Category: Event

Builders:

If you are new to Corvairs, I suggest this post 2015 Your year in aviation? is a very good starting point for planning what you will get out of this season in aviation. For people who are in the Arena, here are several here are several things coming up on the schedule:

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Corvair College #34, to be held at the Zenith Factory in Mexico Missouri Mid September, 15-17th the Tues.-Weds.- Thurs. before the Zenith Open House. Local Hosts Sebastien Heintz and crew at Zenith. Same location as CC#26 and #30. Sign up will go up here shortly.

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Above, 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. Since then, we wrote the installation manual for it, produced hundreds of installation parts like mounts, intakes and exhausts, and have taught 800 people at colleges how to build our engines.   Read more here: Corvair College #30 Good Times and here: Corvair College #30 Running Engines

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New Pietenpol/Corvair discussion board being formed now: Patterned after our very successful Zenith/Corvair discussion board, ( ‘Zenvair’ Information board formed ) This will be a new group aimed at providing quality technical support from successful builders to those serious about making progress on their Pietenpol project.

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The project has been in the works for some time. Corvair/601XL builder Phil Maxson, who covers both the IT and the moderation on our Zenith Board, has agreed to cover the IT work on the Pietenpol board. I have enlisted Pietenpol builder Terry Hand to be the board’s moderator. I have spoken with a number of the well known builders of the combination, such as Kevin Purtee, ( Guest Writer: Pietenpol builder/flyer Kevin Purtee ) and they are in support of this project, and will be active contributors.

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There are already several other places on the net where people discuss Pietenpols. Several things set this group apart: Everyone will use their actual names, not made up ones, and we will have civility; The focus will be on the exchange of proven, tested, valid first hand data, and the development of skills required to build and operate a Pietenpol. This will be done in the same positive, supportive way that colleges are run. My goal is to have a location that will serve serious builders, and be free of the old wives tales which are constantly presented as data in other settings, which I hold to be a serious impediment to builder progress and risk management. If you will like to get advanced notice of the start of the group, send me a private Email ( WilliamTCA@aol.com ) with the words “New Pietenpol Group” in the subject line.

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Above, Terry Hand with his steel tube Pietenpol at CC#24 in Barnwell, SC.

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Corvair College #33 starts in 48 hours. We are in the final prep work stages. Grace, Vern and myself have been working at this, with a great deal of assistance from Corvair/601 builder/pilot Lynn Dingfelder. the College runs from the 17-19th, but we will have a day of rest and unpacking. The first full day back in the shop will be the 22nd.

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Above, Lynn Dingfelder awaits the launch signal at the Short take off competition. at the 2014 Zenith open house. He had the best combination score for low wing Zeniths. This photo gives a good look at how streamlined the 28″ wide Corvair is.

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Above, Kevin Purtee’s Pietenpol flying College #22 in Texas. He and Shelley Tumino have played many roles in supporting Corvair builders, including being the local hosts of 3 Colleges.

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Above, Kevin Purtee and Shelley Tumino receive The Cherry Grove Trophy at Corvair College #24.

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Builders:

2015 marks the 12 th year of our work installing Corvairs into Zenith airframes. Today there are almost 100 Corvair powered Zeniths, each representing the craftsmanship of an individual working with our direction, support and components.  Throughout this time we have maintained a close working relationship with the Heintz family, Hosting 4 Corvair Colleges at their facilities, displaying aircraft in their booth at both Sun n Fun and Oshkosh, and being present at 7 of the factory open houses. I am an outspoken supporter of the designs of Chris Heintz, I have followed his teachings closely since I was an  Aeronautical Engineering student at Embry-Riddle, 25 years ago.

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Above, a 1971 photo of Chris Heintz with one of his designs. The picture was actually taken in Belgium. Note the French aircraft registry. If you look closely you can see that his modern designs like the 650, have their roots in his early work. He has been an active designer of homebuilts for nearly half the history of powered flight. Chis Heintz earned his education and his start in France, a country with a very strong history of outstanding aeronautical work. Read more: French Aviation to be admired.

