Builders,
Below is the “Deal of the Day”, an Ellison EFS-3a throttle body carb on one of our original 13 degree canted stainless intake manifolds.
Note, If the picture is small, hit F5 at the top of your keyboard.
Pietenpol Motor Mounts, P/N 4201(C)
Builders,
In the morning, I am heading to the powder coater, to drop off a dozen Corvair mounts that are heading to Brodhead and Oshkosh with us. We will pick the up and pack them in just before we head north.
In with this group of mounts are two of our high thrust line mounts for Pietenpols. You can read the story of their development and construction by cliking on this story from last November:
Pietenpol Products, Motor mounts, Gear and Instalation Components.
Grace has also updated our catalog page on these mounts, to make it easier to order one. I will have these on display at Brodhead, one is already spoken for, going to Mark Chouinard, the other is still available. You need not be headed to Brodhead to pick it up, if you would like the mount, we will gladly ship it to you before we leave. Click on the link below for more information:
http://www.flycorvair.com/pietmount.html
From Corvair College #25: Pietenpol builder and veteran of several Colleges Dave Aldrich with a high thrust line Pietenpol motor mount we made for him. It is powder coated white. He saved $80 on shipping by picking it up in person. These mounts are popular, builders like Kevin Purtee, Terry Hand and Bob ‘early builder’ Dewenter already have one of these new high thrust line mounts. The design also benefits from the weight and Balance testing we did on 30 Pietenpols in the last 36 months. The mount is 3″ longer than the one shown in BHP’s 1967 mount drawing. The compensates for today’s larger pilots.-ww
Zenith 601/650 Motor mounts, P/N 4201(A)
Builders:
It’s 3 am here and we are still up, just part of the fun of prepping for Oshkosh. This is the time of night when you take a break from answering email, wander over to the refrigerator and stare inside. The dilemma: Is it too late to drink beer or is it too early to drink coffee? Answer: both, but I have just enough brain cells still working to write a web update on motor mounts…….
In two weeks we will be at Oshkosh. There will be many people there offering motor mounts for sale for every kind of plane. Polo shirt clad salesmen will make loud claims about how great the mounts they are selling are. They will hit all the welding buzz words they have heard, and they will sound knowledgeable to people who know nothing about welding. The vast majority of these salesmen have never even tried welding, and they couldn’t put down an airworthy bead an inch long even if their life depended on it.
That last sentence is a typical WW, 3 am, overstatement isn’t it? Jeez, when is some Oshkosh salesmen’s life going to depend on his ability to demonstrate a skill he talks about but doesn’t posses? Reality Check: The salesman’s life doesn’t depend on the welding he is promoting and selling…….only yours does.
Grace has redone our Zenith 601/650 catalog page on these mounts, which are part number 4201(A) in the new numbering system. If you were thinking about getting one of these from us, review the new information. We have seven of these mounts on the back porch ready for the powder coater. In a few days I am going to take them in and have them done for sale at Oshkosh. If you would like one, would like to save the shipping and have a particular finish in mind, follow the link, place an order, or feel free to send us a note or call. We will be glad to cover anything you would like.
http://www.flycorvair.com/601mount.html
Below, a photo of Vern and I outside my hangar 18 months ago. We will both be at Oshkosh. 100% of all the welded products we sell are done by the two of us. At the show, ask us any question on welding you like, we only have 74 years of personal, first hand, welding experience between us. We can probably cover it better than the polo shirt clad salesmen. If you got into experimental aviation just to buy stuff, then any salesman will do just fine for you. If you got into experimental aviation to learn, develop your own skills and craftsmanship and make things with your own hands, then who you work with really matters. You can’t become and old school homebuilder / motor head by buying things from salesmen. They have nothing to teach you. While I will be very glad to sell you a motor mount, I am very glad to share all the detailed information on how it was made, and the materials and processes. Yes, I sell things, but first and foremost, I am a homebuilder with a mission to share what we have learned.
From our website in 2011: “For the greater part of his years on earth, Vern has been a welder. In the world of experimental aircraft, when a company wants to sound impressive, they always tout that their welders have “Built race cars.” I welded the frames of lots of NHRA legal dragsters before I was 21, and this experience taught me nothing about aerospace welding. Vern has welded countless race cars together, but that has nothing to do with why we utilize his skills making Corvair parts. What counts is the little piece of paper on the orange board.”
