Category: Event

Builders:

If you ever needed further evidence that most media people are morons, today CNN and it’s reporter Wolf Blitzer invented something new to panic people and boost ratings: Flammable Helium:

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Think I am kidding?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/28/politics/loose-blimp-norad-east-coast/

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I am guessing that not one single person, in front to the camera nor behind it, passed eight grade science class, and understood the difference between Helium and Hydrogen, nor the basic concept of an “Inert Gas.” Nor can they read a Wikipedia page:

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“JLENS aerostats are filled with 590,000 cubic feet of non-flammable helium.”

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Keep in mind that these are the same people who feel fully qualified to explain climate change and to run presidential debates.  In the next year, these same people will bring us countless stories, mostly about politics, all with this level of “accuracy.” Notice that the goal of this report, like most of the others they make up, is to spread fear, and this is because fear boosts ratings, and big ratings is what pays Wolf Blitzer millions of dollars a year, to invent flammable helium. Every hour of your life listening to these fools and their industry of bullshit is a waste you will never get back.

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JLENS

Builders,

I have spoken extensively with Doug Dougger of quality Sport Planes, Zenith’s west coast distributor, about returning to his shop in Cloverdale California for another Corvair College. Since we will be on our Western tour: Outlook 2016, College #36 and Western building tour, and holding a Southern California College; Outlook 2016, Corvair College #37 Chino CA, 4/22/16, It makes sense to hold CC #38 in Northern California as a stop on the tour.

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Chino and Cloverdale are just 500 miles from each other, and that might seem pretty close for holding two colleges 14 days apart, but there is some logic here. I am going to continue the Western Tour up into OR and WA, making house calls and holding night schools, but right now we don’t have a full College in the works for either Oregon nor Washington. If a builder from that area wants to attend a full College, they should be forming a plan around #38 at Cloverdale.  Although it may be a drive, it would cut 1,000 miles off a round trip to Chino.

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After speaking with many builders, I suspect that CC #37 at Chino will draw Arizona and Southern California builders, and CC #38 will draw the northern builders planning on a full college. Part of the reason why we are not opening up the sign up for the 2016 colleges until mid December is that I want to get them all laid out, so builders can choose the one that makes the most sense for them. (Of course, everyone is welcome to sign up for more than one.) Once we have the Colleges on the trip set up, we will fit in the Western Tour path and detail where we will hold the “Night School” stops. Just for example, we are already working on stops in Hanford, San Jose, and Vacaville in between CC #37 and #38.

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To learn more about the excellent facility and the services that Doug provides to builders, check out his website: http://www.qualitysportplanes.com/

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Above, a 2007 photo From Cloverdale: Michael Heintz, at left above, joins me in presenting the EAA Copperstate Fly In Award for Best Alternative Engine. This was awarded to Rick Lindstrom, center, for his 601, behind us.  Two weeks earlier, Michael had flown the airplane on an 18-hour round trip to Arizona for the show. Hundreds of Southwest builders got a chance to see Rick’s plane in person, and it was given the award at the end of the weekend. The Photo above as take at Corvair College # 11,  ( http://www.flycorvair.com/cc11.html ) which was held in the same Quality Sport Planes facility that CC #38 will be.  In an industry where it is considered ‘normal’ for an engine company to last just 36 months before going bankrupt, it should be notable that we are still here, returning eight years later for another Corvair College, just part of a 26 year unbroken track record of serving builders.

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Builders,

If you are thinking about attending College #35 in Barnwell SC this November 6th to 8th, the time to act is now. This will be our 6th College with P.F. Beck and crew as local hosts. Barnwell is always the largest College of the year, but it does have a size restriction, based on the Saturday night dinner capacity of 115 people. We set the builder limit a bit below that for logistics, but we are already within 20 seats of the limit of builders. These will likely fill in the next week or 10 days.

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Ken Pavlou holds the Cherry Grove trophy at CC#31 Barnwell 2014. His aircraft is named “The Blue Speedo.” 

