Category: Event

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Arrival at Chino

1400 miles from CC 36 Austin, truck trailer and tools are now at Chino for CC 37.  Note planes of fame B-17 in background.

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Apologies to California for previous post about seppetation of guns and ammo, I now understand that it is to keep people from rural states, like me, from shooting ourselves after sitting in a 40 mile, middle of the day traffic jam, which local drivers didn’t seem to even notice.

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-ww.

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On the border…..

Timely call from AZ resident Larry Nelson    reminded me that tourists can win an extended stay at a state facility from California for entering with firearms and ammunition in the same container, even if they are in a locked toolbox, in a locked trailer. Thus a pitstop to repack while still in AZ.

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I feel safer knowing that drug dealers, murders, gangs and terrorists in California are also complying with this law.

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Note, this is intended as humor and to show I follow the law, even if I am yet to see the logic of it.

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Corvair College #36 report.

Builders:

I present a one photo summary of Corvair College #36 in Austin TX.

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This was the fourth Corvair College that Kevin Purtee and Shelley Tumino have hosted.  As builders have to expect, the College ran perfectly, everyone had a productive event, we ran plenty of engines, Several people brought in their Corvair powered planes, and a number of friendships were made or renewed.

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As I write this I am headed west to California, for the prep work for Corvair College #37 in Chino, just 16 days away. I will post a few more pictures, but there is already a lot notes and photos from builders who attended the college on our Corvair College Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/CorvairCollege/

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(you don’t have to be a FB person to read it)

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As Mr. Stuart said:” Every picture tells a story don’t it? “….. After hours on the last day of the college: L-R: Greg Crouchley, owns a Corvair powered Waiex and a Corvair powered Zenith 750. Has attended more than 12 Colleges, never works on his own stuff, only there to help and see friends. Kevin Purtee, Corvair powered Pietenpol, co-hosted 4 colleges, done countless tasks behind the scenes to assist other builders.  Earl Brown, Corvair Pietenpol builder and master craftsman, currently learning French so he can be the local host of Corvair College #58, slated for 2020 in Martinique. Dave Hoehn, Falconair builder from AZ. Dave’s 2,850 was the first engine to run at CC #36, but Dave has come early and stayed late at all of the Texas Colleges to assist Kevin and Shelley in putting on the best events possible. When people ask “what makes the Corvair a different engine?” the answer is simply we are the place in homebuilding where the original values of putting back a little more than you found, still lives and is flourishing. If you have not come across that sprit in your travels in homebuilding, change headings and meet some Corvair builders.

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Ww

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Corvair College #38, Cloverdale CA closes in 24 hrs.

Builders:

Sign up for Cloverdale CA closes at 9pm EST, Thursday, 4/7/16. This is last call:

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The story is here:

Outlook 2016, Corvair College #38, Cloverdale CA, 5/6/16

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The sign up is here:

CC #38, May 6-8 Cloverdale California:

https://corviarcollegeregistration.wufoo.com/forms/cc38/

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Above, a 2007 photo From Cloverdale: Michael Heintz, at left above, joins me in presenting the EAA Copper state Fly In Award for Best Alternative Engine. This was awarded to Rick Lindstrom, center, for his 601, behind us. 

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FlyCorvair Parts and Info at Sun n Fun 2016.

Builders.

I have been at the last 28 consecutive Sun n Funs, but this year I will break the streak, because I will be on the road for the three western Corvair Colleges. For builders headed to Sun n Fun from April 5th -10th, Dan and Rachel Weseman and the SPA/Panther crew will be there, and they will have all of our parts, (and their own Corvair stuff) for sale.

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Keep in mind that our sales and distribution are now covered by Dan and Rachel. (read the story here: Outlook 2016, New order page and distribution method. ) It has been in place for 60 days, and it is working exceptionally well, and the arrangement allows me to focus on making parts and teaching builders, the two elements I do best.  The arrangement also allows parts to be purchased and shipped the whole time I am on the road (Read College and Western Tour update,  and  College and western tour update #2 )

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You can study all of our available products at this link: http://shop.flycorvair.com/shop/ . If you have any question on the availability of an item, feel free to use the contact info or call SPA directly at 904-626-7777.

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Blast from the past, Sun n Fun 20 years ago.  My Pietenpol and from L to R, Gus Warren, Steve Upson and  a young version of me.  The EAA’s Mary Jones took the picture the last hour of the show.