“If you look closely, it shows that Vern has every aerospace material welding rating in every thickness recognized by his employer, the United States Naval Aviation Depot. In this facility inside NAS Jacksonville, Vern has welded every kind of material that goes into modern combat aircraft. This includes titanium, Hastelloy X and magnesium. While some people can weld this when it is new in a purged box, Vern can weld things like the inside of a jet’s burner can while looking through one bleed hole and feeding the rod through another.”
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Below is a photo of Woody Harris’s 601XL, and an important story about his experience. Woody is “Our man on the West Coast”, based in Northern California at Vacaville. Note that his plane is pictured in North Carolina. I welded the engine mount that is on his plane. It was done in the same fixture that we used to make the ones resting on the back porch, 10 feet from where I am typing this.
From our website in 2010: “In the above photo, Woody Harris’ 2,850cc Zenith 601B sits at the end of the ramp in North Carolina at First Flight Airport with the Wright Brothers Monument in the background. This brings his aircraft to the end of his first leg of a coast-to-coast and return flight. I believe that this is a pretty classy way for Dad to show up at his daughter’s house on the East Coast. Although Woody has spent a lifetime in the mechanical world predominantly driving race cars in both Europe and America, it’s worth noting that he’s been in aviation less than five years. While he certainly would have thought of it before, it was at the urging of his daughter who is an ATP, that he explore some adventures in flying. I mention this because if you’re out there reading this and you’re thinking that you might be too late in the game to have your own adventures, you’re quite wrong. If you don’t have a pilots license, you have never built an airplane before, and you’re 63 years old, you are at the exact spot where Woody was four years ago. Yes his mechanical background gave him a leg up, but it plays a smaller role than most people suspect. His determined character and his quest to learn new things were much bigger factors in his favor. If you had been standing next to me at Oshkosh when Woody arrived, and watched him hop out of the airplane and talk for 4 minutes straight about the previous days flying, including sentences like “We timed it perfectly because Old Faithful went off just as we flew by,” you would note that all the hours that you’re putting in your shop are well worth the adventures that lie in your future. Go out there tonight and get one evening closer to writing the same chapter in your own story that Woody has written in his. (I have Woody looking into his logbooks, but I am pretty sure he has flown a Corvair powered plane in more states than any other person. I don’t bring this up as a point of competition, I just want builders at home to understand that with good judgment and training, you can go a long way, even if you have not yet written in the 500th hour in your logbook.)
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Zenith 750/Cruiser Mounts. P/N 4201(B)
Builders:
In less than two weeks, we will be driving away for Brodhead and Oshkosh with a truck and trailer load of Corvair parts. In the trailer will be the half-dozen Zenith mounts that are finished welded and sitting on the back porch tonight.
Above, the flying 2850cc Zenith 750 built by Gary Burdett. It has our full complement of Zenith installation components, including a part number 4201(B) mount.
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In our new numbering system, the 750 mount is part number 4201(B). We have taken the time to update our products page on this mount, and automate the buyers ability to select options like powder coating. You can directly access this by clicking on this link:
http://www.flycorvair.com/750mount.html
If you are a Zenith 750 builder and you are heading to the show, consider picking up a mount. We will save you the cost of shipping which is substantial. Also, if you order it now, we still have some time to select powder coating or delete this option. When we get to 7 days before departure, I take all the mounts to the powder coater and have them all done in our standard gray. They will still be available at Oshkosh, but cost will include the coating and they are sold on a first come basis. I like to give builders a heads up on this because we usually sell all the 750 mounts we bring north. If you are thinking about this, drop me a note or call, we will make a plan.-ww.
Cooling with J-3 style cowls. (Pietenpols, Cubs, Biplanes, etc)
Builders,
Several people have been discussing these types of cowls for their Corvair powered planes. Clearly they work on 65 hp Cubs, why not on a Corvair powered Piet? Well, they can and do, but there are subtile points to the design of these things that are just as critical as enclosed cowls. I am quite sure that Piper learned these by trial and error before standardizing the “J-3 Eyebrows” that people tend to use on 65 hp Continentals. As we go over this, keep in mind that when Piper went to 90 Hp engines in Cubs after the war, they switched to regular pressure cowls. Every Super Cub has one of these, and there is little argument against the proof that they work better, even on slow planes. However, if your heart is set on a J-3 style cowl, please read the following notes to avoid harming your engine.