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P.F’s crew is always ready for a first class event. I spoke to Dan and Rachel Weseman, (SPA / Weseman 3.3 Liter Corvair now running) and they are planning on attending, and will be glad to transport any item ordered before the college, to the event. Last years Cherry Grove Trophy recipient, Ken Pavlou, (The Cherry Grove Trophy, 2014) is planning another 1,500 flight (1,500 mile Corvair College flight in a 601XL) to Barnwell. Bob Lester will be returning in his Pietenpol, (Pietenpol Builders and Pilots at Corvair College #31.) fresh from a 50 hour Midwest tour. There will be many old friends and some new ones. The will be much to learn and build. You can even see planes like this: Dale Williams – 3,000 cc Cleanex at CC#31.  There is even a rumor that Shelley Tumino and Kevin Purtee ( Guest Writer: Pietenpol builder/flyer Kevin Purtee)will show up. Barnwell is sure to be a great event.

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Above, CC#31 tech discussion: these take the form of 15 to 20 minutes of presentation and questions and answers, and then the group breaks up and goes directly back to hands on work. Here I hold the prop and A&P mechanic Katie Fox works the gauges to teach differential compression testing on Chuck Cambell’s 30 minute old Pietenpol engine. This is real hands on learning.

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Sign up:

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https://corviarcollegeregistration.wufoo.com/forms/cc35-registration/

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Builders:

Here is a story that will tell you something about the quality of people we have in the Corvair movement. Just before Oshkosh, I was contacted by  builder Rick Koch, who had been working part time on a Zenith 601XL project for several years. The complete airframe was done, but Rick, a veteran aviator of many years experience, came to the conclusion that he was busy enough with work and family, that he wasn’t making it out to the airport often enough to finish the plane any time soon. He called with a very generous idea: If I knew the ‘right person’, someone I was confident had the motivation to finish the plane, Rick would give it to them.

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After giving Rick some time to be sure of his decision, I told him I had his man: Tim Hanson. If you have not read this man’s name before, take a moment to read this story: 100 HP Corvair, Tim Hansen , Persistence Pays .

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I knew that Tim was the right guy, because life had already tested him, and it had never diminished his determination to be an aviator. People can start a project or a process with many ‘assets’ in their bank. The can be smart, educated, have financial resources, etc. but until they are tested, it is just speculation on how they will respond to the road getting rough.

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I have long said that Homebuilding is a continuous series of challenges. It is 1,000 chances to quit, that all come up when you are surrounded by people who tell you that everything you are doing is wrong and flying planes is foolish, building them is insane. To succeed, you must be the kind of person who shrugs this static off, and stays steady on the path. Tim Hansen is such a person.

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If you are getting the idea that Rick Koch is some sort of aging, super wealthy philanthropist, let me correct that. He is a hard working successful professional, but he is not Howard Hughes nor Warren Buffet. He is a regular American middle class guy in his fifties. I particularly like the idea that Rick didn’t need nor want to know anything about who the recipient would be, other than they needed to be determined.  Rick has never met Tim, yet he was moved by Tim’s track record of persistence. To Rick’s perspective, all people are individuals, and to him it doesn’t matter what the claim, look like or where they come from, all that matters is how they act and the responsibility they take for those acts.

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If Rick is notably ‘wealthy’, it is in this sense: He holds a particularly strong sense of the value of individuals, and exercising his will, to make an effective contribution of his choosing, brings him the ‘wealth’ of living with fidelity to his own personal code. And that, to a man of character, is particularly valuable.

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Above, Tim Hansen, stands next to Grace in our hangar the night his engine ran. Because of a particularly generous donation, Tim will take this engine flying sooner than he thought. When I told him about the plane, Tim wrote this note:

“William,
I have tried to come up with the right words to express just how
incredible and generous this is, and as I have had no luck coming close, these
will have to do for now. I am humbled that someone who has never met me, thinks so much of what little I have done, that they would offer such an extraordinary gift sight unseen.  I would definitely like to meet Rick Koch, and thank him in person for giving me the chance to live up to the story you wrote, by writing the rest  of the story and finishing and flying the airplane. I appreciate all the efforts that you, Grace, and Phil Maxson have put forth on my behalf I and I doubt very much I will ever be able to repay it all, though that won’t stop me from trying.”

