Continuing the series, here is one of the best known Corvair/Zeniths, from a very friendly and extremely talented builder-flyer, Ken Pavlou.
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Ken’s first flight was 10 years ago in 2014, but he started building in 2007. A family man with a challenging career in health care and a side line of residential property renovations, the project had to fit into the remaining hours. After a big push in early 2014, he completed the plane and flew it to Oshkosh, where it was autographed by the master himself, Chris Heintz.
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In the 900 hours since, the plane has made several return trips to Oshkosh and many trips up and down the east coast. People who thought of the 601 as a fun sport plane had there understanding of the planes capabilities expended when Ken shared videos like directly overflying JFK airport at night.
Ken could select any engine he wanted for his plane, budget was not a factor. The appeal of the Corvair for him was the chance to build it himself, and the basic simplicity of the engine and systems. He built and flew a standard 100hp Corvair for the first 503 hours, and then he upgraded to a cost is no object 3.3L 125+hp engine with a stroked billet crankshaft. Ken is one of a handful of builders who have flown both ends of the Corvair power spectrum in the same airframe. He points out they each serve particular goals well.
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Ken is an accomplished pilot with more than three decades of flying and more than 6,000 hours in GA aircraft. He has nothing but praise for the 601/650 design and Zeniths support for it. When you select an aircraft to build, you are also getting ‘married’ to the company which provides it. Thousand of builders, Ken among they, will attest the Zenith factory and community of builders was a very good match for homebuilding ambitions.
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Above, Ken at one of my Corvair Colleges, where he was awarded the Cherry Grove Trophy for his long standing contributions to our Corvair community
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Ken’s 601XL, one of two in my front yard in Florida that day.
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Ken’s plane in New Hampshire, with two other Corvair Powered 601XL’s
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Ken, with his plane, on the flight line at Oshkosh.
This weeks Zenith is a second owner aircraft, Today it is in the good care of, and being enjoyed by Tim Kisieleski of New Hampshire, but it was originally built and flown by Tim Jones of Ohio, one of my early builders, who did an excellent job on this aircraft. Yes, it looks great, but here is the proof that it was a really good build of both the airframe and the engine: Tim has owned the aircraft a little more than 2 years, flown it almost 350 hours, and done no work to it beyond condition inspections.
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A lot of homebuilder second owner stories are not happy ones, but this one is, and let me share why: When Tim was looking for a second owner Zenith, the plane he first plane looked at seemed OK, and looked like a ‘bargain’ at $29K . Tim had the common sense to call me and ask what I knew about the plane……I told him the truth, it was very poor, and the original builder was lying about the condition of the plane and that it had not actually flown in years. Tim cancelled the deal. The original builder of that plane was angry with me , and pulled the “I thought we were friends”card. I told him I don’t have friends who lie about airworthiness.
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I suggested Tim shop for the best plane, not a bargain. Many potential second owners are pennywise and pound foolish, and would not have heeded my logic. I pointed out that he was buying the plane to utilize it, and in the long run, it was worth a significant premium to get a plane which needed nothing, and would have a very high availability. This made sense to Tim, and he was willing to pay nearly twice as much for this aircraft. 350 flight hours later, Tim understands what a good call he made investing in this plane, instead of bargain hunting.
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Tim Keeps the plane north of Boston, but operates his off shore fishing boat from the New Jersey Coast. This round trip is his most frequent cross country, it takes him right over New York City. On a weekend of heavy traffic, the plane can shave 8 hours off the round trip.
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Tim’s success story is based on one thing: Good decision making.
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A lot of people will read this story, look at the pictures, but somehow feel that they couldn’t have the same adventure. It isn’t a logical question of time nor budget, it is an emotional feeling of self doubt. Here is an important reality check: Tim is a fairly low time pilot, and he is a very busy guy, and he does have a budget…..but he doesn’t engage in emotional self doubt.
Tim is well trained, has a healthy respect for what he doesn’t yet know, but he correctly sees challenges as achievable with work. A Zenith is a rewarding plane to fly, but not a difficult one. I teach many second owners how to maintain their Corvair, and Zenith Aircraft probably has the friendliest second owner policy the industry. No matter if you are a plans or kit builder, or a second owner, experimental aviation is great setting to challenge and confront all the elements of our society which want you to doubt your own potential. The only difference between looking at these pictures and taking your own, is believing in your own potential.
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The plane: Powered by a 100hp Corvair, it utilizes a carbon Sensenich prop, It has about 550 hours on it..
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Above, Mountains in New Hampshire.
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Above, Statue of Liberty at dusk.
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Flying directly over JFK airport.
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Above, Smiles tell the story, Tim and his better half, aloft.
Highlighted here is the Corvair powered Zenith 750 STOL of Dan Glaze of Ohio. Dan is well known as a super friendly, very positive guy in both Corvair and Zenith circles. He generously utilizes his aircraft to make transition training available to all Zenith 750 builders, not just Corvair guys. His aircraft has trained more than 20 Zenith pilots.
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Above, Dan’s plane in flight. It has been flying a few years, logging several hundred hours. If it looks familiar, it has previously been to the September Zenith Aircraft Homecoming. The plane has a standard 100HP Corvair and utilizes a Prince fixed pitch prop.
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Dan built both his kit, and his engine. He attended a few of my Corvair Colleges, and finished and test ran his engine. He subsequently returned to more than 20 follow on Colleges as a volunteer, to assist others and ‘give back’ more than he took. Of the 50 Corvair Colleges I held over 22 years, Dan attended more of them than any other person, with the exception of myself.
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The view from ‘the office’. Dan’s traditional panel choice reflects his old school background in aviation. He goes way back, having worked on the Rockwell B-1 assembly line. Today, he is an entrepreneur in an increasingly high tech industry, and he could build and operate the most complex and elaborate aircraft systems, but instead he made the personal choice to have a capable, but comparatively simple aircraft.
He is a laid back guy, and he is the last person who would express a judgment of, or tell anyone else what to do with their own homebuilt. The corollary of this attitude is Dan’s confidence to build his plane to his own personal tastes and preferences, without consideration of trends nor opinions of trolls.
This attitude is the embodiment “Real Freedom is the Sustained Act of Being an Individual”. I wrote that, but it doesn’t just apply to Corvair builders, it is for anyone who places more value on their own judgement than the opinion of the crowd.
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Above, a good view of Dan’s plane with the cowl inspection doors open. The nosebowl is fiberglass, but all the cowl between the bowl and the firewall is .025′ aluminum single curvature pieces. Engine inspection is readily available by turning four 1/4 turn Camlocks on each side. Makes through pre-flights easy.
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.