Above, Frank Metcalfe’s plane at sun n fun. This installation works. Look at how large the eyebrows are in relation to other examples. If a 65 hp Piet and a 100 hp Piet are both climbing at 55 mph (They will have a very different rate of climb) it makes sense that the 100 hp plane will need more cooling air. Yet, I see too many Corvair powered planes with eyebrows that are smaller than the ones on a J-3. Think that over.
Above, our Pietenpol in 1999. This system worked great, but the two versions I made before it didn’t. TLAR (that looks about right) does not apply here, evaluation and testing does. In a phone call today, a Piet builder told me that a set of Corvair eyebrow scoop drawings are circulation on the net. What is the first question to ask? Have they ever flown and been proven on high hp Corvairs in hot weather? He was not so sure. If you want advice on down parkas, I am not your guy. If you need advice on cooling systems that work in hot weather, ask the guy in Florida.
Above, several details, some visible, some not. Notice that the scoops extend downward. They capture air that would run under the front cylinders at high angle of attack and ruin cooling. Notice the rounded nose bowl and spinner. If you want to have a flat plate as big as an end table, you will need to have much larger scoops to make up for this. Note also that the alternator is in the back. If you have a front one, it will work, but again the scoop must be bigger. (Dan Weseman has just finished testing his rear alternator, and it is the only one I endorse) The most critical part of this whole equation can not be seen: under the cowl there is a 3.5″ diameter hose connecting the two sides together. Without this, you are hurting the engine. You have a choice: connect the two sides, or use scoops 50% bigger. If you copy the size here, and then use a very blunt cowl and no transfer hose, than you are not doing anything positive for yourself, my reputation as an engine instructor, or the Corvair movement.
OK, now we get to the big quiz: Would you rather spend an hour reading something that requires a little thinking, or would you rather fry the heads on your engine, spend $1,000 or so, and loose half a seasons flying doing a rebuild? Right now you are thinking that 100% of the builders thinking of J-3 cowls are going to choose the first option, but you are not right……
This link : http://www.flycorvair.com/pietengineissue.html
goes straight to a 16 page story ( it has pictures, it is only about 5,000 words) about how I had to rebuild Gardiner Mason’s engine several years ago after he used TLAR to design a very blunt cowl. I like Gardiner, so he just bought the parts, I did the work, then wrote the story. KNOW THIS: I am not ever going to assist anyone for free to rebuild another engine that cooked it because: “I saw that story but I didn’t have time to read it because 1) It was sooo long 2) The big game was on 3) I didn’t think it applied to me because my plane is gray not red.” All future rebuilds will be done at the shop labor rate that Lockwood Aviation charges (the US importer of Rotax engines) Just read the story, learn something, save yourself a $1,000 in damage and preserve a little of my sanity. Please.
Above is Gardiner’s plane, the focus of the 16 page story. It does not look like it has a J-3 cowling, but it functions like one. This is a blunt cowl. This means you need bigger scoops. It isn’t hard to put some effort into making the front end smaller. It doesn’t just help cooling, the plane will be faster and look better. On a Pietenpol, a plane with a bad cowl and poor windshields actually has less elevator and rudder feel. If the entire fuselage is bathed in a foot thick boundary layer of very turbulent air, you can feel this when it gets back to the tail.
So, you were planning on reading the 16 page story after watching Dancing with the Stars and the Celine Dion concert? Keep in mind that this website has story tracking on it, and I will tell if 600 people read this but only 150 click on the link to the Gardiner story. Lucky for all the Celine Dion fans it doesn’t keep track of who didn’t read what. Just how many people didn’t. Don’t worry, I will still be able to tell who read it by reading the Pietenpol archives and seeing who writes in asking what to do after their engine severely overheats…….
Below is a sample from the 16 page story:
” Here is the major cooling issue of a propeller-driven aircraft that many builders don’t understand. When the plane is climbing at a 10 degree angle of attack, the blade roots near the cooling inlets have a 20 degree difference in their angle of attack between the effective angle of the ascending and the descending blades. They pump very different amounts of cooling air into each side of the engine. This is not theory, it is fact. Get into a light plane, fly to a safe altitude, slow it down to its best angle of climb speed and set it to full power. Notice how much rudder you have to put in to hold the aircraft heading. You may have been told that this was some swirling slipstream or “P” factor. Discard those ideas. A strand of yarn behind an engine on a test stand will show you the air even at zero airspeed doesn’t corkscrew much, and “P” factor does not apply to aircraft in steady flight like a continuous climb on one heading. What is going on is far more simple; the ascending and descending blades are making very different amounts of thrust. You feel it in the rudder pedals, the engine feels it in differential cooling.”