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Above, Sun n Fun 2004. I stand next to Chris Heintz, in front of our own Corvair powered 601XL, N-1777W, in the Zenith display. I have personally met most of the prolific homebuilt designers, Wittman, Rutan, VanGrunsven, Davis, Monnett and many others. I can say without any hesitation that Chris Heintz is the most approachable, and also the most willing to directly share his understanding in conversation.

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Above, fast forward 10 years to Oshkosh 2014:  Myself, Grace and Chris Heintz, inside the “One week wonder” tent where the Zenith 750 was built in a single week. Chris is autographing a copy of his design book to Grace and myself. I consider this man on a plateau with Bernard Pietenpol and Steve Wittman for his commitment to producing affordable designs that provide access to flight to working Americans. In the 43 years between this and the top photo, Chris Heintz made 14 commercially successful designs, and we have built, tested and flown Corvairs on 4 of these designs.

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Above, 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. Since then, we wrote the installation manual for it, produced hundreds of installation parts like mounts, intakes and exhausts, and have taught 800 people at colleges how to clone our engines. The five planes above are a sample of the success of cloning a proven engine set up. We will be returning to the Factory to hold Corvair College #34 this September. Read more here: Corvair College #30 Good Times and here: Corvair College #30 Running Engines

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Above, Our industry contacts have long worked to support our Corvair builders.  The photo is from 2004 at Oshkosh: Next to our personal Zenith N-1777W, I explain our dual ignition arrangement two executives from Falcon insurance, The EAA’s provider. To offer real support, an alternative engine provider must be an effective advocate for his builders on many fronts, including meeting the requirements of underwriters. Just being an engine guru is not nearly enough. Corvair engines that follow our design,  including to ones assembled by builders, are fully insurable at the lowest rates, right from the first flight, because they have an outstanding safety record. Having good effective hands on support is a critical element in this outstanding record.

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Above, We have new Corvair powered Zeniths taking to the air all the time. Above, Blaine Schwartz and his 750 that made its first flight  a month ago. Blaine built the engine at Corvair College #22. Read his story here: Flying Zenith 750, 2850 cc Corvair, Blaine Schwartz

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Above, Phil Maxson of NJ with his Corvair powered 601 XL that has been flying since 2006. We have our own private discussion group, specifically for Zenith builders working with a William Wynne conversion. It is very effectively organized and moderated by Corvair/Zenith pilot Phil Maxson. To learn more read this link: ‘Zenvair’ Information board formed.

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Both Grace and I are looking forward to another great year in aviation and building on our long standing success, working with Zenith Builders who select the Corvair for power.

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For more information on 601/650s, including pictures of 50 flying planes::

Zenith 601/650 – Corvair reference page November 2013

For more information on 750s, including pictures of flying planes:

Zenith 750 / Corvair reference page, October 2013

For more information on 701s:

Zenith 701- Corvair reference page, November 2013

More stories on Zenith 601s and 650′s, click on any title to read:

16 Flying Corvair powered Zenith 601/ 650s

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

New Zenith 601 XL(B), Conventional Gear, Jerry Baak, S.C.

Flying 2700 cc Zenith 601 XL(B), Alan Uhr

 Zenith 650-2700cc Dave Gardea

 Zenith 601XL-2,850cc, Woody Harris

Another new “Zenvair” 601XLB, Jim Ballew, 2700cc

Second “Zenvair”, the McDaniel’s 2700cc 601XLB

 Patrick Hoyt, new Zenith 601XL, now flying, N-63PZ

Guest writer: Phil Maxson, flying a 3100cc Corvair in his 601XL

 601XL-2700cc Dr. Gary Ray

 Zenith 601XL-3100cc Dr. Andy Elliott

Note: In the first 30 hours of the sign up being open, we already have about 25% of the available space filled. There are always a good number of people ready to go on day one, but this is a good indication that this College will fill before the projected sign up closing on the 30th. If you know you want to attend, sign up this week. -ww.