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It had been a long, fun week. If we look a little rough, it was from spending the previous night at the ultra-light party where the legendary  Chuck Slusarczyk was serving his “Muzzle Loader” moonshine.  People said it was made with Acetone and Skydrol, but in reality. it just tasted that way.  It was served in coffee mugs because it ate right through Styrofoam cups.

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The 1990’s ultra-light parties were simple fun with bands and beer and friends,  events a little too ‘colorful’ to fit into major airshows today.

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If you would like a look at photos of Corvair builders and planes at Sun n Fun 2002-2012, follow this link: http://www.flycorvair.com/snf2012.html

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-ww.

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Something Very Positive – from Brian Dempsey

Builders,

Amid the little internet drama of the last week, a plain brown cardboard box arrives in the afternoon mail. It looked like it could contain typical core parts, but the name on small return address label caught my eye, It was from Brian Dempsey.

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There have been many good people in the history of homebuilding, and I suspect that most people today might not recognize one of the aviators who was at the very cutting edge of Formula V air racing in the 1970s and 1980s. Formula V was the purest of homebuilt creativity in a reasonably affordable format. Men like Steve Wittman and John Monnett thought this was the best place to experience a resurgence of the golden age of air racing (1929-39) Formula V was hyper competitive, and produced useful sport plane designs like the Sonerai and the V-Witt. Brian Dempsey was in the thick of this, best known for his plane “Miss Annapolis” Eventually, Brian became the Formula V national champion several years.

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Inside the box was a collection of vintage copies of the classic book “Stick and Rudder.” They came with a short note explaining that Brian wanted to provide them to a promising person at each of Corvair Colleges from here forward. He liked the educational nature of the colleges and the promotion of traditional homebuilding skills and perspectives.  The modest nature of the note and Brian’s reserved style suggest he would like the contribution to be received without fanfare, but I do believe that it should have public acknowledgement among Corvair builders, and it should have it’s place with the notable contributions builders of generous spirit have made.

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Brian had actually came to a Barnwell Corvair College several years ago, and had signed up to return to #34 this last November. When he didn’t make it I just thought something came up, and only much later did we learn that he was in a serious car accident just as he was leaving for the College. Both Grace and I are looking forward to eventually having him at another College.

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This needs to be understood: Brian is acknowledged as a serious perfectionist master homebuilder. He knows a lot about aerodynamics and efficiency, He is an outstanding pilot, with skills good enough to compete in national air racing against Steve Wittman…and beat him. Other than a few things I might show him about Corvairs, he has nothing to learn from me on any topic in homebuilding or flying. We can have fun hanging out at a College, but I am sure it isn’t on the same experience plateau as racing against Wittman.  Yet the man with these skills, experiences and capabilities, who has attended just a single Corvair College, is drawn to enrich the future Corvair College experience for homebuilders he will likely never meet.   I write a lot about the spirit of traditional homebuilding, but I can’t think of a better example of it than a man who worked hard for his day “In the Arena“, doing something positive to give other people the same shot.

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Perhaps the only three things guaranteed by modern life are Death, Taxes, and Internet drama. If I was told I had to choose two, my question would be “What is the rate and will it be an honorable death?”  The personality stuff and the ‘demands for apologies’ will never go away, but you can choose instead to stay focused on spending your hours in much better service to your own goals and dreams. Brian Dempsey’s achievements are a great testimony to the possibilities open to any builder willing to invest in himself, and spend his hours in the company of aviators who approached aviation as something of a brotherhood and not another consumer experience.

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The best book on flying ever written. Read the story here: Greatest Book on Flying Ever Written, (Is your life worth $16?)

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-ww.

 

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Corvair College #37, Chino CA. April 22-24, Sign up closes in a week.

Builders,

In one week, the sign up for Corvair College #37 in Chino California will close. It you have been considering attending #37, the time to act is now.

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The sign up links for all the 2016 colleges are here:

2016 Corvair College registration pages.

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You can read the story about College #37 here:

Outlook 2016, Corvair College #37 Chino CA, 4/22/16

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College #37 is the west cost College were Dan Weseman from SPA/ Panther will be on hand to cover tech support with me, just as we did at CC#34 and the Zenith Open house -2015 -quick notes.

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NOTE: The most common misconception we clear up for builders it the mistaken belief  you need a core engine to work with to attend the college, You Do Not.  1/3 of the builders at any college do not bring an engine. In many cases, they are there to learn exactly what kind of a Corvair they wish to build, and also what to look for in a core engine. You do not need an engine to attend a college.