Above, the Pietenpol of Kurt Shipman. This plane won the Bronze Lindbergh trophy at Oshkosh. Before anyone starts saying how nice work Kurt does, keep in mind that there were 24,500 other planes at Oshkosh that year, and the judges were able to find four others that they thought were ‘better’ than Kurt’s. So he beat out 24,495 other planes…..that still isn’t first place. Nice try Kurt, maybe you can do better on your second home built.
Seriously, I flew in this plane and it is phenomenally well done. Look at the cowl. This is a typical pressure cowl. This is built off the nose bowl mold that Piet builder/flyer Shad Bell made. Rounded edges and reduced area like this make a huge difference. If you don’t have a committed feeling about cowling design, I highly encourage you to look at this set up. It works very well, and has a front alternator. Either system you choose, use all the available data that has been flight proven in hot weather, do a good job, and don’t alter the details without good reason.-ww
MA3-spa carb pictures, Wagabond notes.
Builders,
In the last few days we have featured some stories on Carbs. Today I went to the mail box and picked up a package that happened to be my MA3 carb returning from overhaul. It was gone about two weeks.
Above is the MA3, freshly overhauled by D&G Suppy in Niles MI, (269)-684-4440. This is the FAA fuel system repair station that is run by Russ Romey. We have been sending builders there for 10 years. He is an excellent source of rebuilt MA3’s and Stromberg NAS-3s.
Several points here; It is hard to see, but the carb is sitting on my receipt from Russ. Although we are friends, note that the overhaul cost me the same price as he charges any other person, $650. Years ago, a handful of people on the web, led by Lon Wall of the Corvair Underground inc, frequently spread the lie that I made money and kick backs off the products I recommend to builders. This was Lon’s explanation why I suggested people shop with Clarks rather than him.
He didn’t understand that he lost the business solely because he wanted to sell builders cast pistons and old rod bolts. His claims went on the net for several years, mostly unchallenged or unmoderated. They sounded good to a handful of people who liked a good conspiracy theory or hated me since I first used the term “The Corvair authority”, (All of them missed that the acronym TCA at the time was a FAA airspace called a Terminal Control Area, and the letters stuck in aviators memories, and “WilliamTCA” my email address, predates our name “FlyCorvair” by several years.) Let the receipt be one more piece of evidence that my endorsements are not for sale.
My allegiance is only to the best interests of builders. In the last 10 years, lets conservatively say 1,000 people have built a complete corvair aircraft engine. On average, between cams, pistons, bearings cylinders, balancers, gaskets etc they spent $1,750 each on parts from a Corvair parts house. Thats $1,750,000 in shopping. The lion’s share of this went to Clarks. I did not make a single dime off any of this. If Lon or any other parts house wanted a part of it, all they had to do was sell the parts we recommend and not offer advice like using cast pistons in flight engines. Evidently, he couldn’t do this.
Second; An MA3 is a simple carb, I have been an A&P for 22 years, I am qualified to overhaul this myself, but parts are expensive, more than half the price of the complete job. In the end, I am glad to pay Russ a few hundred dollars to make it perfect. I have no problem paying another American aviation professional for his expertise. This is how the infrastructure of aviation as we know it in this country stays in place.
If someone chooses to buy a Rotax with their two German Bing motorcycle carbs, they are only fueling the trade deficit, and doing nothing to support American manufacturing and aircraft maintenance systems. And no, a person who took a 40 hour Rotax ‘mechanics’ class is not a trained aviation professional, they are just an extension of a foreign companies sales staff. For a reality check, my A&P training at Embry Riddle had the strict FAA requirement of 2,800 classroom hours.
If I had told the maintenance department chairman, Dick Ulm USMC ret. that I was ready to evaluate airworthyness on aircraft at the end of my first 40 hour week in the program, he would have laughed his ass off, and then punched my lights out. If I then complained to the University president, Kenneth Tallman, Maj. Gen. USAF, ret., I am pretty sure it would have had the same result. If anyone asks in 5 years why S-LSA”Light Sport category” failed live up to any of its potential to do positive lasting good for aviation, at least part of the blame will be on the fact the ASTM ‘certification’ standards on these planes are a bad joke, and the maintenance on them is done by woefully underqualified people.
