Builders,

Every year at the Barnwell College we award The Cherry Grove Trophy . It is named after Bernard Pietenpol’s home town in MN, the place where the first Corvair was flown by him in the spring of 1960. We award it to a Corvair pilot who has made a lasting contribution to the efforts of other builders.

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 In 2008 Grace and I had the Trophy made with space for eight years of awards to be engraved on it. Next year, 2015 at CC#35, the last name will be engraved on the trophy and it will be retired, but the lasting contribution of the eight years of recipients will have a strong positive effect on Corvair builders for decades to come. -ww.

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Recipients:

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2008 – Mark Langford – KR2s – 1,000 hrs. on Corvairs; Flew to Oshkosh, SNF, colleges and the KR gathering numerous times. Contributed to flight ops. manual.

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2009 – Dan Weseman  – Cleanex (and now Panther)- Approx 600hrs in Corvairs, has flown 11 different Corvair powered planes. Flew to SNF and colleges numerous times, positive displays at Oshkosh. Developed most practical 5th bearing; Co-hosted CC#23; Demonstrated aerobatic performance of the Corvair; Contributed to flight ops. manual.

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2010 – Joe Horton – KR2s – 825 hrs. on Corvairs; Flew to Oshkosh, SNF, and the KR gathering numerous times. Flown to more Colleges than any other pilot; has flown Coast to Coast and back. Contributed to flight ops. manual.

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2011 – P.F. Beck – Pietenpol – Local Host for Colleges #19, #21, #24 #27, and #31. About 1/3 of all the engines ever run at a college started at Barnwell, these colleges were attended by nearly 400 builders. P.F. has flown more than 250 people in his aircraft. It was originally completed for $6,800 including the engine.

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2012 – Kevin Purtee and Shelley Tumino - Pietenpol- 345 hrs on plane in short time. Flew to Brodhead several years; Local Hosts for Colleges #22, #28 and #32. Outspoken risk management activists for Piet community.

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2013 – Phil Maxson – Zenith 601XL – Flew to SNF and colleges numerous times. Developer and moderator of the “Zenvair” discussion group. Contributed to flight ops. manual. N601MX is the only airframe to fly on 2700, 3100 and 3000 cc engines. Tireless contributor of positive energy over a decade.

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2014 – Ken Pavlou  – Zenith 601XL – Flew 40 hours off, to Oshkosh and to CC#31, logging 165 hours in first 5 months.- Developed application for this website, has run on line sign up for almost all of the last 15 colleges; Local host CC#14; Directly assisted numerous other Corvair builders in New England. Logged 6.5 hrs. giving demo flights at CC#31.

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Ken holds the trophy at CC#31 Barnwell 2014. His aircraft is named “The Blue Speedo.”  The humorous origin of the name is best left unprinted and only related verbally between adults with Ken’s sense of humor.

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2014 CC#31, the first four recipients repeat a 2011 picture on the same spot:

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Above,  from Corvair College #21.  Left to right are Joe Horton, 2010 , Dan Weseman, 2009, P.F. Beck, 2011, and Mark Langford, 2008.

Builders:

The letter at the bottom below is from Ken Pavlou, Who’s 601 XL has a dual Dynon display. It is some clear thoughts on how instruments are just a part of an experimental aircraft’s flight capability, I think it is worth considering in detail before making a decision on which level and type of instrumentation will be in your plane.

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In the paragraph immediately below is a link to a story about the crash of Air France 447 several years ago. It was sent to me by builder Terry Hand, who has the perspective of being a former USMC flight instructor and having also flown a global career with a major airline. He has logged more than 20,000 hrs, but critically his experience spans the change discussed in detail in the article.

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Because the black box of 447 was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic 2 years later, a great level of detail is known about the last 5 minutes in the cockpit. I have read countless accident reports, and it breeds a certain dispassion, but this article is different, I read it 3am. I had nightmares the rest of the night.

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What does this have to do with light planes? Easy: earlier this year we had CH-750 pilot with 60hr on his plane fly it into the ground by the exact same method that the Air France crew used to kill themselves. To avoid repeating this it is worth studying and discussing.

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The pilot took off with his first passenger and climbed away from the runway. At several hundred feet the plane began to sink and would not respond to back stick and climb. Unaware, he responded in the exact same manner as they did to excessive angle of attack, by pulling the stick back and holding it there, not understanding that the planes sink rate was caused by slow airspeed and massive drag, not a reduction of power. He and his passenger lived. Put them in most other light planes, with sharper stall behavior, a Cub or a C-150, and they die.

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The builder initially told everyone he has a power loss that allowed him to sink into the ground, but after reflecting on the behavior of the controls he quietly realized that he had held the plane at an excessive AOA and let it sink all the way into the ground. contrary to what many people were told, the follow-up tear down  and test run on the engine showed that there was nothing wrong with it, but it was too late for most people to learn that, what they ‘learned’ instead was ‘Corvair engines are unreliable.’

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What can be done about this? Training. Start by reading this article on departure stalls:

http://flighttraining.aopa.org/magazine/2006/June/200606_Departments_Accident_Analysis.html

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“Here is a link to an interesting article on the Air France 447 crash. Note the writer’s last name. (He is the son of the man who wrote Stick and Rudder-ww.)

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2014/10/air-france-flight-447-crash?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=website#

I thought you might find this an interesting discussion, based upon your studies at ERAU. -Terry”

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“William,  I love flying with my glass panel, but the truth is 99% of my flying to date was done behind a standard six pack of instruments. The bottom line is they work and they work reliably. The reliable part is what interests me more than anything. Glass cockpits can be reliable and often times reduce cockpit workload significantly.

The caveat is you have to know how to use the equipment and understand what they are telling you. I’ve been witness to pilots increasing their risk flying behind a glass panel, even in perfect VFR conditions, simply because they didn’t take the time to master the equipment which led to a lot of fumbling around and taking concentration away from the primary task of flying the airplane. No matter how sophisticated an instrument panel is, it will never improve basic stick and rudder skills, turn you in to an IFR pilot, or replace prudent judgment.

I spent countless hours sitting in my plane after I built my panel with all the instruments on together with their operation manuals making airplane noises and familiarizing myself with all the knobs, buttons and features of my equipment. An important part of knowing your equipment is it’s failure modes. Just like a simple mechanical altimeter can read high, low, or level depending on different pitot-static faults, glass panels can at times produce inaccurate information. For example, On my flight back from Barnwell my Dynon EMS indicated my oil pressure was high. It would blip from the usual 45 PSI to 55 or 60 and back. At first I thought maybe my regulator spring and piston were getting stuck. As a precaution I removed the spring and piston at my next fuel stop. Both items were in perfect condition and functioned as they should. The problem turned out to be some electrical contact corrosion on my oil pressure sending unit.

The point is that computers can’t take the place of critical thinking and decision making. Whether the data they report is valid and how its used is really up to the organic computer embedded inside our heads. -Ken”

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Grace took the above photo in Ken’s Cockpit at CC#31, before taking off a few minutes after sunset for a local flight.

Builders,

Every college gets some of its character from the local host. The Barnwell colleges have a high percentage of Pietenpol builders simply because the host P.F Beck is well-known and respected in the Pietenpol community. Below is a look at some of the Piet builders at Corvair College #31.