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Builders,

We have just returned from a very successful Corvair College #32 in Texas. We will have a photo report shortly. Right now, here is the link on how to sign up for Corvair College #33 in Leesburg FL April 17-19th 2015, just 5 weeks away. You can sign up by following the procedure outlined by clicking on this link:

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https://cc33.wufoo.com/forms/cc33-registration/

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Notes:

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Sign up is required to attend the college. The Learning, assistance, specialty tooling and my time are free as always, but there is an $89 fee that goes directly and 100% into providing all the food for the three days and the facility. Modern colleges average 75-100 people, they are fun but professional events, and they cost money to put on. While 95% of the people wishing to attend find this to be a bargain, we always have a handful of people who want to attend but ask that they be an exception and not have to pay. In my mind, these people are directly saying that the event is not worth attending or they feel entitled and expect  other builders to pay for their expenses at the College. These are attitudes which I detest in people, especially in the presence of our local host and many returning builders who will be attending simply to volunteer their time to assist others, and have already signed up to cover their own costs.

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We Will have much more information on the event in coming weeks here. After sign up closes, every on the roster gets a detailed 10 page set of instructions covering all points of the event. For more quick information read these notes: Corvair College #33, April 17-19th Florida.

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The sign up period will be short, possibly ending as soon as March 30th. While this may seem quick, I simply hold that if you want to attend, you know it, and will sign up. The date of the event and college number have been on our site for almost 5 months at this link: 2015 Corvair Colleges – Locations and Dates. The only thing that has changed is the location returning to the location of College #25 and #29. This will be three colleges in a row at the same location, on the same weekend, three years in a row. There will always be people who claim that their Corvair powered plane is one of the most important elements of their life, that they read every word on my site, but yet they never heard we are having spring colleges in Florida (#17, #23, #25, #29 have all been spring colleges in FL.)  Let me politely point out that success in aviation is directly tied to a builder bringing his full attention to the subject at hand, not skimming the information available. No running engine nor flying plane ever pictured on this site is the product of ‘skimming’ or ‘just getting the big picture’, they are all a result of an individual making the conscious decision to focus their mind on the task and take charge of its mastery and creation.

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As always, remember my saying “Your Cadillac dealer does not service Yugo’s, nor can he bolt parts on them and turn them into an Eldorado.”  We do not allow parts from bankrupt LLC’s to be brought to Corvair colleges, and I will not assist nor support anyone in the delusional idea that you can bolt good parts on a piece of feces and transform it into something to fly behind. The colleges are focused on serving builders who want to learn how to build Corvair flight engines the right way, not to work with people who bought things from people I have always warned them not to. Keep in mind that I have the memory of an elephant, and things said on many internet lists last forever, so people who formerly offered glowing reviews of now gone LLC’s will find it very hard to switch to my team now. If anyone has a specific question on these matters write to me privately before attempting to sign up for CC#33.

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From Corvair College #17 in 2010:

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Above, introductions at CC#17, At my side is James Barrett. I’m introducing him as the Longest Distance Traveled Winner. He was in rural Afghanistan a few days earlier. His route to the College was more than 10,000 miles.  When a person claims he didn’t read about a college and missed the sign up, I point out that if a guy like James, on the other side of the globe, fighting the Taliban in a country locked in the 13th century has time to read about and sign up for Corvair College, I can reasonably expect anyone in suburbia to do so also.

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From Oshkosh 2013:

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Above, between Myself on the left and Roy on the right is a man exemplifies the spirit of the Corvair Colleges, Mike Quinn of North Carolina, a skilled mechanic. He has attended a number of South Carolina Colleges going back to #12. He holds the distinction of being the last man working on the last engine running during the last hour at several Colleges. What makes this truly unique? None of the engines he was wrenching on were his. He came to the Colleges and shared in the creation of other people’s engines, and gave assistance to people new to engine building. You can attend as many other aviation technical seminars as you like, but you will not find an old school homebuilder like Mike Quinn repeatedly attending them for the benefit of others. This is what sets Corvair Colleges apart.  When anyone says they do not wish to pay their share of the colleges expenses, I point out how ironic it would be if I allowed this but Mike Quinn ended up working on their engine, after paying his share of the expenses and a portion of theirs. If I have to explain that to anyone twice, they are a poor match for the values I promote in the Corvair movement.