Third; This carb is going on our own Wagabond, the plane that my wife will also fly, and we will bring the dog. The day it flies it will not have a radio, a transponder, a GPS, a Glass anything, an interior or a fancy paint job. Those things don’t make planes fly. It will however have this carb and it will have a 5th bearing, and a very well-built engine. Aviation is about good decision-making, and placing any of the first items ahead of the latter ones is an example of poor decision-making, and no one can offer a rational argument otherwise. Looks and tech toys come after airworthness items. If you have budget left over, add those things if you wish, but only after it is mechanically as good as you can make it.
It is a free world, and you can use any carb you like on your Corvair. Physics, Chemistry and Gravity also think it is a free world, and they fully support your right to make a poor choice, even one that will harm you if it doesn’t work within their system of laws. If you wanted to run a German motorcycle carb, don’t be mad at me if it doesn’t work. I didn’t make up the laws of the physical world. I am just the messenger here to remind people that Physics, Chemistry and Gravity are great allies if you play by their rules. They are also absolutely remorseless in dealing with people who feel like the rules don’t apply to them. Be advised, if they find you guilty, the penalty phase of the system moves much faster than our criminal courts, and does not have an appeals system.
It is no secret that I like aircraft carbs. Look at the photo above, the lettering cast into the body says “Marvel Schebler Aircraft”, the logo in the middle is a propeller. This was not designed for use on motorcycles. Look at the silver throttle arm. I could literally hang the entire weight if the engine off this arm. It is not fragile. In contrast the throttle cable on a Bing carb is a tiny bicycle cable, the exact same kind that you see on cheap bmx bikes at Wal-mart. A long time ago I flew ultralights with set ups like that, and justified it by the low landing speeds. Today, I am older and somewhat smarter, and I would not fly in any plane that used a bicycle cable as a primary engine control, especially not one where the carb is going to close if the cable breaks. If the cable falls off an aircraft carb, suction alone will generally make them run at full power.
In mechanical situations, I am a traditionalist. If we are going deer hunting, no one can argue that my choice to bring a .30-06 will not work. If we were going to sea in a storm, no one could argue that my choice of going in a USCG 44′ motor lifeboat would not work. If we needed a light truck engine, no one could argue that my choice of a 350 v-8 would not work. If the goal is to put a carb on a Corvair flight engine, no one can argue that my choice to use a MA3-spa will not work. They might say it was expensive, (valid, but not in the big picture) hard to find (not valid, just call Russ) or less efficient that EFI (not valid, see my testing), but no one can even begin to say that this carb is not reliable. It works and does this task with stone reliability, end of story.
Above, this side of the carb shows the accelerator pump, and the bronze mixture control arm. the orange plug it covering the threaded fuel inlet port which an AN fitting goes in. Just to beat a dead horse, let me point out that Bing carbs on Rotaxes just have barbed slip on fittings for rubber hose and hose clamps for fuel inlets.
The intake in the background is for our Wagabond. It is stainless, just like our others, but I elected to have it powder coated. It has a longer, one of a kind up pipe between the carb flange and the main pipe, on production manifolds this is about 1/2 that length. The small tube was for a primer line when the plane was equipped with a Stromberg carb. Going to an MA3, I have deleted the primer system. I will just have to find a plug to fill the hole….or maybe just screw a NOS nitrous fogger nozzle into it….-ww.
New Numbering System, Final, please print.
Builders,
Grace and I have both work many long hours in the last few days to get all of the new numbering system up in its final form in one spot. We have integrated it into our regular parts sheet on Flycorvair.com. You can find it by clicking on this direct link:
http://www.flycorvair.com/products.html
This has now replaced our traditional products page. The numbers list is 16 pages long with the introduction. It is my official road map on how to build a Corvair flight engine. Having the list integrated into the parts page allows builders making progress to look ahead a plan their next move. From here, when I write about engines we build, or ones that I think would be good for a Zenith 750, a Piet or a KR, I am going to heavily use the Group Numbering system to describe these engines. When I am writing about the parts a builder must have to assemble his case at the college, I am going to describe the needed items in terms of the groups. This list serves far more educational roles than you may first guess. I intend that it will become the backbone of the descriptive language that we use to communicate about ideas, parts and plans in the Corvair movement.