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Above, Don Harper’s Piet on the ground while Bob Lester’s Piet is in the air in the background. Don’s plane is very Close to P.F.’s with the exception of the airfoil, Don’s plane uses the Ribbletts section. Last year they did very carefull back to back flight testing and found little practical difference between the two airfoil sections. Read more about Don’s plane at this link: New Pietenpol, 2700 Corvair, Don Harper SC.

 Above, two builders get a look at P.F.’s plane.

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Piet builder Tim Hansen torques his case. Would you like to know why so much gets done at Colleges? What the mood is like? Try this: the photo above was taken at 2 am.

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 Tim Hansen sent in this  photo he calls Hero’s Engine Runs. It was taken of Chuck Cambell as he donned a leather hat and scarf for the first run of his engine. Chuck flew F6F Hellcats in WWII. Yes he is over 90 years old, still in great shape and enjoys learning and building.

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Above, at a quieter moment, I go over some details of Chuck’s engine with him. On the left is Keith Goff’s blue Piet engine which also got it first run in at the college.

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Above two Photos, Piet Builder John Francis enjoy’s the first run of his engine. below I speak to builders about setting the valves using John’s engine as an example the night before. Once set during the build, the Corvair’s lifters never need to be adjusted for the life of the engine. The lower photo was taken after 11pm. Long hours at the College pay off with milestones like running your engine the next day. Often people just hearing about the Colleges are thinking of ‘tech seminars’ which are nothing more than a 9-5 power point presentations. Our Colleges are very far from that.

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Above, Piet builder from Nebraska Edi Bickford gets a flight in with P.F Beck.

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Two Piets at sunset.

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Keith Goff enjoys the moment as his engine logs its first run.

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Keith Goff’s engine getting its break in run on Saturday at sunset.  Keith exemplified the spirit of the colleges by also putting a lot of effort into assisting other builders and doing a lot of work getting other engines on and off the stand. He was not alone in this, most builders understand this unspoken ethic central to the college experience. Pietenpol builder Bob Dewenter was on hand for his 5th Barnwell college. Bob’s engine ran at his second college, but he returns every year for the fun, camaraderie, and to assist others. This is a common thread at colleges, but the spirit is especially strong among Piet builders. There are several popular engine options for a piet builder, but those selecting a Corvair as their powerplant find they are joining an outgoing, tight-knit club that looks out for its members.  It has Esprit de Corps that other engine choices do not.

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Above, Bob Lester’s Corvair powered Pietenpol sits on the ramp at Barnwell at sunset on Saturday night. Bob had flown it up from Florida that morning. It is the second college the plane has been to, Bob also flew into CC#25 in Leesburg. Bob has been flying for 30 years or so, and has owned certified aircraft from a Taylorcraft to a Stinson 108 and experimentals from KRs to his Pietenpol.

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The son of a WWII combat pilot and a native of South Florida, today Bob lives in North Central Florida at a quiet rural airport. His bachelor’s paradise is a large hangar housing his apartment, his tools, motorcycle, the Stinson and the Pietenpol. Read more at these links: Pietenpol Power: 100 hp Corvair vs 65 hp Lycoming and New die spring landing gear on a Pietenpol, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

“The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right…The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns him, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign” - On Liberty, 1859

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A very long time ago, before I came to aviation, I earned a degree in Political Science and Philosophy from St. Leo University. I had a number of really outstanding professors, and the program was very heavy on reading classics. In the decades since, I have continued extensively reading on the topics.

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No other man had greater effect on my personal perspective than John Stuart Mill. He was arguably the most brilliant English philosopher who ever lived, and his personal master work, On Liberty is the last word on defining the values and rights of individuals, particularly when they are in conflict with the desires of conformist society. These were not abstract points to Mill. Although he was fluent in Greek and Latin by age 7, and may have had an IQ north of 180, he was denied entrance to Oxford and Cambridge because he would not pledge allegiance to the dogma of the Church of England. This has direct relation to homebuilding today, take a minute to read this link: Thought for the day: Building as an individual.

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A required corollary to my belief in individuals is that I must also respect their right to kill themselves. Mill’s quote above states this. Today we have the “nanny state” attempting to make everything “safe” which can’t be done. They always fall back on trying to remove tools and opportunity from the individual, all allegedly for the individual’s good. If you follow Mill’s argument in depth, he explains why this ends up degrading the value of all lives, not just the ones belonging to self destructive people, morons and people yet unacquainted with the finality of death.

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My personal oath as an Aircraft Mechanic requires me to take action on behalf of unwitting passengers, not foolish airmen. (read below) As a human being, my code requires me to speak up and alert the person who may be doing something foolish out of ignorance. (read Effective Risk Management – 2,903 words) in the end, when someone has heard me out, and still wants to go ahead, my personal philosophy, patterned on Mill’s,  requires me to not to impede their trek to the cemetery. 

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A few weeks ago I wrote this story: How I became a genius in 6 minutes. It is about a builder who tried using an MGA carb from the British car on his Zenith, destroying the engine on the first climb out. Today came word that the same guy is back on the Zenith builders sight saying he is going to try essentially the same experiment again, but he is expecting a different result. I am at peace with the eventual outcome, I only ask that when we hear of it, a friendly builder post a link to this story. Tonight before I sleep I will take my copies of On Liberty and Origin of the Species off the shelf and thumb through their dog eared pages, and Consider how Mill and Darwin, men who lived and passed before the Wright brothers flew, understood so much about the animals that would later inhabit the world of flight. -ww.

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I earned my A&P license from Embry-Riddle in 1991. It was in an era when the department was run by men who were former military, who had come of age in WWII,  Korea, the Cold War and Vietnam. They took aviation very seriously, they all had seen its potential costs. They were tough.  I am biased, but I do think the program was without peer.  At the end of training, a handful of select students, I among them, elected to take a solemn oath in a private ceremony  to swear our unwavering allegiance to aviation safety.

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We did not swear to protect our employers, nor to defend the FAA or their rules, nor did we swear to defend our friends, careers or egos. We didn’t even take an oath to protect pilots. The only people we were taking an oath to protect was unwitting passengers who would fly in planes, people who had supreme trust and the belief that their fellow man, an aviation professional, was trustworthy with their very life.  The critical element of the oath is that we might be the passengers last line of defense, and if it was so, we were to “forsake every other consideration to protect them.”

- From the story Pietenpol Weight and Balance project

Builders:

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If you have not seen the Intro to this series, you can read it here: Understanding Flying Corvairs Pt. #1, Intro., It will explain the goals of the articles. Please take a moment to read it, including the comments section.

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In 2011 the feds concluded an intensive study of homebuilts, and published a report that stated Experimental amateur built aircraft (Homebuilts) had an unacceptably high accident rate. They carefully pointed out where serious improvements could be made, and recommended that unless the rate got better voluntarily, they would seek some type of restrictions on hombuilt operations.

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Below is a summary of major points of the report, provided by Corvair builder/pilot Dale Williams: (New 3,000 cc Cleanex, Dale Williams, SC )

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1 )The largest proportion of E-AB aircraft accidents involved loss of control in flight
and power plant failures, and loss of control in flight has been the greatest contributor
to fatal E-AB aircraft accidents.

2) More than one-half of the E-AB aircraft accidents investigated in 2011 were aircraft
that had been purchased used, rather than built by the current owner.

3) A large proportion of accidents occurs early in the operating life of a new E-AB
aircraft, or shortly after being purchased by a new owner.

4) During 2011, more E-AB aircraft accidents occurred during the first flight by a new
 owner of a used E-AB aircraft than during the first flight of a newly-built aircraft.