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One of my favorite films is the very moving 1966 Steve McQueen film “The Sand Pebbles” , a drama about the crew of a US gunboat in China in the 1920s. During an uprising where the crew may have to fight to the death, the Captain of the ship, played by Richard Crenna, explains that any crewmember not committed to the mission who stays aboard is “A thief of every bite of food he eats and a trespasser in the bunk he sleeps in.” I can remember this line 40 years after I first saw it because it resonates with my upbringing where my parents taught us that people who expected others to pay for benefits they would receive are to be pitted, as they have a disease that curses them to never know friendship nor self esteem. -ww

Builders:

This post has been moved up to the top of the page, please read it there:

Builders,

We are just a few weeks away from Corvair College #32 in Texas. The sign up is closed out, and we have more than 75 people headed there from all points of the country. If you missed it, take heart, we have 3 more colleges this year.

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Below is one more round of photos from CC#31 three months ago. They offer a look at several moments from the event, they give an insiders sense of what being there was like.

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In the beginning, we had one college a year. Over time we slowly increased this. When the year’s started looking full, I had to decide if having a commercial display at Sun n Fun, which I had done for many years, was more important than adding another college.  The evaluation came down to admitting that Sun n Fun had devolved to a pure “airshow”, which is by definition a spectator event, and our efforts were much better invested in another College, because our mission is to serve builders, not entertain spectators. The result was CC#25 ( Corvair College #25, In Photos) and CC#29 (Corvair College #29, Leesburg, FL. – photo report)

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For the last few years we have maintained a 4 college a year pace. We still Cover Oshkosh every year, and I have only missed Brodhead, The Pietenpol gathering once since 2001. We now time the September college at adjoin the Zenith open house, which we have covered the last 7 consecutive years. (Corvair College #30 Good Times)

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I attended Sun ‘N Fun for a few days and gave some forums these in 2014. It was my 26th consecutive year there. I had a good time with friends, but we spent more time reminiscing about years past that speaking of the event we were attending. It was confirmation that the hours of a builder are better spent an event focused on learning and building, rather than being a spectator.

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The vast majority of people ‘involved’ in aviation are spectators. I have long spoken against organizations or magazines that focus on high end expensive planes, because they are only creating spectators out of the new arrivals, people who deserve a fair shot and deciding for themselves if they are homebuilders or not, instead of being assigned the role of spectator by a manager or an editor too lame to examine an cover proven paths for new people to learn, build and fly. Feel free to share the comment below, it is a message more people need to here, but one that builders at Colleges fully understand.

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“Aviation magazines are always highlighting the best, fastest, most elaborate planes with a moronic argument that these will stimulate aviation by getting people interested. Perhaps after decades of  this fiction, we can dismiss it. You don’t build a pyramid by making the top block and expecting the base to appear under it. Lasting things are built from the foundation up.”-ww-2012.

 

Tim Hansen sent in this Corvair College #31 photo he entitled “Chuck Callahan is a Good Sport about helping with my engine  until 2:30 a.m.”

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Below, a stunning sunset brought action in the hangar to a halt for 15 minutes. This, and the awards dinner on Saturday night were the only things that did.

 

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Above, Ken Pavlou on climb out. Below, tech session on using a differential compression tester, case in point, Chuck Campbell’s newly run Piet engine.

Awards dinner on Saturday night. Local Host P.F. Beck stand to take the microphone.

Below, It’s not ScoobE, It’s Moochie! The Pustel’s brought their dog, who I thought would  get along great with ScoobE. Alas, ScoobE needs a few more lessons on hospitality with members of his own species.