The new products page works, anything you wish to buy off it can be purchased directly through the built-in pay pal system. The only element of it that we are still working on is getting the updated photos and instruction sheets loaded. The Flycorvair.com site is hand written in a very old HTML language, and working with it is like transcribing the Dead Sea Scrolls into Swahili. It takes a lot of time. This .Net site is not written in code, it is updated with no effort by comparison
I ask that everyone tune up their printer and run off a copy, preferably in color. Take some time and map out your own build on it. As an incentive to builders heading to CC#25 or Sun N fun, If you show up with one of these in your hand, I will take $5 off anything you buy. If two guys walk into my booth at SnF and ask about engines, everyone should understand that I am going to be polite to the guy who wants to tell me about the 4 cylinder Corvair he had in high school, I am going to answer all the questions of the guy who has seen my website, but didn’t look enough to even hear about the number system, but I am going to invest as much of my time as possible with anyone who shows up with a printed numbers list, a highlighter, a pencil and a working knowledge of how we describe the engine now. There is only one of me, and there will be many people at Sun n Fun as interested spectators. That’s good, but my mission is to teach builders, not entertain spectators. I am glad to talk to the later and do a little hangar flying if they are standing there, but mission #1 is to communicate with builders, and nothing says you’re a builder like having a written plan in your hand. -ww
Three Pietenpol Motor Mounts
( If the picture is small, hit F5 at the top of your keyboard.)
Builders,
As we are getting ready for CC#25 and Sun n Fun, we are building up some popular inventory for people to pick up in person. We have been welding for several days straight, and we have built 7 motor mounts. The three below are on their way with the rest to the powder coater in the morning.
Above, three Piet mounts. On the right is Terry Hand’s very original steel tube Pietenpol fuselage, built to Flying and Glider manual drawings. We made the custom mount on it to match the dimensions that are a quarter of an inch narrower than a standard wood fuselage mount. The two on the ground are for wood fuselages, one for Dave Aldrich and the other for a work shop ‘to be determined’. All of these mounts are what I call a ‘High Thrust Line” mount. You can read the story behind them at this link:
Pietenpol Products, Motor mounts, Gear and Instalation Components. ( If the pictures are small when you get there, hit F5 at the top of your keyboard.)
If you are headed to the College or Sun n Fun and there is a particular piece that you would like to pick up, or even just see in person, drop us an email or call. We have lots of things in the hangar that we don’t always load up like full KR-2/2S cowls. We are glad to bring them if we know a builder is interested. Many of these things like mounts and full cowls are expensive to ship, and we are always ready to save the builder this expense. -ww
Chinese Crankshafts for Corvairs, update 2/17/13.
Builders,
Thirteen months ago I wrote a long story with photos on my personal perspective about the importation of Corvair crankshafts from sources in the Peoples Republic of China. The story can be read at the link below:
Chinese Crankshafts
In the past year, it has been read by several thousand readers. The tracking on our site tells me that the majority of the readers came from the internet groups that are aimed at Corvair Cars, not aircraft. The person I mention in the original story as promoting them for cars was probably hoping that no one in that arena would read my story, but the internet doesn’t work that way and it is not possible to keep potential buyers in the dark. In the last year, every internet car thread on Chinese cranks eventually had someone post a link to my story. It was a very effective version of buyer beware.
To teach builders about common internet promotional tactics used by questionable people, I include this small update. The guy promoting the Chinese crankshafts, including trying to sell them to aircraft people, Runs a LLC called Corvair specialties, if you look on the net his address is 13646 E. Lakeview Rd. Lakeside, CA. 92040. Right on his page he states: “business with no fixed address.” His actual name is Keith Wood. In spite of the address, he is not an American, he is Canadian. (We have many fine friends north of the border and Grace’s namesake was a native Canadian woman from New Brunswick.) But my point in the first story was that a guy who can walk across the border, operating a LLC in the US, selling poor quality parts made in Communist China for people to use in an arena he knows nothing about actually doesn’t have to be concerned about any kind of liability nor support, he can just take a hike without consequence the day after he cashes a check. He can say, claim or promote anything he likes without liability.
