starter set ups.

Pat actually traveled to Cherry Grove and spent time with the man himself. Pat stuck with the project and finished it after 10 years of on and off building. The plane was not the only aircraft in his life, there were many. But as he gets to the other end of his flying years, he is very clear that his Pietenpol is the centerpiece of his aviation life, and without question the best thing he ever did in planes. The Sport Pilot rule will allow Pat to fly the plane for many years to come, so it is inevitable that it will be the last plane in the stable of planes he has kept, but he says that all medical factors aside, if he were to have had only one plane, the Pietenpol would have made him the most happy. He will be very glad to finish out his flying hours in the plane, and he will log a lot more of them with a starter.

Above are the blower fan parts that came off the engine when putting the Front starter on. There are people who have suggested that this stuff weighs a ton, but it doesn’t the fan is magnesium ( we put a story up last year about burning them in a bonfire at one of our airport parties) and weighs less than a pound. All in all, an electric start system is going to add about 20 pounds to the airplane after you take into account things like the larger battery. It isn’t shown in the photos, but Pat is going with a John Deer style front alternator driven off the Gold hub.

Above is a look at the engine being test fitted with the starter and the gold hub. The parts, including the starter kit, a new hub, hybrid studs, the alternator , brackets, regulator and a belt cost Pat about $1,400. It is going to take a bit of time to re-configure the cowl and wire the electrical stuff, but overall, it isn’t a lot of money or time to get the plane set up to layout that is a much better match for Pat’s next few years of flying.

Below: Blast from the past, Pat and I stand with his Pietenpol at Corvair College #9, seven years ago. The caption in blue italics below is the original words from the 2006 College. note to fashion critics: I haven’t always had long gray hair, but I have always dressed like a refugee, even long before it was stylish.

“Above, I stand with Pat Green of Jacksonville, Fla. Pat started his plane in 1967, and first flew it in 1977. Since then he’s logged about a thousand hours in it. Again, the Golden Rule in action. In my hand I’m holding a photo of Pat and I standing in exactly the same positions in my old hangar eight years earlier. We had a laugh, because I pointed out Pat was wearing the same hat, and he commented that it looked like I was wearing the same shirt. Pat is good company, and a sharp observer of human behavior. When he talks, I listen because he’s a man of many experiences in life. Among them is having known Bernie Pietenpol personally.”

A few words about house calls and service to builders: The trip up to Hillard, a few hours of work and back took seven hours today. I charged Pat my standard rate for a house call: Zero dollars. If you get a look at the years of such house calls documented on our websites, keep in mind that I have never charged any builder, wether we were old friends or not, for a house call. Some have been fairly close like todays, many have been on the way to or from airshows, but there have been others that involved getting on an airliner to go help a builder solve an issue. All of this was done at no cost. Our business makes fair profit on the items we provide, but I don’t view every interaction with builders as a opertunity to generate revenue. That is how a corporation or a LLC might think, but not me.

There are plenty of things we do just because I am a home builder and I like builders. People who have yet to meet me often incorrectly assume that things like house calls are just for friends. In reality, the recipient has little to do with my motivation. I know a lot about homebuilts, and a great part of this was taught to me by experts, mostly gone now. Those men didn’t charge me for their time. My willingness to pay attention and take their message seriously was enough. I also suspect that they were paying back a previous generation of aviators also. I have many flaws as a person, but being an ingrate isn’t one of them.-ww

Builders;

Continuing on the Pietenpol theme, we present round three of California Corvair powered Pietenpols. This magnificent bird is the work of Mike Groah and his father Vic. It has been flying a little less than 6 months. Get a good look at the workmanship in the photos, it is outstanding.

Above, the side view of a first class aircraft. Note the high deck angle provided by the full length gear legs. We flew our Piet with both short and very log legs. The additional angle of attack available with longer legs lets the aircraft land substantially slower in the three-point position. It also allows for a shorter take off technique. I personally like the look better.

Photo from the front. A very nice choice of colors.

Mike and his Dad Vic. Mike has said that one of the greatest things about the four-year build was that it gave him and his father a chance to spend a lot of time together than they would have otherwise. It is interesting that Fathers in their 40’s all want to get their sons involved in their building; Sons in their 40’s want to get their Fathers involved. Hats off to Mike for actually doing what a lot of us would like to.