5) The most common accident occurrence for first flights of both newly-built and newly
purchased aircraft was loss of control in flight.

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One of the really starting things in the report was that the accident rate for second owners with 2,500 or more hours as PIC in LSA legal homebuilts  is actually higher than 60 hour brand new light sport pilots in the same planes. A great part of this is Light Sport pilots are required to get specific transition instruction to fly a new type, and traditional pilots are not, and frequently don’t. The real culprit is that many pilots who have accumulated hours don’t feel they have anything to learn about their new homebuilt, especially if they perceive it to be simpler than what they were flying……many of his people have been dead wrong about this.

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Last month, I received an email from a pilot with a lot of ratings who had just become the second owner of a Corvair powered 601XL. In the email, and in a phone conversation he stated that he didn’t find a single word in the flight operations manual worth reading, and specifically stated that he was against transition training. Below, a verbatim excerpt from one of his emails:

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“I’m sure my flight might be of interest to your customers. And I intend to share my flight with the 601xl crowd. I have found little if any use in the corvair flight manual ( I am a professional pilot ATP-ME, Comm  A+I, CFI-IAME, AGI,  and A&P). “

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This is the exact attitude that produces a higher accident rate than 60 hr pilots. I will never teach one of these guys anything, and it isn’t my goal to do so. My goal is to teach people who want to learn. In you are new to flying, please read this story: Concerned about your potential?. Never believe the myth that pilots with 4 or 5 digits worth of hours are “safer” than you. Actual risk management lies not with hours, but with attitude, and the willingness to exercise good judgment. The accumulation of hours and ratings are not synonymous with possession of attitude and judgment. You don’t have to take my word for this, or even the evidence of the email above. This has now been statistically proven in the 2011 report.

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Use this understanding to choose who you fly with carefully. In our own EAA chapter we have several airline pilots with more than 25,000 hours who went out and bought RV’s as second owners. Some of them did it the right way, but a number of them never had a tail wheel rating, no transition training, and lacked any kind of basic information on the plane before flying it.

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One of them fly his new plane at 140 mph for many hours back home because he thought 2,300 rpm was the redline of a Lycoming (It’s 2,700) He never leaned it out even though he went above 10,000′, and arrived after dark and ran over three runway lights because he of course had no tailwheel experience. This man flew in the Navy, and then earned his living as an airline pilot. He has all the posturing one associates with the phrase ‘highly experienced pilot’. Meaningless to me, I would never fly in a light plane with him because he has no judgment. If you are new to flying, consider yourself un poisoned by that man’s disease, stay away from him, after prolonged exposure it is contagious. Set your goal today to be better than him. It may take time, but statistically speaking buy the time you have 60 hours, you will be at lower risk. -ww.

“When I was little, I wanted to be Jacques Cousteau. It hasn’t worked out that way.  Sad but true, the lasting portion of my working life boils down to what I have done with the Corvair. In reality, I am neither overly proud of it nor ashamed of it, just OK with it.

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This said, none of my work is to show cheap people what they can get  away with. My work is to show people willing to make a serious investment of  themselves (mostly time), that there are great rewards awaiting the individual  who perseveres on his own terms.

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In 30 years I will likely be dead and  forgotten. Between now and then I plan on spending as much of my time as  possible in the company on people who want to learn build, fly and have a good  time. If I ever seem short with some ideas, it is because my experience allows me to see something that many people miss: This vital finite resource isn’t money, it’s time.

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Not in the free time sense, but in the years left sense. If you’re not young, nor a millionaire, then you have to make your shot count, you’re not going to get a do-over on this. Let my experience work to your advantage. Build as simple as a plane as you can, work on it every day you can, and understand that some components on it, like the carb, are going to cost money.

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There is a combination of simplicity/effort/money that can get a great number of people flying. You can be one of them, and the odds that you will be go up dramatically if you use my experience to avoid every mistake I made and paid for.” -ww-2o12.

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Jacques Cousteau, 1910-1997. His first love was flying, and he graduated from the French Naval Academy in 1933 to be a pilot, but was prevented by a near fatal car accident. He fought for the resistance in WWII. He went on to be a great scientist, explorer, inventor, writer and the best kind of environmentalist. No popular figure today can hold a candle to the richness of this man’s life.

Builders:

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If you have not seen the Intro to this series, you can read it here: Understanding Flying Corvairs Pt. #1, Intro., It will explain the goals of the articles. Please take a moment to read it, including the comments section.

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In recent weeks I have written several stories about a builder who was trying to fly a Corvair powered Zenith 601XL on one of two SU carbs from a 60 hp British car. For the people who assumed that I was just making the whole thing up to illustrate a point, let me share this link to the man’s webpage:

http://www.zenith.aero/profiles/status/show?id=2606393%3AStatus%3A391095

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I wrote the story How I became a genius in 6 minutes about the man’s first flight, where the engine was severely damaged. Yesterday I commented on his choice to still try to use the same carb in: Thought for the Day: J.S. Mill – On Liberty. Today several people sent me a link to his page where he reports his carb still chronically leaning out.

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If you care to read the man’s description, you can see he suspects that his joyous British carb can’t take forward air pressure. If he had cared to read the stories I have written on Corvair Carb choices, he would have come across this personal story about Bing carbs, which work on a nearly identical principle as the SU:

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“A personal example of why I don’t like Bing carbs; Steve Rahm, our neighbor at Spruce Creek, designed and built the ‘Vision’. It had a Stratus EA-81  Subaru with two Bings on it. Since they basically ran full time carb heat,  he wanted to try cool ram air in search of more power. He went as far as testing the set up with a gas leaf blower on the ground. He did this because some people said Bings don’t like ram air. On take off it worked great, until the plane hit 70mph over the trees at Spruce Creek. Then the carbs  shut off all by themselves.

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Plane slowed to 65, power comes back a little. Very  skilled flight at tree top level is executed. Several minutes of listening to  the rough engine clawing its way around the pattern.

He appears on final gliding  in. Steve was a new dad, and his own father had been killed in a plane when  Steve was a young man. I could not believe that I was about to witness a  horrific repeat of a family tragedy. He barely made it, touching down at 75  mph. People on hand thank God aloud.

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As the plane rolls out in the three point  attitude, the airspeed drops below 60, engine comes back to full power and tries  to take off on its own. Steve later tells me he almost had a heart attack at that  moment. He switches to a Lycoming with an MA3-SPA. which operates on the stone  age concept of the throttle opening and
closing when the pilot wants. (the throttle on a Bing is controlled by a vacuum diaphragm) Steve is a  master skydive instructor with
4,000 jumps, he can keep his cool under pressure.  I figure most other pilots in a plane with a five mile per hour  wide speed envelope and 100′ altitude would have bought the farm. -ww

From the story :A question of Carb location…..

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I have no idea why someone wishing to do something different with carbs would not read all the available information. The mans website notes says that if his tests don’t work, he may later use an aircraft carb like I recommend.

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 I sit here and type this less than 15 miles from the spot in Florida where Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd is buried. On the subject of people who like to experiment with substances known to be harmful, he sang the song “That Smell”, which included the bit of wisdom  “Say you’ll be alright come tomorrow, but tomorrow might not be here for you.”*

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Above, three aircraft parked in our front yard. L to R, Louis Cantor’s 601XL - MA3-spa, Grace’s Taylorcraft -  NAS-3 and Dan Weseman’s Cleanex, MA3-SPA. This was taken on the day we flew a flawless test flight in Louis’s 601, the same plane as the man in question is trying to fly on the British car carb. I ask, why not have the sucess that Louis had?

