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Builders

As I type this on April 14th, Oshkosh may sound distant, but it starts in 98 days, and I will be leaving to head north in 91 days, to first attend the Pietenpol gathering in Brodhead Wisconsin on Friday and Saturday before Oshkosh which starts on Monday July 22nd. 

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People ask “Are you going to…?”  Frequently, but I can make this easy to remember: For the last 22 years, I schedule three public airshows per year, and they are Brodhead, Oshkosh and the September Zenith Aircraft Homecoming. Years ago, I attended a lot of little shows, and I once accepted invitations to speak at a lot of events. It was fun, I met a lot of people, but in retrospect, it was not productive for my long term goals.  I stopped commercially displaying at Sun-n-Fun in 2011, after 20 consecutive years.  For the last two decades, the three events above  have been the productive setting I have worked, and it  allows me to meet builders in person, while holding to travel time to 24-25 days a year. 

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Brodhead:  This year is the 15th anniversary of starting the Weight and Balance project , which evolved to my Pietenpol W&B manual.  This year, I am going to make the complex algorithm developed by Ryan Meuller and myself directly available to builders in the form of an on-line calculator on my website. To use it effectively, builders will still need to get the book from my webstore, or the Brodhead EAA chapter,  but while I’m at Brodhead  I will explain how to use the calculator to study changes in your build and quickly compare proposed changes. The algorithm works to any Pietenpol, not just Corvair powered ones.  The calculator will be free to use and my contribution to the Pietenpol community, as a very practical tool improving builder understanding and safety of operations.  

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Oshkosh:   This will be my 33rd trip to Oshkosh, and just like every other year, I will have my display in the same spot, the North Aircraft Display,  Booth 614., Adjacent to Zenith Aircraft.  I will be there all week, 9-5, and I will also be giving forums, these will be in the official EAA program.  If you have a core engine you would like inspected, bring it, I conduct after hours parking lot inspection tours.  A reminder:  I have manuals and shirts for sale, and plenty of samples to look at, but I do not bring inventory to sell at airshows.  No matter what the state, I would be required to charge sales tax and maintain elaborate year round accounting for the state’s department of revenue.  The easy solution is to come by and I can assist you in ordering any part from my on line catalog,  The shipping to your house will be less than the tax you would have to pay, and you will not have to carry the items with you or pack them home. 

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I hope to see as many of you as possible at these two events. If you have never attended either event, don’t let another flying season pass without making this happen for yourself. For understanding, learning, planning and recharging your build enthusiasm, there is no substitute for getting out in the actual element and having a great time. 

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Above, Oshkosh 2023, with Zak Kistler and son. Zak was one of my housemates at Embry-Riddle 34 years ago.  Oshkosh allows me to check in with old friends I don’t see often enough 

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Above, Brodhead 2023:  This photo was taken in the peaceful downtown main street of Brodhead.  The Pietenpol gathering is the polar opposite setting from Oshkosh.  The both have their merits,  but I really enjoy the relaxed setting of Brodhead.   For local transportation I bring my 1967 Honda S-90 and Ken Pavlou brings the 1961 Vespa 150 he restored..  Great fun in little packages, they also start a lot of conversations. 

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Above, My 2,850cc display engine at Oshkosh 2023.  The Kit version of this engine, and the supervised build sessions at my hangar remain very popular, I have a difficult time keeping up with demand, but I make production efficiency improvements every month,   This year we will have several new things to share with builders, evolutions on a long proven power plant. 

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WW. 

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An interesting look at the CNC models of the parts I have for the Corvair, assembled in 3D view.

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This view shows my Group 3200 5th bearing, which is supplied with the 2,850 kit engines I sell.

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William

Builders;

Here is my events schedule:

Brodhead Wisconsin , Guest Speaker, 3pm Saturday 22nd. Will also look at cores and parts in a parking lot tour.

Oshkosh Display starts Monday 24 runs through the following Sunday. I am in the same space as the last 5 years, #616, North Aircraft Display, adjacent to Zenith Aircraft.