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Above, Rick running an engine outside my hangar several years ago. In discussing his gift, he mentioned that he has had countless hours of good times in aviation, from ultra lights to flying skydivers. Although he plans on returning to flying at some point, he chose to make his 601 project a ‘gift’ to a promising builder as an expression of how much flying has meant to him. Over the decades, Rick spent a ton of money in aviation…..but that was because he felt it was worth it. In the end, the money he could have gotten for the project would have hardly decreased his total spending in aviation, but conversely, making it a gift greatly increased what he personally got out of being an aviator.

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Builders,

Corvair College #34, which will be held at the Zenith Aircraft Factory in Mexico MO, next month, is now full, with all 70 slots full. We have shut off the sign up page for this College. We have a great event planned, and look forward to our third College with Zenith Aircraft as our local host.

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Above, A 2014 picture of the five Corvair powered Zeniths that flew into Corvair College #30, all parked for a photo in front of the Zenith Factory  The engine installation on these planes are clones of the one we developed in our own 601XL 12 years ago.  Read more here: Corvair College #30 Good Times and here: Corvair College #30 Running Engines

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The sign up for College #34 was up for 130 days. We published the date at the start of the year, and put the sign up sheet on line before Sun n Fun. I wrote 5 articles here covering it. The only slots we have ‘on reserve’, are for pilots flying in with one of our Corvair Conversions on their plane. Traditionally, Grace and I have these pilots as our personal guests, and we cover their sign up fee. The reason we do this is  to offer our thanks for the effort of bringing their flying plane back to a College.  Although we ask builders with flying planes to try to sign up before the deadline, practically they are always welcome at any College.

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The College is ‘Free’, but there is a sign up fee for each person attending, 100% of which goes to the Catered food, drinks, hangar expenses, etc. For the 2015 college season this has been set at a Modest $89 per-person for the full three day college. I would like to thank all the builders signed up for #34 for covering their share of the expenses.

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A FRIENDLY REMINDER:  I would like to politely remind people that the Colleges are private events, and people who missed the sign up can’t just ‘stop by’. There is a good reason for this: Colleges involve test runs on live engines, working long hours, and observing safe shop practices. Each person who is signed up gets a full briefing, many pages in length, explaining how we work together to effectively minimize the risk to anyone present. Allowing people to ‘walk in’ who didn’t read and understand the written safety briefing would be accepting an unnecessary risk. At Colleges #32 and #33 we had a person actually try ‘stopping by’ without signing up, twice, and he found out that I do not compromise on safety issues. I sent him home. Some people are slow learners, but I am a patient teacher.

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Builders,

By any measure, Oshkosh 2015 was a very busy event.  By holding 4 colleges spread through the year we try to have an even work load around the calendar, but anyone who works in Experimental Aviation can tell you that 20-30% of the year’s effort and contacts go into the single week of Oshkosh. Although it is in the middle of the flying season, it is the axis that the year of work revolves around.

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He is a first glance at a few photos from Brodhead and Oshkosh. They are in no particular order, just pulled a few pictures off the first camera card to share. Many people expect engine photos, but I end up taking mostly people pictures at events, because I inherently see Experimental aviation as people building and flying planes, not machines nor products.

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We are still working our way through a back log of emails and phone messages from builders, and orders, while gearing up for the next two Corvair Colleges, but this coming week we will be back to writing and sharing more on Oshkosh and upcoming events in the second half or the 2015 flying season.

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Above, Zenith 750 builder Joe Sarcione, The EAA’s Charlie Becker and Grace hanging out at our tent for the night airshow. Charlie is the director of the homebuilt elements of the EAA. He very effectively represents and serves the interests of everyone who self-identifies as a “homebuilder”. He is the key man behind important projects such as the “One week wonder”.  Although he is a skilled pilot and a real homebuilder, my respect for him and his work on behalf of homebuilding is centered on his exemplary personal integrity.

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Above, Grace and ScoobE with Greg Crouchley. Greg has a 99% complete 3,000cc Waiex and a 30% complete Zenith 750 with another 3,000 cc engine for that airframe. He is well known in the Corvair world, having volunteered at more than 10 Corvair Colleges.