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 Most of the people who are looking at a cheap carb don’t think I know what I am talking about. I find the concept that a guy who has tested either zero or one carb on Corvair flight engines assuming that his guess is more valid that my 20 years of testing, annoying. On the subject of low-cost, it isn’t a stretch to say that I know more people building a Corvair engine for a  plane than any other person on Earth. While cost may be an initial attraction, the reason why people stick with it is to learn something, be proud of what they  have done, and experience this in the company of other like-minded aviators. If you want to fly cheap, rent  a Cessna 150. If you want to do something rewarding, fly something you built  with your own hands that is reliable and works well.

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While I advocate the use of aircraft carbs, I have also tested Dyno many things from 1 barrels to tuned port EFI. If someone wants to use a cheap carb, there are many better options than a British car carb. Above, a 1 barrel down draft ford carb. If you would like to read more on our testing of this,  In Search Of … The Economical Carburetor

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From Wikipedia:

* On Labor Day weekend in 1976, Gary Rossington and fellow Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins were both involved in separate auto accidents in their hometown of Jacksonville. Rossington had just bought a new Ford Torino, and hit an oak tree while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  Van Zant and Collins wrote the song “That Smell” based on the wreck, and Rossington’s state of influence from drugs and alcohol at the time. It starts with the lines:”Whiskey bottles and brand new cars, oak tree you’re in my way.”

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You can see a live 1977 performance of the song at this you tube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hib4n9RmFrQ

Playing in it are Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Billy Powell, Steve Gaines, Leon Wilkeson, Artimus Pyle and Garry Rossington. Ironically, today only Pyle and Rossington are left alive. The others died at ages 29, 37, 56, 28 and 49 respectively.

Builders,

Five years ago today I wrote a story about a single hour that had passed the day before at our airport. Most hours go by in your life with little or no memory, others stay with you vividly. I would remember this hour well, even if I had not written it down in the story.

It was widely read at the time. I initially wrote it on Mark Langford’s discussion list, just as a set of notes in the middle of a long night of insomnia, but it was eventually circulated in email and printed in a magazine. It has an element in it that moves some aviators. At places like Oshkosh people will mention it to me, even years later. People ask sometimes if the characters in the story were ‘real’. I tell them they were not characters, they are people. I share stories, but I don’t write fiction. When you are immersed in aviation, you don’t need to, just recording observations on reality is enough.

Today, 5 years later, a handful of photos of the people from the story.  I consider myself lucky to know them.  I am 51 now, and have spent 26 years in aviation, literally half my life. It is enough experience to say that the humans you meet at airports can be a lot more alive than the people you meet on the street.

All my life I have been plagued by the feeling that time passes too quickly. Although we have done a lot in the last four years, it isn’t enough, and the thought that the hours and days got away bothers me. Yet, one hour, five years ago, will never slip from my grasp. I get to keep it, and herein lies the secret of my happiness: fill the hours with quality and they will not get away. I can not remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday, but I can remember that the tug boat captains shirt was blue and he waved a white hat as we passed 100 feet above the Tennessee river in our Pietenpol on the way to Oshkosh 2000.

The full story “Friday night” is reprinted below. It’s subject is somber on the surface , but the story in it really isn’t.  It is just about being alive and how you can really feel it some hours more than others. -ww

Above, Dan Weseman and Dave Dollarhide at Sun n Fun 2013. They are both in the story “Friday Night.” Dave is fairly well known in Naval Aviation circles because of a short film clip of a young pilot escaping from an A-4 in the USS Forrestal inferno. In one of those stories that only happens in aviation, Dave is now flying one of the very few remaining airworthy A-4′s… 45 years later.

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Above is Dave’s RV-4. I shot this photo from the RV-7 of Pat Lee, another person in “Friday Night”  when we departed St. Augustine airport. Off our other wing was the RV-4 of Bob Woolley (who is now building Panther #2). In the story he is “Bob from the north end.”

The buildings in the photo are Northrup-Grumman; the road is U.S. 1. St. Augustine is on the coast, about 20 miles east of our grass airstrip.

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Above, Dan Weseman flying “The Wicked Cleanex” in the foreground. This is the aircraft that Dan is flying in the story. Off his wing is Chris Smith in “The Son of Cleanex.” The location is a bend in the St John’s river a few miles from our airstrip. The site of the Glassair accident was on the far bank of the river, visible in the upper right as a peninsula. This photo was taken in 2007, a year before the accident.

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Friday Night, November 20, 2009

Just as I am getting used to Daylight Savings stealing an hour of the  evening, the days are getting noticeably shorter here. During the week, our  clock revolves around 4 p.m. This is last call to drive the ten miles into town to  the Post Office with the days mailings. In the summer there are hours after this  to eat dinner, mess around in the shop, and casually pre-flight the Taylorcraft  before going aloft for the last hour of light. But now the casual hours are  gone. I drove back to the airport with an eye on the low angle of the sun, maybe  only 50 minutes until it sank.

I pushed the plane out to the edge of the runway. I stood there for a  minute, not a single person was in sight. Just the sound of a circular saw from  somewhere up on the North end of the field. The visibility was poor, there would  be little to see, but I had been out the past 6 days in a row and today would  make a week. Kind of a pointless exercise, going up for 20 minutes to round out  a week, frivolous really.  These are the things you think of on the ground,  by the time I am running through the mag check the pros and cons of going  aloft are forgotten. I orbit the airport in big slow circles at 70  mph, engine at 1700 rpm, just licking over. It all looks gray and  colorless. Was it noticeably greener a week ago or is it just the  haze setting the mood?

When I touch down, the landing gives me the  same feeling as finishing a chapter in a captivating book: Looking up  from the last page with the powerful feeling that you have just been  somewhere else. Taxing up to the house and shutting off the engine I  have the same sensation.

Three or four minutes later, our EAA chapter president returns from being away all afternoon. A 180 mph pass at 10 feet  signals the arrival of his RV-7. As he flies the landing pattern, I walk  the 400 feet up to his hangar. We arrive at the same time. He has an unexpected  passenger, Dave, our airpark president. Dave has his own RV-4, and I have never  seen him as a passenger in any plane. In his youth he flew an A-4 from the  USS Forestal into the most fiercely defended airspace on the planet. The black and  white photos of him in his hangar are of a much younger man in a flightsuit  with a helmet under his arm. He has the same grin today, but you get the  impression that big chunk of Dave’s youth, and a good number of his friends, only  exist in his memory after 1967. Either way, he looks really out of place in the  right seat, or in any side by side aircraft for that matter.

The moment fits the gray haze: Pat and Dave have just returned after  delivering the RV-9 of a fellow EAA member.  This man has also taken up  residence in Dave’s memory. He was killed this summer, along with another friend,  in an unexplained Glasair crash. One moment they were flying a low pass over our  airport, a little dog leg to say hello on their way home. The next day  Pat found the wreckage in the woods a few miles away. They delivered  the RV-9 to the man’s widow, who was very thankful. The plane was just  finished, and it is magnificent. She is keeping it in storage until next Oshkosh.  The man was an EAA member for 30 years, known in some circles. She would like it  judged posthumously. She had said some moving things to Pat and Dave, but at the  moment we were standing out on their ramp with the sun fading, neither of them  felt up to relating her exact words.