Oshkosh Forum Wednesday 26th , 11:30 am workshop classroom c

Oshkosh forum #2, Saturday 29, 10:00 am workshop classroom B

Thanks, William .

Below is a picture of what my new display will be built around.

❤️🙂

Builders:

Over the years, suppliers is the Corvair world have offered aluminum pushrod tubes. I have owned sets before, but they had issues, predominantly being too thick walled at the top and impeding cold oil drain back because the thick wall was too close to the guide plates.

I wrote an article a number of years ago on how to modify the tops, but it required having a lathe, and in the end it was a lot of work for an individual builder.

Over the last several months I have designed a new set of aluminum billet tubes, had them made on very accurate CNC equipment and included details like o-ring grooves which are a few thousands larger in diameter to tighten the fit on the installed o-rings. As the picture shows, they Ave a smooth bell mouth at the top so cold oil will drain back. I include a set of Viton O-rings with each set of tubes.

To be clear, these are a ‘luxury’ item. No one has to buy these to build and fly a corvair engine. They are just an available option, a choice for builders. Guys working of a budget can always clean and paint, or powder coat stock tubes, I did it for the last 34 years.

I’m going to include these with every kit motor I sell from here forward. They look good and are a bit lighter than stock ones, but the other factor for me is it takes time for me to prep stock tubes for kit engines, and I never have enough hours in the day. These tubes, coming right out a box, saves me about 2 man hours on an engine. I offer them so builders have the same choice.

WW.

https://flycorvair.net/product/1602b-anodized-aluminum-pushrod-tubes/

Builders;

My 2022 conversion manual is 300 pages in length, but this really isn’t a good measure of its content. Here is a small example of what it takes to develop the content to fill several hundred pages with useful information.

The picture is four Whirlwind “Razor” blades. These were designed to fit in a warp drive hub. I contacted Whirlwind and spoke to their engineering team. There was good reason to think these blades would be a very good option or upgrade for Corvairs. in order to accelerate testing, I bought two pairs of blades and began flight tests on friends Zeniths. The blades were $410 each.

While I am known as ‘The Corvair Guy’, I additionally have a very strong background in propellers for light aircraft. I was mentored by two men, now past, who are recognized as masters of propulsion. I have worked as a manager and a consultant for brands, I’ve been a dealer for Warp Drive and Sensenich for almost 30 years each, and I have worked with a number of propeller artisans. I mention this so you can understand there was very good reason, not marketing, that made these blades seem promising.

Aerodynamically, they are good, however, a serious problem emerged in testing. Simultaneously the blades showed their best performance above 3,000 rpm, and the engineering team said they were uncomfortable with that kind of sustained rpm. ( neither Warp Drive nor Sensenich props have this limitation). Out of caution, I ceased the flight tests, as it was not possible, no matter the pitch used, to keep the rpm limit, particularly in a decent.

After a year pause, I contacted Whirlwind again to see if any data or testing had developed which would make them revise their red line rpm higher. They cam back and said they were now moving it lower to 2800 rpm continuous. I now had some very expensive wall decorations.

I could not sell them in aviation, so I listed them on a Florida airboat site. They sold for $600. Besides the time and effort, this is a straight $1,000 loss. Sounds like a lot, but in the last 34 years I have spent more than 100x that on tests which ended like this.

So when I have the next printing of conversion manuals done, the 300 pages will get a single paragraph added in the propeller section, explaining that where blades look good, but the rpm limit is way too low. It’s essentially a thousand dollar paragraph. Give that some thought when looking at the other 1,500 paragraphs in the manual.

❤️🙂

Builders,

Many of my friends know that my mother passed last month, and a great number of people shared their condolences on social media. My family deeply appreciated each of these thoughts.

If in the course of working with me, you are ever witness to, or the recipient of a thought or an act which strikes you as really considerate or kind beyond the norm, you are actually directly observing my mothers presence and ethics in my life.

My mother made it quite clear to us children that we had very ‘rich’ lives of love and acceptance, and better friends than most people, and fail to offer the same to others, particularly the lonely or the isolated, was the height of ingratitude and arrogance. She understood that there really isn’t a valid excuse for that behavior.

