Yesterday, “Uncle” Gary Coppen and I left at daylight to head down to the Leesburg FL airport to put in a ‘Corvair House Call’ at EAA Chapter #534. They have an Aircamper project and a Corvair for it. I was able to give them some small pointers and guide them through using to Weight and Balance planning tools on my website. #534 has always been an exceptionally active chapter, they were local host of two of the 50 Corvair Colleges I held. Some EAA chapters don’t have any active homebuilders, #534 is a beehive of activity and a hangar full of projects. It is my definition of ‘Old school’ EAA. It was a fun and productive trip, and we were back home by early afternoon.
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Above, The Chapter project. It looks like a Pietenpol. but it is fundamentally a Grega GN-1 with a lot of Pietenpol mixed in. It started as a donated project, the Chapter is re-doing a lot of it and headed toward a very good plane.
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Above, the Chapter banner. They have a big hangar right on the taxiway.
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This engine was installed in a Zenith an flown 20 years ago. It has some elements, like the welded on head pipes, which were actually done by yours truly when I was a lot younger. Its funny that we operate in an industry dominated by here today, gone tomorrow flashy companies, and here I run into work of mine which I have not seen in a few decades. This engine was donated to the chapter, after updates it will power their Aircamper.
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Part of their chapter Saturday gang takes a moment to mug for the camera. Special thanks to John Webber for setting the visit up.
I am looking for a Zenith 601XLB/650 airframe for sale, to have as an in- house test bed and demo aircraft.
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I’m going to use the aircraft for two purposes. First it will allow me to document and share all the details and refinements of an up to date Corvair/Zenith installation, and Second, It will be the demonstrator of an optional retrofit turbocharging system for 2,850cc Zeniths which I have quietly developed over the last few years.
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Above, John McIntire’s 2,850cc Corvair powered 601XLB in my hangar last month. The plane is more than 15 years old, but is in very good shape. This specific aircraft was, at the time of completion, an outstanding example of a ‘by the book’ installation. However, over the years it has had three different owners, who didn’t elect for all the optional updates, and it has some builder choice details that don’t exactly represent how I show people to install the engine. These circumstances are true of most of the Corvair powered Zeniths. In order have an up to date, ‘by the book’ example for builders to follow, the common sense solution is to do a completely fresh installation this fall, and keep the new plane in house.
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Above is a picture of the proof of concept 2,850 turbo kit installed on Vinnie Maggiore’s 750STOL. This plane has been flying for more than two years in this configuration. It is a retrofit onto an existing 2,850 engine. This system was built in my hangar in the spring of 2022 . I intentionally did not publicize the testing. It has a highly unusual configuration of the turbo below the engine, and an innovative methodology of dealing with the lubrication. The flight testing was done out of Vinnie’s airport in New York. It worked very well. The plane gained 24 pounds, but can deliver 150+ HP on take off. There is a lot of remaining work to develop a production kit from this prototype, but it will retain the same basic layout, and remain a retrofit.
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Above, a larger view of the installation. The existence of the project was revealed when Vinnie recently put the plane up for sale. This sparked questions, but it is for sale for the most common of non-mechanical reasons: Vinnie became a father in the fall last year, and as a responsible new family man, he is re-prioritizing some elements of his life. This brings me back to the logic of doing the production turbo development on an in-house plane, here at my airport, Over the years I have had a number of builders like Vinnie make important contributions to my test programs, and it has been greatly appreciated, but the next level will be done with an in house plane.
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Since I already have a very busy schedule with parts production and supervised builds, I am going to partner on this in house plane with my uncle, Gary Coppen. He has his own 4,000sf hangar here at our field, he is a very skilled craftsman, we have built Corvair projects together for more than 25 years, He is comfortably retired, and Gary’s grandchildren are teenagers, so the responsibilities of new parenthood are a memory from the Carter administration.
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Above, photographic proof of how long I have worked with Gary and turbos on Corvairs. This is a 24 year old photograph of a pre-gray hair me, running a fuel flow test on Gary’s Corvair powered Stitts SA-7 Skycoupe. This is the same aircraft we did all my original turbocharging installation flight tests with. Old guard builders will remember seeing this plane with its turbo. my Wagabond, and my original Corvair powered Zenith tail dragger at Sun n Fun in the early 2000’s.
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What I am specifically looking for:
It has to be a 601XLB or a 650 airframe, I don’t want to use a HD or HDS for this project.
I need a complete or 99% complete airframe. We are going to focus on the engine, we don’t have the time to build a kit.