Dave started a sentence twice, but after  a pause he didn’t finish.  Pat spoke about a guy he knew in flight school,  lived 3 doors down, a Marine. Pat heard about his crash on the news, and walked  out his front door in disbelief. Seeing the black cars gathered down the block  took away the doubt and hope at the same time.

An engine starts at the far south end of the runway. It is Dan Weseman and  the Cleanex. After a minute of run up, he roars past us, 50 feet at midfield.  Dave looks at Pat and says “Let’s get him.” The RV-7 turned around and back on  the grass in seconds. Dave pushes out his RV-4. Their take off alerts the  airport, and several people drift out of their hangars to sit on the grass and  watch.

 If flying at most airports is an elegant ballet, flying at our airport is  Mixed Martial Arts. The furball is formed, broken and formed again over our  heads at 1500′. Between the sounds of wide open engines, the radio  chatter barks out from the base station in Alan’s hangar. In minutes they  are joined by Bob in an RV-4 from the North end, and then another  RV-7. In the sky they turn impossibly tight. You can’t always make out who is on  top, or even who is who, until a glint of the sunset differentiates a painted  wing from a polished one. It is hard to believe that the same airport was dead  silent 20 minutes ago.

One by one, they drop out and land. Pat is first, and has most of a beer  finished as Dave rolls up. Bob is the last to break off, leaving it where it  started, with Dan alone in the sky doing a few last slow rolls. The mood is transformed. It was 10 minutes of really being alive. Dan landed, rolled  out in front of us, turned a smooth 180 and taxied back towards his hangar, his  home, his family. He was close enough for us to see his expression, but he didn’t look  over. In the air, he had been far closer to the other pilots. The light is gone  now, and the day is over.

A few more words, and the hangar doors are shut, and people drift away.  Walking back to my place, I pause in the dark to watch Dave walk out to his  pickup. He had been the one to say “Let’s get him.”  This had been Dave’s  doing, perhaps his ritual. A little farewell to a man whose memory had just been  carefully and lovingly wrapped up for safe keeping. It was now stored beside the  others. A resident, final age 58, joining a group of younger men, some  of whom arrived 42 years ago. Although I’m sure he cherishes them all,  he probably doesn’t visit with them often. Dave is too full of life for much of  that. Besides, one day he will have all the time in the world to spend with  them.

William  Wynne, 2009

Builders:

If you read this site regularly, you have already heard of Jim and Ginger Tomaszewski’s twin project, the JAG-2. They finished both engines for it at Corvair College#31, and we got both of them on the run stand on Sunday for 30 minutes each. They ran flawlessly.

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You can see photos of the nearly done plane at this link: New Photos of JAG-2, a Corvair powered twin. and you can read a longer story on the development of the plane in Jim’s words at this link: JAG-2, Corvair Powered Twin, Jim Tomaszewski, N.Y.

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Without fail, when the topic of this plane comes up, someone will chime in to say that flying a twin requires a special rating and twins have a poor safety record when flown by amateurs with the wealth to buy them but not the skill to operate them. These statements are true, but they do not apply to Jim.

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He is a low-time single engine pilot with 500 hours, but he is a high time multi pilot with more than 15,000 hours in planes with more than one engine. You would think people might pick up on this as Jim’s Email address is ‘DC-8Jim’, but they often do not. Much of Jim’s time is global corporate flying, often to very challenging destinations. Ask any honest ATP and they will tell you that very few airline destinations require the skill of a night landing in a corporate jet at Aspen Colorado.

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Above, both engines on the bench. These are first class 3,000 cc Corvairs. They have Weseman Billet cranks (https://flywithspa.com/product-category/corvair/) and all our Gold system parts. (these were painted by Jim to suit his taste).  Note that both engines are equipped with our new Ultra light weight Starter assemblies, part number 2400L. These engines are essentially clones of the one on Dan Wesemans Panther, (although most pictures show the Panther engine with our standard starter, it has been flying on a 2400L since the spring.) For a look at the logic behind that engine, read this story:Why Not the Panther engine?

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Above, both engine in process with Jim and Ginger on the right. They ordered  #2000HV cases before the event and picked them up in person, they took only a 30 minutes each to install. The engine oil fillers are on the top covers because the narrow twin cowls do not have the space on the sides like single engine cowls do. Both engines have group #2800 oil systems and rear alternators.

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 Above, two more photos of Jim and Ginger with the engines.
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 Above, the second engine runs at the college. Jim said his time line is to fly the twin back to Barnwell next year, fully flight tested and proven. A great number of Corvair builders will rightfully hail him on that day, as a champion of homebuilding and as a builder who was willing to put in the had work to do something extraordinary in aviation.-ww.

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Special Note to RV Builders: The section of the Van’s Airforce discussion group that showed just a few pictures and short descriptions of this aircraft generated thousands of hits before their list moderator banned the photos and deleted references to it, and put up his own negative comment. That list is operated as a commercial venture by Doug Reeves, a controversial personality who promotes a very conformist model of homebuilding and flying. He will delete your posts if they reference things he dislikes, often as simple as making a low pass. 

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In a single week, the tracking on our site showed that 220 RV builders on that site followed a link to come here and read my story 2,500 words about levels of aircraft finish… Reeves also deleted all of the links to that story to block RV builders from even referencing it. It was deemed too controversial because it included the single sentence “We were not the ones who decided that regular looking people and the planes they built were not cool enough to be on the cover of their own membership magazine. That one is on the Editors and the management of the EAA…” To my perspective, Reeves is a throwback to the type of aviation magazine editors of the 1980s and ’90s who worked to make sure only people they “approved of’” felt welcome in experimental aviation. RV builders are often unfairly characterized as uncreative conformists. Reeves’ actions unfortunately reinforce this stereotype. RV builders with open minds are welcome to come here and directly read unfiltered ideas.  -ww

Builders:

If you are a regular reader of this page, you will recognize the name Dale Williams as the builder and pilot of a very nice 3,000 cc Cleanex.  Dale often writes very thought provoking and factual statements in the comments section of stories. He has a long GA background and an easy going approach, but he is serious about risk management and having a good time. I frequently hear from new builders in South Carolina who cite Dale as the influence that steered them to Corvairs.

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An interesting trick: Although I can count the amount of hours I have spent with the man in conversation on one hand, and have read less than 4,000 words from him in posts and email, I still feel like I know him very well. In this instance, it is quality, not quantity that makes the difference.

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CC#31 was the second Corvair College that Dale flew his plane to. We are looking forward to having him at many more. Good company is always welcome. -ww.

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Above, Dale stands in front of his Cleanex. Bob Lester’s Corvair-Piet in the Background

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 Above a small sticker on the forward fuselage suggests Dale’s sense of humor.

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Above, right hand view of the plane. Don Harper and P.F. Becks Corvair-Piets in the background, Mark Langford’s VW powered KR2 is beside it.

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For more information on Dales plane, read:

New 3,000 cc Cleanex, Dale Williams, SC

and the very moving:

Video of Grandson’s first flight, 3,000cc Cleanex:

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Builders,

Below is a link to a family story written by Pietenpol builder Terry Hand. It is an account of taking his father, a US Navy Seabee in WWII, to see the memorial in Washington on the occasion of his fathers 88th birthday. I have read the story several times and find it moving, and I asked Terry if we could share it with Corvair builders.

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Every week I have people forward me stories from anonymous sources about servicemen they never met nor heard of before. The stories are often, neat, tidy and contain an unambiguous uplifting moral message. Some of these stories evoke Vietnam infantryman Tim O’Brien’s quote about war stories.