In response to car builders citing my story as enough evidence to avoid Chinese crankshafts, the testimonial below appeared on the Corvair Center car discussion group. At first past, it seems like a valid review from a regular car guy offering a public endorsement of Keith’s Chinese cranks:
“The crank that you bought is not from the same manufacturer as the ones from Magnificent Machine. The cranks from Keith are much better quality, and the quality of the rods are OK but they much stronger and are finished in the US. As for pinning the crank, there hasn’t been a failure reported in any of the over 1000 planes flying in the last 30+ years because the prop acts like a cushion much like a auto trans. Brad Abbotsford BC”
Here is what is wrong with the paragraph above: I don’t know if Brad exists, but I can tell you that Abbotsford BC is Keith Woods home town in Canada. It was very interesting to note that on the Corvair Center group, the number of posts written by a commenter is attached to their message. On that site, the average contributor has made 500-1000 posts. Notably, “Brad” has made a whopping 2 posts total.
Second, let me assure everyone reading this that The crankshafts in question are from the exact same source. I know this because I know Brady pretty well, and when Magnificent Machine, his company, was still operating, he frequently told me that he had issues with Keith, because they had tried to partner up on buying things from China, and they worked with the same people on rods and cranks. Brady sold a crank to Keith, and revealed his source to Keith in conversations.
The other part of the message is about a car practice where the crank gear is doweled onto the crank to prevent it from slipping on the crank. This is only done in cars where slicks are used, or in sand rails with paddle tires, in applications making several hundred HP combined with directly shock loading the drive train. But note the made up statistics: “over 1000 planes flying” stated with assurance. There ave not been half this many planes flown with a Corvair. My count is about 450. If the number was higher, I would gladly say so. Also, Corvairs have been flying for 53 years. While saying 30+ is technically correct, my point is that “Brad” has no background to make comments about Corvairs in aircraft. I have long stated that I detest people who have no experience with flying Corvair engines offering any type of comment or recommendation on the subject, on any forum.
I honestly think that “Brad” is either Keith Wood or his brother-in-law, trying to convince people to buy a Chinese Crankshaft with a very clumsy fake endorsement. Salesmen try stuff like this all the time on the internet. At first pass, it looks ok, but a second look reveals that it isn’t a real testimonial at all. Why does this matter to airplane guys? Because Keith has contacted several West Coast builders and pilots and attempted to get them to endorse him or the stuff he sells in some way. What he apparently didn’t understand is that I have put a lot of time into educating builders. Our builders have a low opinion of salesmen. Especially ones who try to tell Aviators they are selling something “perfect for aircraft” or “2 and a half times stronger,” who actually have no testing nor any aviation qualifications.
Over the years we have many good friends from the ranks of land-based Corvair people. The have been countless stories of car people helping out airplane builders in looking for cores and parts cars. Along with these good people came a handful of self-styled ‘Corvair specialist’ mechanics who felt that working with cars made the a Corvair aircraft mechanic. Among these were a small number of rip-off artists who saw airplane people as a new set of ‘deep pockets’ that had never heard of their rip off artist reputations. We are not speaking of a big number, I am thinking of 4 or 5 people in 20 years, but each of them stung more than one builder. Eventually my warnings about this type of people effectively convinced airplane builders that there was nothing to be gained from taking advice or paying for assistance from such people. Today, the only remaining task to permanently closing the books on that era is to make sure todays aircraft builders don’t buy anything from people who combine no experience with no liablity.-ww
, AZ in the winter to Abbotsford B.C. Canada in the summer.
Kitfox Model IV with Corvair mount
Note, new picture added two thirds of the way down….
Builders,
This weekend, 3,000 cc Corvair builder Thomas DeBusk drove down from Virgina with a friend and his Kitfox Model IV fuselage. We had planned this for a while. We had first spoken about it all the way back at Corvair College #16, but what really got things in high gear was Thomas running his 3,000 cc Corvair at College #19, and all of a sudden he got a look at the light at the end of his building tunnel. It was still far off, but he could certainly look at his running engine and a lot clearer picture of his plane getting done.
Below are a couple of photos I shot of his plane in my workshop on Saturday morning. The project took all day and a chunk of the next because we have no tooling or fixture to make this mount, everything had to be developed from scratch. The good part is that it was very easy to picture how this aircraft is going to climb like a homesick angel with 120 hp on tap. The Model IV is an earlier, smaller model, significantly lighter than modern Kitfoxes. The Corvair is right on the upper limit of weight for the airframe, but we were able to preserve the CG of the plane by backing the engine right up to the firewall. This was made possible by using a Reverse Gold Oil Filter Housing, normally only seen on Cleanex and Waiex installations. The additional weight of the engine is offset by Thomas being in excellent shape. If he was a boxer, he would fight as a super welterweight. In the big picture, he is going to have a very smooth running hot rod, in correct CG, with a useful load that makes practical sense for his weight and the smaller dimensions of the Model IV cabin.