I would prefer the plane having flown, but it doesn’t need to be registered nor have an airworthiness certificate.
If a builder or a family has a flying plane but for liability reasons would like to sell the engine separately and cancel the registration, this will be ideal, I can buy the airframe as simple parts.
I am looking for a working class, well built airframe, but not a show winner nor a technology demonstrator. An unpainted, steam gauge airframe without an interior is in our price bracket. I do not want to make anyone a low offer on a plane with a value above our basic needs.
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If you have such an airframe, or a good lead on one, please contact me, or come see me at my Oshkosh booth. Thank you.
Pictured below are a set of starter brackets, Part of my group 2400L starter system. I drove down to my Anodizer yesterday to pick them up. They are made on precision CNC equipment, incredibly accurate and consistent. It is interesting that after anodizing, if you hold them in the right light you can see the CNC machine’s tool path making them, however, to the touch, they are as smooth as a piece of glass.
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These will be bagged and inventoried, and along with the new batch of starters, be available for purchase off my website early next week.
I took some time and made and packaged a half dozen #3501 5th bearing oil lines. Your conversion manual has a full description of this part.
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This line feeds oil from the Gold oil filter housing P/N 2601, to the 5th bearing. The hose ends are Earl’s Swivel Seal, the finest AN hose ends, the braided stainless hose is also made by Earl’s.
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Above,the 90 degree full flow hose ends which attach to the 5th bearing oil feed fitting.
I came home today from a 200 mile round trip to my anodizer, and these boxes were waiting for me.
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In them are more Zenith Installation manuals and 2022 Conversion Manuals. For the first time I am having these two printed by the same Wisconsin company which Prints the MOP and the W&B manuals. I opened the boxes, and the quality is excellent. My local printer had recently changed ownership and the new owners doubled the price on manuals, The solution to keep the manuals reasonable was to switch to the Wisconsin shop, and order larger quantities.
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Above, In my carport today. Yes, we have Christmas lights up 365.
The 12 building reservations for the October-November- December Supervised Engine Build dates are now up on my sales section of my website. There is one building weekend per month, and there are four slots for each date.
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Please read the blog story in the reservation description before putting a deposit on a date. If you have questions, i will be available by text or phone starting Monday 6/3.
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In the blog story I wrote a month ago on supervised builds, i said that I would publish the fall schedule on 6/1, and accordingly, the reservation slots became available at midnight last night. The schedule of winter 2025 builds will be available 9/1.
I came back from running errands today, and this box was in my car port. It is $6,400 worth of 10 row Oil Coolers.
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I have already added these to the inventory. The price I have been selling these for is $399. This is $96 less than aircraft spruce charges for the same cooler. My shipping invoice showed that the price of these coolers has increased this year, not a giant amount, but enough that I’m going to increase the price on my site tomorrow afternoon. For builders looking to get a deal, two conditions:
You have to buy the cooler off my site by 12:00 noon Thursday, which is also my pre-vacation shipping cut off.
If you want it shipped before I leave, please select “USPS Priority’ shipping, which is much easier for me to get out the door, and on this item, I believe it actually saves you on shipping.
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Above, the box in my car port. These are “Aero Classic” Coolers, made in the US by Pacific Oil Cooler on the west coast. I’m pretty sure they are the number one producer of certified aircraft coolers.
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Above, a screen shot of the identical part sold by Aircraft Spruce. Tomorrow at noon I’m going to increase my price on the coolers to reflect the cost increase, but for 16 more hours, I will keep the old price.
I will be out of my shop from May24th -31st. I am taking a brief motorcycle trip through Vermont and New Hampshire. I will not be covering builders calls, texts or emails during this week, nor will orders be shipped. If you are ordering a manual, the cut off for orders will be noon on the 23rd. I have a handful of orders in the shop being packed now, they will ship before I leave.
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IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING…..If you have a flying Corvair powered plane, and are experiencing a potential safety of flight issue, you should call or text me,all other contacts can be made after June the 1st.
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Upon my return, I will have six sold weeks of pure shop production before my departure for Brodhead and Oshkosh. This will produce a large influx in completed parts into the inventory, available for sale, before this years airshows. If you have a question, I will be glad to cover it in a text or call upon my return. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
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Above,Last October’s New England ride: Ken Pavlou and I at Franconia Notch NH. This was the first actual vacation I had taken in 16 years. Now that I’m over 60 I’m going to stop pretending that I’m immortal and take two weeks off a year and limit myself to working just seventy hours a week the other 50 weeks, like any reasonable person would.