My mother’s life had as profound effect on my life as my father’s. I shared more stories from my father over the years, but isn’t indicative of the proportion of or scale of the influence. My mother valued kindness, generosity and empathy, and she demonstrated her unwavering allegiance to these values by living them. Her quiet example was strong enough that I will confess to being truly embarrassed when I think of the times in my life where I had a short fuse and a sharp tongue. It was ingratitude for all my mother taught me.

Elizabeth and drove to NJ and arrived in time to spend a few remaining hours by her bedside. We stayed up north for the services and for the gathering of my family. In May my mother will be interred beside my father in Arlington National Cemetery. They were together from 1946-2017. I can not begin to express how fortunate I was to be one of their children.

My mother waves from the left seat of my friends DC-3, here in Florida 20 years ago. As a 12 year old in 1939, her class was given a tour of the then new DC-3 at Newark airport. Girls were not allowed in the cockpit. 64 years later, this injustice was corrected. Mom loved it.

Thanks to all the builders who were patient about orders while I was up north. I’m back in the hangar and office now, and will have all the orders out in a few days. Feel free to call anytime.

William.

Builders,

Pictured below are a batch of starter brackets, fresh from the anodizer, being packaged today.

These come with Group 2400 starter kits. They are aluminum, machined on very accurate CNC equipment.

Hear is a link to starter kits: https://flycorvair.net/product/2400l-ultra-light-weight-starter-kit/

William

Builders,

I picked these up at the printer this afternoon, and they are in my inventory system now, ready for immediate shipment.

The picture on my shopping page shows a 2014 manual, but I have been sending out 2022 manuals since July of 2022.

If you have a 2014 manual AND a MOP manual, you do not need to upgrade to a 2022 manual. The primary updates to the 2014 manual were making it agree with the 2019 MOP manual. New builders should also get a MOP manual, I just didn’t like having discrepancies between the 2014 manual and the MOP manual.

Thank you,

William.

Builders,

Pictured below are a dozen new Short Gold hubs, fresh back from anodizing.

His part is the hub used with both Gen 1 and Gen 2 SPA/Weseman 5th bearings.

This is an inventory increase, the design has remained unchanged, and continuously available for 16 years. and is retrofittable to all engines dating back to 1992.

Thanks, William.

Builders,

This is advanced notice to the Corvair Community of the availability of this Zenith.

It was built and flown my my close friend Woody Harris. He passed away at the end of last summer. The plane has 500 hours on it. It has flown to 25 states, including 3 corners of the US, and to Oshkosh and Kitty Hawk. It is powered by a 2,850 cc Corvair, and the installation is 100% by my book. Woodys life work was in international auto racing, driving and fabricating, and the plane reflects his mechanical experience.

The plane has a fresh annual, and is currently being flown. Videos of the plane are available to potential buyers, the aircraft is located at the Nut Tree Airport in Vacaville CA, near Sacramento.

His family is putting the plane on Barnstormers for $42,000 in 10 days. Before then, they are offering it to people who already have an interest in Corvair powered planes, as it will be less questions. Before going to Barnstormers, the price is Reduced to $40,000.

If you have a technical question on the plane, text me, 904-806-8143.

If you would like to arrange to see the plane, you should text Woodys daughter Amy Choi, 707-430-7092. She is an ATP who knows flying and machines, and will handle all aspects of the sale.

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Personal note: Woody was a very important person in my life, and I am close with his family. Let me forewarn compulsive bargain hunters who view another family’s tragedy as an opportunity for them to make a low ball offer and try to cash in flipping the plane, I have the memory of an elephant, I’m well known in the Zenith community, and I will make sure anyone trying this becomes a pariah, just for trying it. I’m not reluctant to publish their picture and home address on the internet. Woody was a great friend, and someone who wouldn’t protect the interests of the family of a deceased friend is worthless, and never deserved the man’s trust in the first place.

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Thank You

William.