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Would you like all the links to stories about Corvair Colleges? they call all be found at this link:

Corvair College reference page

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Our local host for CC#37 is our friend Steve Glover. He has been around Corvairs and Colleges for a long time. Below is a photo and story from CC #16 in South Carolina in 2009:

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From 2009: “Above, I introduce our friend Steve Glover of NVAero. Steve has been a friend and a Corvair builder for a long time. He is based in Southern California. How hard core of a homebuilder is he? How about completing a Teenie Two in his barracks while he was a rifleman in the U.S. Marines. Although he has done a lot of work with LongEZs, he is best known for building a truly outstanding KR-2 that won a number of awards, and flew all over the country. With NVAero, Steve capitalizes on this firsthand experience, and makes the KR design more accessible to builders.  Steve is an intense high energy guy who has been at Colleges all the way back to CC#8.  You can follow Steve’s progress at his http://www.nvaero.com Web site.”

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I have known Steve for many years. In my introduction to CC #37 I wrote:

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“He is friendly to strangers, patient with beginners, kind to animals, short with trolls, courteous to the civil, and a good friend to those up for his version of ‘tough love’.  He is one of a kind, which is good, because I’m not sure the world is ready for more than one Steve Glover.”

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-ww.

 

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Kevin Purtee and “The Hat of Power”

Builders:

Last week I wrote a story about the biggest character in the world of Corvairs: Ken “Adonis” Pavlou advises aviators: “Life is short, Live Large” . Today’s chapter in ‘Corvair personalities’ will get a look at the biggest badass in the Corvair movement, Kevin Purtee.

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Using the term ‘badass’ makes people think of a guy walking around with a lot of bravado, but that isn’t what I am speaking of. Kevin doesn’t look like a badass, he is one. In public he has a clean cut look, he has language your mother would approve of, and he has a collection of ‘Hello Kitty’ tee shirts. Under the thin veneer of polite public decorum is a warrior with 26 years of experience flying combat helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache. He finds obscure forms of martial arts entertaining, not to watch, but to participate in. While he places great value on sportsmanship, his super competitive nature as an ‘alpha dog’ shows up when anyone proposes a contest of any sort, but turns this off when inappropriate. The thread connecting many accomplishments in his life is seeking out difficult things and doing them in with great intensity. This includes building his own airframe and engine and flying them hundreds of hours.  He is a great friend to have,,,,and may God have mercy on his enemies.

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All of this makes it very funny when Kevin wears my sock monkey hat, Aka “The Hat of Power.”  It is a great visual twist that subtly says “I can wear this silly hat, or even a pink tutu if I wanted, and I would still be the biggest badass in the room.”

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When you’re a badass like Kevin, any hat you wear is “The Hat of Power.” Read this to get a better look at his aviation professionalism: Thought for the Day: Two paths in managing risk

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Kevin’s nature likes some things to be turned into contests, and this can be very memorable entertainment, if you are a spectator. At Corvair College #32, he got the idea was that he and Mark Chouinard should stand shirtless in the prop blast and see who could take it longer. Mark bowed out, as shown in the photo above taken by Grace in the rain, snow and sleet, but Kevin wanted everyone to know that 36F and raining isn’t really that cold. Note the rain drops  on the lens. Someone figured out that the wind chill in the prop blast was 90 below, even without the water cooling effect. He next time anyone asks if a Corvair college is a typical technical seminar, with power point presentations in the Holiday Inn banquet room, I will pull out this picture, it should cover the difference pretty well.  This photo was part of the story about Kevin’s plane: Current Corvair Installation in a Pietenpol, Part 2

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Kevin was in the first 100 people who bought a conversion manual from me, but I didn’t meet him in person for 13 more years, the day he flew his Pietenpol to Brodhead. This is exactly how I found him. On that day, Kevin had the left main gear on his Piet give out on a touch and go on a muddy spot on the field. With incredible cool and skill, he made a well planned landing on one wheel, after selecting the runway that allowed landing right into the wind. It was about 10 a.m. He was assisted by many members of the local Brodhead Gang, and the plane was back flying by the end of the day. A lot of people were very impressed by the chain of events. Kevin told me that he was moved beyond words by people he had never met before working diligently on his plane with him for eight solid hours.  He was impressively positive, as if nothing were out of the ordinary. It was just the kind of attitude you would expect from a guy whose day job is flying combat helicopters.