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Conversely, Terry story, about his own father, draws more questions than it answers. It mirrors the experience of many son’s of such men, sons who found their fathers very reluctant to say much of anything about what they had seen and done in their youth. Buy a mixture of luck and persistence, Terry discovers a key that unlocks some insight to his Father’s experiences. Well worth a careful read.

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The link to the story: After clicking on it, also click on the “download”

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https://app.box.com/s/zlbu9bfe4k9l26fur359

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

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Terry also 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 CC#22,28,32 host Kevin Purtee. This is a major protocol violation. The photo 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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Terry also wrote a very well received guest editorial here. While he is an airline guy today, flying heavy stuff globally, he also spent a significant amount of time instructing in T-34s at Pensacola. The insight in the editorial comes from lessons learned as an instructor at “The birthplace of Naval Aviation.”

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Link to the editorial:

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Guest Editorial, Pietenpol builder Terry Hand.

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Here is a sample of the mail on Terry Hand’s Editorial:

Zenith 601XL builder and flyer Phil Maxson writes:

“This is an excellent article. Each of these points resonated with me, but I’m particularly struck by number 5. I am beginning my 24th year with Mars, Inc, a mult-national food company. We are very big on the Freedom principle, and in our case, it is called “Freedom within a framework.” In a company of 70,000 associates it is not possible for everyone to have their own “do whatever you like” form of freedom, but each one of us is obligated to exercise our own talents and skills within our purview. We have a framework that includes five principles: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and the one I’m emphasizing here: Freedom.”

Builder Matt Lockwood writes:

“Terry- Thanks for this. Especially point #1. There is a certain discipline that comes with making yourself slow down and consider the ramifications of your decisions…i.e fish tank tubing for fuel lines and/or routing it through the cockpit. Some of the information that is out there on the internet doesn’t consider the ramifications, nor do these anonymous advisors out there have to suffer the consequences of you taking their advice. Everyone, please be careful. Thanks again to you and to WW. P.S. I thought ‘NATOPS’ stood for ‘Navy’s Attempt To Operate Planes Safely’Matt Lockwood, VT-3 1997-1998″

Builder Jerry Mcferron writes:

“Footnotes and warnings are often written in blood. Don’t add yours.”

“In the early 60s my Dad was a Navy flight instructor at Pensacola teaching in T-34s. Earlier, in 1958, Dad was the co-pilot in a helicopter that crashed and he was severely burned. He was the only survivor of the four crew members. A few years ago I received an e-mail from a lady looking for my Dad. Her Dad was the pilot of the helicopter. She had not yet been born at the time of the crash, so she had never known her Dad. If the fates of our fathers had been reversed, I would not be here. The investigation into the crash resulted in changes to the procedures for flying helicopters. Dad is now 76 and passed his physical a few weeks ago. He is still teaching people how to fly. When Dad calls me and says “I got to go flying today”, it makes my day.-Jerry”

Builder Dan Branstrom:

“Amen, and Semper Fi.”

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On the subject of ‘war stories’, infantryman Tim O’Brien, wrote in his book The Things They Carried:

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“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil. ”

Hello Builders!

Scoob E here with my own story about a 750 motor mount ready to ship.

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Yesterday I was hanging out on a lawn chair thinking about writing a story for the family blog. Funny how the words Blog and Dog should rhyme but really don’t. English isn’t my primary language. I much prefer tonal languages like barking or my native Italian.

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Sunset on my back porch, a little slice of heaven in rural Florida. On the right, I am looking at two Zenith 601/650 mounts. They are part number 4201-A, you can read about them at Zenith 601/650 Motor mounts, P/N 4201(A). These and several other mounts are already on their way to builders who had them on order.

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Now, this one I’m looking at is a Zenith 750 mount, #4201-B.  You can read about it at this link: Zenith 750/Cruiser Mounts. P/N 4201(B). Today we sent out those on order, but we have one more on the back porch ready to go. If you need one, you can order it at this link to the products page: http://www.flycorvair.com/750mount.html. I am not old enough to drive it to the Post Office, but I will go along for the ride when it is sent right out.

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Hey, down here! … My favorite Sport Aviation magazines are from the 1960s. That is why they are on the bottom  shelves. Yes, I read that copy of The Nightingale’s Song.  It is an important historical commentary more people should have read. Robert Timberg is a real journalist.

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The next story is going to be about the 1100-ww camshaft group. I would write that one too, but it is already past the time I am supposed to get my rawhide chew. Journalism is great and all, but I have my routine to stick with.

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Thanks for tuning in to my story! Off to chew rawhide!

-Scoob E

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Builders:

I had several calls today mentioning having difficulty accessing our main site, Flycorvair.com today. Having just spent a joyful afternoon on the phone with host and domain people, I am assured that it will be back in action in 12 hours.

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Builders:

It is often hard to make sense of something you read until you better understand the motivation of the person writing it. Let me share with you an insiders understanding that will allow you to better evaluate why some people write aviation articles that on the surface make little sense. What many of these people are doing is making a small investment with great hopes of a very lucrative future payday. What they are doing is unethical, corrupt, and raises the cost of everything in aviation, and does nothing to promote ‘safety’.

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What these people are doing is writing a story to say that they are aware of some ‘safety issue’ that is going unaddressed by others with deep pockets. They are expressing an opinion, that often sounds OK, but doesn’t hold up to statistical analysis, in hopes that they will later be called, as a well paid expert witness in any later civil trial. Even if they have to assist in creation of the issue in that trial.

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To get a better understating of how this deceitful system functions behind closed doors and away from the eyes of rank and file homebuilders, please take 5 minutes to read this story: Expert Witnesses in civil Aviation trials. There are builders who dislike the fact I use the actual names of men they have respected for other deeds, but reality is that the men I name actually engaged in promoting lawsuits that they were later paid gigantic amounts of money to act as expert witnesses in. I wrote that story almost two years ago, it has been read by thousands of people, and not one single person has emerged to debate the truth of what I wrote. Pointing out something that is unpleasant about a man isn’t slander if it is true.

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Here are two more articles, recently published by the EAA, our membership organization,  that many people couldn’t make heads or tails of, but they set off my personal alarm, and it is my strongest suspicion, particularly the article by Busch, is an attempt to foment a lawsuit, that he will later be paid for.

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Mac McClellan, the EAA editor published this story last week: http://macsblog.com/2014/11/stick-force-is-a-safety-issue/

From a practical and engineering perspective, it is a joke. He is promoting the idea that light stick forces in planes are a significant source of fatal accidents, and he falsely claims that experimental planes have not addressed this, and have not all been made to conform to his idealized control force ratio, ignoring the idea that there is no such thing as an ideal stick force. Be suspicious of any story that ignores training and CG issues, focusing on manufactures’ design. No one got rich suing a dead pilot or a broke CFI, but plenty of people have made money off the deep pockets of manufacturers. Again, his opinion doesn’t hold water to people who know anything about planes and know that every experimental plane, by law, must have a placard on the panel stating that the plane does not conform to federal standards. It was probably not written as much for aviators as it was for 12 people sitting in the jury box on a lucrative civil trial.