Above, we built the mount directly on the fuselage, seen upside down in this photo. Vern is laying don a bead, Thomas is in the middle, and his friend Mark is on the left.
Above, Vern in a close up of the inverted mount. All of the welding we do is high quality TIG. Note the very unusual layout of the mount. It took a while to figure this out: It is a standard tray with a lot of 5/8-.058″ elements, and two 3/4-.049″ compression legs. We added the lower lug to the airframe. It may look heavy, but it is hollow, a 7/8-.058″ tube with a hidden internal NAS nut. What makes the Kitfox unusual is the lack of mounting points on the lower longeron corners. The rudder pedals actually stick past the lower ends of the fuselage structure and are housed in pedal boxes, thus the mount only has one central lower lug. The design checked out when we loaded it to 5 Gs; the deflection on the tray was only .016″.
Another angle of the top mount. The 16 x 30′ workshop is adjacent to our 40 x 50′ hangar. The hangar is a basic wood framed metal clad building. It isn’t open to the elements, but it has no measurable insulation “R” value either. Big projects and all cleaning are done in the hangar. In reasonable weather (50F to 90F), working in the hangar is nice, I like to be “outdoors” for a lot of the working day. For most welding and fine work, we function in the climate controlled workshop. It has a 4′ x 5′ hinged hatch in the end wall which makes it easy to bring something big like a fuselage inside. Looking at the photos, I can tell it’s time to take 3 hours off and clean the shop.
Above is a shot of a welded cluster on the fuselage. All Kitfoxes are MIG welded. Nothing wrong with this if it is done correctly. This particular fuselage was made in 2005. It is one of the last ones made by “Skystar.” While many people think “Kitfox, they have been around since the 1980s,” this isn’t exactly true. The name has had three distinctly different owners. Skystar, the middle owner, had two phases themselves. The current owners are good people whom we know. They run a solid operation.
If you look at the joint, there are a number of places that were missed on welding. Plenty of Kitfoxes have flown this way, and this isn’t related to MIG welding. This is indifferent quality control at the factory. This particular fuselage had to be retrieved as an asset by the original buyer from Skystar’s bankruptcy. To get a picture of the limitations of magazines in our industry, read the Wikipedia page on Kitfox history, then go to your stack of old magazines from the same year, and note how almost nothing was said about the early versions of the company tanking. Part of this is because the magazines had long lead times (loads of glowing articles hit the newsstands the month after the company in the article went Chapter 11), but the other half of the story was that “journalists” didn’t ask any questions as long as the company was buying $4,000/month full-page color ads.
I don’t point this stuff out to make builders cynical or depressed, I do it so that you understand that the only person who is looking out for you the builder in this industry is you. Do some homework: develop a handful of trusted friends with more experience; recognize aviation’s versions of “too good to be true.”
Not a perfect picture, but it gives an idea of what a MIG weld on thin wall 4130 looks like. This is done by a technique called “pulsing,” where the operator repeatedly taps the trigger to form the ringlets in the weld. Conventionally switched equipment didn’t like this pulsing; MIG welders since the early 1990s are not bothered by it. I don’t recommend that people new to welding try to use a MIG on their project. It is the wrong tool in the hands of a beginner. Most new people using them produce brittle welds by letting the puddle cool too fast. (You can slow this by using bigger beads and having more mass in the weld than the surrounding tubing area.)
Above, mock up engine sits on the mount so we can develop the special intake manifold for this installation. Thomas is planning on a Rotec or Ellison carb which will be mounted horizontally under the engine. I don’t view the Kitfox IV as a big untapped market, this may be the only installation we do. The project got one big step closer to being done, and I look forward to having Thomas among the Corvair flyers.
On the Internet you can find a steady stream of negative comments about me and my work with Corvairs from a vocal minority that have two common traits: they have never met me, and they have never assisted another builder in learning or achieving anything. While occasionally annoying, it doesn’t have much credibility. Any reasonable person can review my Web sites and find 100 stories much like Thomas DeBusk’s that define my work as a valuable contributor to real homebuilders. Do I deserve some special award for this? Yes, and I already have it….the real friendship of a great number of quality people like Thomas.
Blast from the past: Thomas at Corvair College #19. The caption below the photo is from the event in 2010.