Above, a very clean and well-organized engine bay. The engine has a front starter, but the alternator is a rear belt drive unit where the stock oil cooler was.  Moving the alternator to the back does tend to clean up the front of a Corvair powered plane that is using J-3 style ‘eyebrow’ cooling ducts. While a gold hub, oil filter housing, starter brackets, E/P distributor and sandwich are visible, the parts that really set this installation apart are the things that were carefully had fabricated for this specific plane. I spent a lot of time looking at this photo and the one below. There is a lot of attention to detail that you may not notice until you have installed your own Corvair. 

Above, the side view. A few months back I wrote a story about Pietenpol thrust lines. Mike’s mount has the traditional height as designed by the master himself, BHP.  The two screws on the left, on the boot cowl, are the height of the longeron. The traditional mount has the thrust line about 3.5″ below this. Original Corvair installations with blower fans needed the engine to ride this low for clearance. We flew our Piet with mounts of this thrust line and also with the engine moved up 3″ in the airframe. Both locations work; go back and look at the earlier article to compare the side views of the aircraft. The carb is the photo is an MA-3, the exhaust is stock iron manifolds. The intake is a custom unit that Mike made. Although there is a lot of stuff in the photo, it is well-organized. The top photo shows that the plane has a large header tank in the cowl. If a piet has just a wing tank it has a lot less fuel, but the space behind the firewall can be used to house the battery and ignition system components. The two blue items are Bosch 0012 ignition coils, the ones I prefer for the Corvair.

Above, a good look at “the office.” certainly some very nice workmanship here also.  Years ago, aircraft with other automotive conversion engines were very often some of the poorest looking examples of each particular airframe. Many of the people attracted to alternative engines seemed to care very little about quality and appearance of their airframe, almost as if it was some kind of inconsequential stand that followed their engine around.

Many of these aircraft, especially ones with belt drives, or liquid cooled engines or radiator installations that were an after thought or reworked many times, had particularly ugly cowls. Oddly, many engine guru’s themselves also had slipshod and disorganized engine on their own aircraft. (Mikes engine compartment is nicer than 95% of the Subaru installations owned by ‘gurus’ of that brand in the 1990s) I attributed this to many of these people really being ground based engine guys who cared little about traditional aircraft quality and organization, and even less about flight performance. If you listened to them speak at the time, a common thread was a naive disrespect for certified engines (calling them Lycosaurus, etc) and a level of venom for regular aircraft mechanics and the skills they exercised. These people were often vehemently opposed to learning anything from traditional aviation, even if ignoring it directly endangered them or people who followed them. It was Ego before Safety, and I can think of several of them that paid with their lives for this attitude.

fortunately, the Corvair movement has been spared these ills.  The fact that the engine is air-cooled, narrow, free of a blunt belt drive and shaped like traditional aircraft engine gives us all a great running start of good-looking cowls that function well and clean engine installations. As the most outspoken person in the land of Corvairs, I took every opportunity to explain that philosophically we were going to emulate every single successful thing we could from Lycoming and Continental, (with the exception of their price structure.) If this alienated or excluded a fringe element who had a rabid desire to demonstrate “how stupid Lycosaurus engines are”, I am not the least bit sorry. People like that were bound to give alternative engines a black eye, at least I could discourage them from using a Corvair to do it.

The positive corollary is that we also made sure that the Corvair was well-known as the alternative engine of choice among people who practiced and respected traditional craftsmanship. This brought in countless builders who believe the original motto of the EAA, “learn, build and fly.” Trust me, this is one of the greatest personnel trades in the history of team building. The good people we attracted by highlighting the work and efforts of builders who valued a mixture of tradition an innovation are infinitely more valuable fellow builders than the handful of ‘special’ people who moved on the other unfortunate engines.

If you would like a clear picture of the reward of having a movement that champions genuine craftsmanship, get a good look at Mike’s plane. Any aviator who sees this aircraft in person will have an increased respect of Corvair building in general; Builders like Mike give all of us a better standing when we say “I’m building a Corvair” in any aviation setting. His workmanship is a direct example for other Piet builders. In addition all this, I like the fact he built the plane with his dad best of all. Hats off to Mike and Vic Groah,  Father and son Pietenpol builders and flyers. – ww.