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Several years after the above photo, Kevin has a severe accident at the same airport, stemming from having water in the fuel. It was July, the week of Oshkosh. Grace and I went to see him and Shelley in his hospital room. He has a grocery list of damage that would have killed most people, including a smashed femur, collapsed lung, and needing his intestines resected. The doctor came in and said that with a years rehab, Kevin could walk again. Kevin responded by saying “I am going to f—ing run a 5K by November” The doctor smiled and turned to us and politely said “that is the morphine speaking” Shelley said, no, that is who he is everyday.  True to his word, Kevin returned to flight status with the Military and ran the 5K by November.  This story is my primary understanding of Kevin as a badass.

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Kevin’s immerses himself in experimental aviation, he and Shelley putting the finishing touches on their own engine upgrade at Barnwell CC #27.  Everyone who has met him understands him to be a very funny and friendly guy. Kevin is justifiably proud of his 31 years as a warrior, but in the setting of homebuilts, he likes to be thought of as another fellow builder. At the College he wore my sock monkey hat and Shelley had a shirt for him with the ‘hello kitty’ logo embroidered on it. Neither of these two touches worked to fully suppress Kevin’s tough guy nature, but the did very effective show that he has a good sense of humor. Man on the right is long time corvair movement builder Chris Pryce, USAF.

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Most people think of the words ‘narcissist’ or ‘selfish’ when the word badass is applied to someone. Kevin is the guy who proves they don’t have to be attached. At Corvair College #27, we presented Kevin and Shelley The Cherry Grove Trophy for their outstanding service to other builders in the Corvair movement. Although he is intense, Kevin channels this in the Corvair community to encourage others to operate with greater understanding and productivity.

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Here is an example of how the “The Hat of Power” doesn’t work for other people:  Above, fellow Piet builder, 6’5″ Mark Chouinard donned the hat right after his engine ran at Corvair College #30, to test the hat’s ‘magic.’ Although Mark is a tough guy (his Facebook page has testimonials from numerous friends about his outstanding skills with belt-fed weapons in the Army), the Hat of power didn’t have the same effect on him as it does with Kevin. Mark remained his friendly self. With Kevin, it is like meeting captain ‘Quint’ from the film Jaws.

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Another example of the Hat not working: In the case of Terry Hand, the Hat did more to bring out the wise-ass than the bad-ass. Terry has a wicked sense of humor, ‘refined’ by years in the Marine Corps. Above he is intentionally provoking an inter-service rivalry by wearing the “Hat of Power” normally reserved just for Kevin. This, like Mark trying it on, is a major protocol violation.  This is what led to the shirtless artic contest with Mark. In Terry’s case Kevin is still dreaming up the ‘contest.’

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The photo above is from late at night, Barnwell College #31. Terry and fellow Marine Andy Shorter were joking around saying things like “The Marines have been sent in Force…Two….why so many?” We expect this stuff on the day before the birthday of the Corps (Nov. 10).

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 Kevin lives two lives in aviation: His day job is piloting an Apache helicopter and his passion is his Pietenpol and his part in that community. Symbolic of his wearing two hats in aviation is the fact he’s wearing a sock monkey knit hat while making a serious point on his introduction speech at one of the four Corvair Colleges that He and Shelley Tumino have hosted.

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In a typical season of airshows, I meet thousands of people, and with them come a small handful of trolls, I am pretty good at dealing with them, but even after 27 years, some of them are still grating. Many years ago I unexpectedly found Kevin at the Brodhead Pietenpol fly in, he had just returned from a deployment and flown his plane up from Texas. It was about 7am, and we had just barely greeted each other, when a troll, an “professional homebuilder” came up and told Kevin that his airplane wasn’t right. Not a question of airworthy, the man who frequently criticized the planes of others on appearance,  told Kevin that the cosmetics of his plane were not original nor ‘correct.’

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Kevin’s response was to put a big smile on his face and explain to the ‘professional’, that homebuilding to Kevin was just fun, and he didn’t do it as a ‘professional’ like the troll did, and Kevin’s plane only had to look right to him.  Kevin looked they guy in the face and  said he liked to keep his fun flying separate from his work flying, because “At work I kill people for a living”.  Kevin gave him a friendly slap on the back and sent him along. I was impressed because it didn’t even raise Kevin’s blood pressure, he shrugged it off, explaining that tolerating that guy and trying to be nice to him would have been stressful, and sharing a different perspective was no problem at all.

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If I have made Kevin sound rough and without charm, let the photo above be a correction. Kevin and Shelley, having dinner at the White House. Above, they sit in front of a portrait of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the Vermeil Room. The event was to honor Iraq war veterans. Kevin was chosen to represent the State of Texas at the dinner. While his accomplishments in experimental aviation are a standout, it means a lot more when you consider that he spent most of his building years deployed.

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-ww.