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Tom Porter and the world’s newest Corvair powered Zenith 601XL.  We took this a Brodhead, which is within Tom’s test area. The plane is magnificent, and is now has 8 hours on it. In the 12 years since we first flew our own Zenith 601, we have assisted more than 80 other 601/650 builders in finishing and flying their Corvair powered Zeniths. Tom’s plane is 2,700cc with a Weseman 5th bearing and all of our Gold systems and installation parts.  Note how our cowling system allows full access and inspection to the engine by just turning a few fasteners.  Full fiberglass cowls do not have this ease of preflight. Tom worked on the plane for eight years….Golden rule of homebuilding: Persistence Pays.

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Above at Oshkosh, a pristine, privately owned North American F-100F Super Saber. This is a 900 mph classic from the 1950s. It is powered by a single J-57 with a unique sounding “hard lighting” afterburner. I had not seen one of these aircraft flying since I was a little kid growing up in Thailand. Our country has plenty of wealthy people who spend their money on conspicuous consumption items I can not understand, but here we have an example of a person any aviator can respect, I guy who got up one morning and said “What aviation needs is a flying F-100” and went about the task of making it so.

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Above, Shelley Tumino, Co-host of Corvair Colleges #22, 25 and 32, stands in front of the tear drop trailer she hand crafted at Brodhead.  Nearly everything in the picture was packed into the trailer for the trip from Texas. The woman is seriously into organization, logistics and deployment. Shelley has lead a long career in the Armed Forces.  Shelley takes having fun and camping more seriously than some countries take conflicts.

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Above, in the Oshkosh tent: On the left Corvair “JRB” (Junior ranking Builder) Spenser Rice. He has been building his Corvair powered Zenith 601 since he has 13. He now has a pilots license and flew into Oshkosh from Oregon in a Cherokee. He is good company, intelligent and articulate, and it is very easy to forget he is just 17 years old. On the right, Highly respected VW engine expert Scott Cassler. Most of the engine people in experimental aviation know each other, and there is a mutual respect among those of us that are motor heads not salesmen, and have been around a long time.

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Above, I stand with Steve Bennet, The acknowledged  master of the flying VW engine, the man who ran Great plains VW for three decades. He is now retired, enjoying some very well deserved time off, just walking around Oshkosh visiting friends.  Over the years, Steve and his wife were very good to both Grace and I, always being genuinely warm and friendly people with the sagely advise of experience.

.More than any other person, Steve’s work serving working class builders with proven systems and parts, and his legendary stoic demeanor, was the model I used in my own work with Corvairs. While print magazines of our industry tend to cover investment grade rip offs like the Cessna Skycatcher and the Icon A-5,  The real goals of the EAA, the motto “Learn Build and Fly”, are actually served by people willing to teach and provide products to working Americans. For decades, Steve Bennet provided affordable acess to flight for working people, his respect for rank and file homebuilders evident in the fact he always treated them as aviators, not spectators. His work provided an entry into the Arena for literarily thousands of homebuilders, an accomplishment which has earned the respect of any real homebuilder.

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Builders:

For Corvair builders heading to the Arlington airshow, be advised that our “Man on the West Coast” Woody Harris, is on the airport with his green and yellow 601XL. Woody is our West Coast rep, and he has a full selection of manuals and DVDs with him.

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 Woody needs little excuse to fly places; Above he is speaking with Sebastien Heintz, president of Zenith Aircraft, at a West Coast Zenith fly in at Quality Sport Planes in Santa Rosa. This facility was the site of Corvair College #11.

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 Woody’s plane is sharing space with Quality Sport Planes, Zenith’s West Coast dealer based in Cloverdale CA. It has flown to more states than any other Corvair powered plane. He is a fountain of good experience, as he has nearly 500 hours on his plane. It has been flown from coast to cost, Oshkosh, and countless west coast trips with many appearances at Copper States in AZ, and Arlington in WA.

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Although Woody’s plane has been flying for seven years, we keep him supplied with the most up to date parts for his 2,850cc Corvair, such as our new 2400-L ultra light weight starter, so builders studying his installation are actually looking at a current, state of the art, Corvair installation. If you are headed to Arlington, stop in and introduce yourself, you will find Woody to be a fun, first class aviation and a great guy.