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The other EAA published article that raised many industry people’s attention was the June article by Mike Busch titled  “Cylinder work : Be afraid. ” you can read it here:http://spirit.eaa.org/apps/magazines/eaa_articles/2014_6_08.pdf

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I flat out state that my belief is Busch is solely trying to foment a giant civil lawsuit against Lycoming or Continental. The very title “Be afraid” goes against everything I think about aviators: We train people to be Alert, not Afraid. Scaring people doesn’t promote rational actions, but it is a great way to make money. I have been an A&P for almost 25 years, and I don’t know a single mechanic who agrees with Busch’s statements. Again, when reading it, note how he ties the claim to unspecified fatal accidents, but it isn’t the mechanics he is after, it is the deep pockets of the manufacturers. If I am wrong about this, let Busch put directly on his website that he has never, and will never, act as a paid witness in a civil aviation trial. I have no issue men who have opinions, even controversial ones, it is the money for sworn truth I take issue with, and anyone who is telling people to “Be Afraid”.

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A large part of my  objection to the above two articles is these men being paid to write them by our membership organization, having them published in our magazines, and then potentially turning around and getting a giant payday from telling the membership to “Be Afraid” of a boogey man they made. It is vile enough when people act as paid expert witnesses in lawsuits they drummed up, but I find the very idea that anyone might do this while employed by the EAA repugnant.

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Spend a moment reading this story: Speaking of Paul Poberezny to understand how much I respect the life work of Paul Poberezney.  He wrote many articles speaking in anger over pointless lawsuits in aviation, and said a few individuals were profiting while great damage was being done to aviation.  He wrote that “Our grandparents heads would have burst with indignation” at the very concept of the evasion of personal accountability in pursuit of a payday.

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Today, we are direct beneficiaries of decades of honest and hard work that made homebuilding possible, and protected it, awaiting our arrival. It has been given to us for free, by good men, most of whom you will never be able to thank.  It is now your watch, your hour of duty, and I ask, “Where is your indignation?”

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“This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country.” -T.R. 1905.

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On this eve of Thanksgiving, I am most grateful for the fortune of being born in a country that has the rule of law, not a police state. As imperfect as it is, America is my home and by luck of my birth, my life has had the great blessing of happening in a land where men are to be judged by the content of their character.

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It is not our faith, color, money, size, brains nor natural resources that make our society different; many other lands have appreciable amounts of these elements. But here, we have a fundamental belief in justice and fair play, as T.R. said “No man is above the law and no man is below it.” We do not settle these matters in the media, at the altar, nor in the private rooms of the privileged. We settle them in courts, in a flawed system that still functions, just as long as people entering it are doing so to speak the truth and bear honest witness. When they enter the halls of justice to seek fortune and offer lies for money, they are to be regarded as vermin, corroding the very quality that our fathers toiled their entire lives to bequeath to us. To be tolerant of the abuse of the justice system for personal gain is to admit that one didn’t deserve to live under it’s protection in the first place.-ww.

Builders,

I have only one personal Thanksgiving tradition. I reserve one uninterrupted hour to watch the CBS/Edward R. Murrow documentary “Harvest Of Shame.” It is considered by many to be the high water mark of television documentaries. Murrow cashiered his entire news career to make it and see it broadcast. It is an unflinching look at destitute and impoverished workers providing food for our nation of plenty.  It originally aired the day after Thanksgiving, 1960.

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Like The Grapes of Wrath 21 years earlier, Harvest of Shame was attacked as socialist propaganda. In the 54 years since it has been broadcast, the documentary has been called many things, with the notable exception of being called untrue.

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If you have never seen it, it can be found at this You Tube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJTVF_dya7E

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Murrow delivers a harsh message; They selected a deeply moving American composition to accompany the title: Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”. There is a 3:14 excerpt from it at this link, The segment from the documentary is at 2:20 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiLTwtuBi-o

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Poverty does not have a color or a language in Harvest of shame. It defied stereotypes and generalizations.

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“This scene is not taking place in the Congo. It has nothing to do with Johannesburg or Cape Town. It is not Nyasaland or Nigeria. This is Florida. These are citizens of the United States, 1960. This is a shape-up for migrant workers. The hawkers are chanting the going piece rate at the various fields. This is the way the humans who harvest the food for the best-fed people in the world get hired. One farmer looked at this and said, “We used to own our slaves; now we just rent them.” – E.R. Murrow, opening statement to Harvest of Shame.

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Several months ago I spoke with two little boys, seven or eight years old, outside a local convenience store. They were putting a chain back on a rusty bicycle. It was 8 am on a Sunday. Neither one had eaten anything since the day before. I went inside and got each of us an apple and a banana. They ate theirs right away.

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A man standing in line, dressed well enough that he was probably on his way to church, made a point of telling me in front of a half-dozen people that “you can’t help those people they choose to live that way.”

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I stood a foot away from him and looked him in the face and asked him to explain to everyone how a seven year old boy is to be held accountable for the poverty he lives in. He wisely chose to leave without offering any further social wisdom.

“It was far easier to make anything “Fool Proof” in 1950 than today. This is simply because the percentage of the population that qualifies as fools today is a lot higher, and there is plenty of evidence that the depth of stupidity is constantly advancing. Thus “Fool proof 1950″ is actually a much lower standard of protection than “Fool Proof 1985″, and at some not so distant future date, the whole concept of anything being able to be made fool proof will just be theoretical, discussed as an abstract idea.” -ww-2104

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The concept that the term fool proof needed a date attached to it came in a phone call from Mark Petz of Falcon several years ago. He just blurted it out in a moment of frustration speaking of a builder that pulled the head studs out of his case one by one, never stopping to consider that the head torque value of 125 foot pounds might be 100 pounds over the desired number. My contribution to the dated foolproof concept was only to carry it to it’s inevitable conclusion that ‘fool proof’ as a useful word was just about done.

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If you are out driving around on black Friday, threading your way through people who believe that scrolling through their smart phone while driving is somehow different than texting and driving, you may have a moment of awareness, and see with clarity where much of society is headed. I am going out to work in the hangar, because it is my form of driving in the other direction.

Builders:

Here is something off topic: Today is the 150th anniversary of a dark day in US history. Tonight you could watch a hour of worthless TV news or you could invest an hour in learning about the Sand Creek Massacre.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre

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Sand Creek is in eastern Colorado. On this date in 1864, a large encampment of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho were attacked there in a premeditated raid executed by 700 cavalrymen. Accounts differ on the total number killed, but all sides agreed on two points: most of the victims were women and children, and a number of the cavalrymen mutilated the bodies of the victims, including scalping women and children, and these were later put on public display. It is not a pleasant story, but one that adult Americans should know at least was well as the plot of their favorite TV sit-com.

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Although many people were appalled, and there was a federal investigation, no charges were filed against the man who planned and led the attack, Col. John Chivington, who was ironically also a Methodist pastor. The man who testified against him was assassinated weeks later. The attack eliminated the peaceful leadership of the tribes and empowered those willing to fight to the death. Chivington’s actions greatly prolonged a bloody conflict.

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Sand Creek is thought of as the start of the last phase of warfare against native Americans. It ends with the massacre at Wounded Knee, on December 29th 1890, twenty six years later. That may sound like ancient history, but consider this: I was born 72 years to the day after Wounded Knee. That is within someone’s living memory; My Father joined the US Navy as a 17 year old, 73 years ago, and today he can tell you anything you would like to know about 1943. Most Americans have short attention spans.  I fear that Native Americans do not.

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When I was small, I read Hal Borland’s When the legends die. A few years later I read Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Both are well worth reading and considering. In recent years I read Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel, it provides a scientific/historic look at what happens when cultures clashed in world history. -ww.