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Late tech questions. This is about 1 am on Sunday, nearing the end of a 19 hour day. If you want to pack a lot into a College, good, that is how we do it. However, the free form of the lesson plans allow each person to take in and digest at their own rate and pace.

 

 ScoobE, having sucessfully ‘defended’ Corvair College from that impostor Moochie, is exhausted and takes a nap. He doesn’t have any natural insulation, he has no fat on him nor fur (he is a hair dog like a poodle) so in chilly weather he has a cammo jacket he wears.

601 builder Paul Normandin working late. He is from the “New England tribe” of Corvair builders, a fun and eccentric group that formed spontainiously around Ken Pavlou’s constant support and get togethers.

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 Below, Tim Hansen’s notebook on his work table at the College. While the atmosphere is fun, there are ways of getting a lot of learning and building into 3 days. Tim’s notebook is an excellent example.

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Above, another 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. These have no set schedule, there will be 20 or so of them at a college. If a builder is intensely working, he skips it, as the subject can be revisited. We do them standing because builders can crowd in close for a good look, and also I have found that humans pay a lot more attention standing, and the subject that is covered at chairs and desks in an hour can be packed into a very effective 10-15 minutes.

In the top photo, I am holding the prop during a differential compression test, while compressed air is pumped into the cylinder for a very accurate check on it’s health. Every doctor in a hospital has a stethoscope, and anyone who is an aircraft mechanic has and knows how to use a differential compression tester. It is a tool that costs about $60, but provides a wealth of vital information if you know how to use it, which takes less than an hour to learn. The bottom photo is a tech session on heads.

 Top: Core disassembly. Above, Rob and Melissa Lutz getting started on their 3000 cc engine for their Zenith 750. Below, another engine headed to the run stand on Sunday.

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Installing distributors, above.

 Above, a Sunday test run.

 

Gratuitous dog photo.

 

Panoramic view of the hangar.  It is about 100′ x 100′.

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 Above, Chris Price and his KR engine. He flys KC-10s for the USAF as a day job.

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Coffee or water, both go with Corvair building.

 A prankster testing the ragged limits of the No Politics  rule we have a Corvair Colleges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above, a typical filthy core. Many people are impressed that this will be converted into a totally overhauled, pristine flight engine. As impressive as that change is, the before and after you can’t see, the change in the builders skills and perspectives is much more impressive. -ww.

Builders:

This note came from Corvair college local co-host Shelley Tumino:

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I know that many of the alumni from CC22 and CC28 have already registered for CC32, and I want to thank you.  This year is shaping up to be the largest college we have hosted to date.  We have 59 people registered (including tag-a-long spouses).  I wanted to give the last hold outs a final opportunity to get registered.  We have room for 6 more engines, and as many people as wish to come. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity, registration will close on Friday, 23 January 2015

Did I mention it was 81 degrees in Austin today? I really hope to see you there!

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https://cc32.wufoo.com/forms/cc32-registration/

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Shelley Tumino

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More info:

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Builders,

Corvair College #32 is set for San Marcos Texas. 27 Feb – 1 Mar, The local hosts are Shelley Tumino and Kevin Purtee. The people who brought you CC#22 and CC#28 .

I spoke with Shelley last night, and she pointed out that we only have table space for 13 more engine builders. We can sign up many more guests than this, but we have a finite amount of work tables and space for them at this college, and we are getting close to that limit. If you are planning on working on an engine at CC#32, but have not signed up, now is the time to do so.

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We have not picked out a date to cut off the sign up, but we are thinking about January 15th, but I am sure that the table space will be gone before this. Do not miss this opportunity, it is the only College we will have in the south central US this year.

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This College is at the same location as CC #28. Sign up has now been active since the start of November,  The event is now just 53 days away.

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https://cc32.wufoo.com/forms/cc32-registration/

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To learn more about colleges:

Corvair College reference page

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