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For more reading on Woody’s adventures, check out these links:

Woody’s 2,850cc Corvair/601XL hits 400 hours.

Zenith 601XL-2,850cc, Woody Harris

16 Flying Corvair powered Zenith 601/ 650s

Zenith 601/650 – Corvair reference page November 2013

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Builders:

Greg Cardinal shared the terrible news that noted homebuilder Dick Navratil passed from this earth on June 4th. He was 66 years old.

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Dick made a great place in the world of Pietenpols, building more of them than any other person I ever met. I got to know him many years ago, long before he was a Corvair builder. In the Pietenpol community, there have been, and will continue to be many people who have worked to ‘put back’ far more than they have taken, but even in a distinguished and storied list of such men, Dick’s name would be near the top.

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He was a modest guy who would have cringed at anyone saying that publicly, but it doesn’t make it any less true. He was not only a prolific builder, he was a great resource of information, but most critically, he was the source of encouragement for countless builders, if he knew them well or not. In the final measure, he was just a simple easy going guy, a joy to spend time with on a sunny day at the airport.

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He always left me with the distinct feeling that all the hours building in the shop would be well worth it, simply because when you were done and flew your plane somewhere, there was a possibility that when you got there, Dick would be there to greet you and make you feel welcome. I am writting this at 4am in the middle of the night, and at this moment, such a reunion seems just a flight away. In a few hours the daylight will return and it will be Sunday morning here, and all the memories of Dick will seem much further away, harder to reach, washed out and muted by the sunlight of another day.

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But in the times ahead, there will be many quiet hours in the shop, alone, long after dark, where I will remember the hours spent in his company, the sound of his voice, his humor and stories, and he will not seem so far away. And in those times I will take out my collection of memories of Dick and give thanks for how much richer my life is to have known him.

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From the coverage of Corvair College #30 in 2014:

“Above, my favorite photo and story from #30. On the right, Dick Navratil. These two guys worked on Dick’s engine and had a great time together. I have known Dick for 10 years (He has built 7 or 8 Pietenpols) and just assumed that the fun they were having was because they must have known each other since high school…..It took until the end of the second day for me to learn that before the first day of the college, they had never met each other. This is the kind of friendship and fun that naturally happens when two builders have the same values in a fun productive setting. The friendship these two guys struck up makes me feel the Colleges are worth all the effort put in.”

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you can read the whole story at this link: Corvair College #30 Good Times

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Below is the note that Greg Cardinal shared with other builders:

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“Richard M. Navratil
Navratil, Richard M. Age 66, of Arden Hills. Died suddenly on June 4, 2015. Survived by wife, Joan; son, Jason (Sara) Gillet; daughter, Jen (Justin) Vojtech; grandchildren, Boone, Judah, Renley, Wyatt & Colton; siblings, Chuck Navratil, Neil Navratil, John Navratil, Mary Bergh and Anita Ziebarth; also many nieces and nephews. Mass of Christian Burial 11:00 AM Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at the CHURCH OF ST. STANISLAUS, 398 Superior Street, St. Paul. Visitation 4-8 PM Tuesday at Willwer-scheid Funeral Home, 1167 Grand Ave., St. Paul. Memorials preferred to the Wounded Warrior Project. Willwerscheid Funeral Home & Cremation Service 651-228-1006”

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Above, is Dick’s best known creation, his Rotec radial powered Pietenpol. It was one of many he built. The caption below is from our Brodhead 2011 notes, where Dick let us use his plane in our Pietenpol Weight and balance project.

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“For the second year in a row, we gathered data on weight and balance for a wide variety of Piets at Brodhead. The 14 aircraft that we measured last year were worked into a highly technical set of articles that ran all last year in the BPAN, This year we had a chance to pick up data on eight new aircraft that we will also publish in the newsletter. Above, Dick Navratil’s Piet sits on the electronic scales that I brought up from Florida to do this task. Special thanks to the crew of volunteers who assisted me in collecting the data. One of these people is John Schmidt of Minnesota, sitting at left above.”

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