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“What  stops so many would-be sailors nowadays owning such craft [i.e. a  Viking-style ship], is that their perceptions have been warped by modern  urban living and the expectations of urban living. Modern urban man  travels in his sealed luxury ‘car pod’ to his/her centrally heated  office, then back to a centrally heated, carpeted floor house. For  exercise he/she joins an expensive gym, where he/she runs on a treadmill  like a hamster or a 19th century convict. All the time protected from  the wind, the rain and the sun. The Vikings protected their bodies  comfortably from cold and wet with wool and oiled leather. We have  yachting clothing today which is as good. So we have the small boat  design, we have the protective clothing. All we need now to have a new  renaissance in modern sailing man, is to drop the comfort perceptions of  urban city man.”

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I came across this while reading about boat building. In the last 25 years I have built a number of wooden boats from a 7’6″ kayak for my nephews when they were little, to a 29′ Bolger sharpie. If I couldn’t build airplanes, I would build boats.

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There is a lot of common ground between the two. Historically you find a lot of aviators also spent time on the water. The quote above holds true with planes. Flying in light planes is a cornucopia of sensory input that you don’t get in modern cars; sounds, bumps, smells wind, tactile feel on the controls. For those who like the sensations of reality, it is rich pay dirt. For those that seek comfort to the point of anesthesia,  light planes are an exercise in discomfort and frustration.

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I have noticed how wide this gulf in experience is for many new young people getting a first flight in a light plane. Many people who are under 40 have never ridden in far less driven or owned a car that you could hear the engine in while driving down the road. My youth was spent joyously putting headers on V-8 cars and savoring the sound. I welcome the sound of aircraft engines as the herald of power. The acrid smell of burning rubber automatically makes my heart pound. I am not taken back by the typical aircraft flight experience, I like the idea that it is a sensory load, all reminding me that I am working with a machine.

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Conversely, the people who grew up driving in a “sealed luxury ‘car pod’ , often find the initial exposure to the sound, vibration, smells and visible mechanical  systems daunting and foreign, and it greatly heightens their sense of fear. The cars these people know are appliances, not machines.

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This observation has a more important function that sorting people who loved Mötley Crüe’s song Kickstart My Heart from people who love their Toyota Prius. I am of the opinion that new pilots are better off being constantly reminded they are in a responsive, and occasionally unforgiving machine, very different than the appliance they drove to the airport. Yesterday Dan Weseman remarked if all new pilots were at least required to solo a 7AC Champ, they would know what a rudder was and understand that all of the most rewarding planes to fly require the pilot to be an active participant. This is a particularly important revelation for people who grew up thinking that the word ‘crash’ was invented to describe a computer malfunction. Heightened awareness is critical element in being in control of your environment, and that is what flying is all about.

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Sound check: Other General motors products brought to you by the same people who engineered your Corvair motor:

572 cid blown Big Block Chevy burnout in a ’57 Bel Air:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBBFzEaLJNY

Rare 12 cylinder blown and turbocharged Detroit 12V-53, (Detroit was a GM division, yes it is 2 stroke diesel):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWrg3cFod7Q

Two Allison V-1710’s on a P-38, (Allison was a GM division)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY6d-_ILCvo

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Above in our driveway, 2011: I stand beside my mentor in flying, Chuck Nelson. In the foreground is the 15 foot lapstrake double-ended sailboat we built. Over coffee a couple of years ago, Chuck casually said that he had actually done just about everything he ever wanted to do in life. And in Chuck’s case this is a long list of adventures, the centerpiece of which is an incredible array of experiences in flying. I was concerned that there were no more items on his “bucket list” to check. After I pressed him for a while, he confessed that he had always wanted to build a sailboat. He had owned plenty of them, lived on one for years, and cruised for months at a time, but he had never built one. The boat above is the result of several years of working one morning a week or so. I qualify the term “working” because this time included a whole lot of coffee drinking at the kitchen table, a lot of plinking in our backyard range, flying around in the Taylorcraft in good weather, messing around with sailplanes, and general screwing around. Quality time well spent, with something nice to show for it in the end.

Builders,

Rachel Weseman just put up a video link on the Panther website of 7 minutes of Dan flying very smooth aerobatics in the panther, from the point of view of a Go pro camera mounted on the wing. It is a very nice piece of work, you can find it on their site at this link:

http://flywithspa.com/happy-thanksgiving-from-spa/

If you have any issue getting it to load, you can also access it directly on youtube at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byqO0t82bF0#t=180

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It is worth considering that I always told people that you could do a loop spin and a roll, and many other basic aerobatic maneuvers with a Corvair with our standard oil system, without any issue, the engine would not lose oil pressure. A number of people on internet discussion groups, people with no flight experience in Corvairs nor an understanding of what a coordinated turn is, vocally claimed otherwise. I know the video will not convince them, but hopefully it will show any open-minded builder that the gold oil systems really do work for 99.5% of the flying homebuilders do.

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For another very interesting video by Rachel, get a look at the Panther flying in formation with 180 HP Lycoming RV’s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXuZKH4C1Zk

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You can also get a look at air to air video of Ron Lendon’s 2,850cc 601XL, shot from the Panther at Barnwell College #27:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeliNRl-7g0

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Above, a rear view of the engine. Behind the harmonic balancer is an alternator driven off the crank through a flexible coupler. The Weseman’s sell this directly, but the system is integrated into our manual/numbering system as  P/N 2950.  It retains the balancer and cannot put bending loads on the crank.

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I have never been a fan of belts on the back of the engine, but this system does not use one. The alternator is the same Yanmar unit we traditional use on the front of the engine. Although it is driven at crank speed, the unit makes it’s full output by any flight rpm, and the output exceeds the needs of almost all Corvair powered planes.

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There is a misconception that having the alternator on the back improves cooling. Back to back tests showed that the change was negligible. Many things on experimental aircraft cannot be ‘eyeball judged.’ They have to be tested. Anything that involves airflow or aerodynamics can not be reliably evaluated by eye. The primary attribute of the rear alternator is simplicity, and it allows a slightly narrower cowl line on single seat and tandem seating planes. If you are building a plane with J-3 ‘eyebrow’ cooling scoops, it is easier to fabricate the ductwork with the alternator in the back, but it has been done both ways.

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For further reading:

Corvair power for Panther and Sonex reference page

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You can read all the detailed information on the SPA website at this link:

http://flywithspa.com/panther.html.

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Builders,

Below are several views of our #2400-L starter. It was an idea I actually had in 2007, but only developed in detail and production this year. The starter actually weighs 3 pounds less than our regular model.

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Above is the front view. Although the starter brackets are related to our standard #2402 brackets, these are dimensionally different. All other parts of our starter system, the top cover, the ring gear etc, remain the same. The cylindrical motor is about the size of a 12 ounce soda can.

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Above, the copilot side view. The starter actually cranks the engine faster on less amperage than out standard starter. The prototype of this starter was flight tested on the SPA Panther in the spring. We have since installed about 10 on running engines. We have given builders who had a standard starter on order the option of upgrading.

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Above, the rear view of the starter, the main plate of the design in a CNC machined 3/8″ thick 6061T-6 aluminum plate. because it is very stiff, the design does not require a tail bracket. The pilot’s side hole in the mounting plate is  slotted, allowing quick adjustment.

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The pricing information on our webpage is correct, but we are still reworking the description and the photo. We will amend this shortly.

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