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My best afternoon in 2016
Builders, I traveled more extensively in 2016 than I have in 20 years, I saw a lot of people and places and feel fortunate to have the opportunity to experience it, even the parts that were hard work...
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“Right Arm of the Free World”
Builders , A quick story, just to demonstrate while I am a tireless supporter of American made products, I also appreciate well made machines from all over the world. Below, a photo taken in my back...
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The Value of “Showing up”
Builders , We are now starting a new year in aviation. In another week, I will put up a schedule of Colleges and events for this flying season. We have many builders who will attend these events,...
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PARTS!
Builders: 2017 is my 28th year building Corvair engines for planes, and for about 18 years of that time, our lives have been blessed by common internet use, which suddenly gave every person with a...
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2017 Corvair Events
Builders: Here is a summary sketch of the Corvair events we have on the slate for 2017. Keep in mind, this will later be updated with both sign up information for the colleges, and also several...
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Stories on Deck / Reading List – 1 / 6 / 17
Builders, My favorite color combination for my own planes is Insignia blue fuselage and Nevada silver wings. Both my Pietenpol and Wagabond were finished like this. These are Stits colors in ‘Poly...
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Critical Understanding #8, Required Engine Warm Up.
Builders, . The Required warm up period of a Corvair is set by one single limitation: The oil must be warm enough that the oil Pressure does not exceed 60 PSI on the engine run up to Full static RPM...
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‘Your Moral Purpose’
Builders: The following story was inspired by seeing one too many internet memes about “relationships and love” and reading one too many stories about flying centered on “electronics and regulations.”...
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Critical Understanding #9 -Percent of Power and fuel flow.
Builders: Three things come from article #9 in this series: . You know what 100% power is and the fuel burn at that setting . You know what conditions produce 75% power, and the fuel burn at that...
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Rule of thumb in evaluating gear mesh
Builders A quick guide on gear tooth clearance; . . No blood = too loose. Aircraft Mechanic passes out = too tight. Moderate bleeding = acceptable clearance. . Note to builders: When turning engine...
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” 2 / 2 ”– EGT sender location
Builders, I use the short hand ” 2 / 2 “ to note a Corvair motor which is set up with 2 CHT’s and 2 EGT senders. My own personal aircraft is set this way, with one CHT on the bottom of each head in...
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Engine Ground Cable
Builders, In 2016, we had two different Zenith builders fly in to the same event. They had never met each other. I studied both of their engine installations, which has cumulatively about 500 hours of...
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Competing for 2nd place
Builders, In previous posts, we have had some fun comparing some people’s applications for the Darwin awards. As long as we are learning the underlying lessons, there is no harm, but I wish to be...
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2,700 cc / 100 hp Zenith engine of Jim Barber
Builders, Another running Corvair, test run outside the SPA/ Panther factory. Jim came down for Finishing School #2, but his progress was halted buy the failure of Chinese head studs, which were...
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The small world of Experimental Aviation
Builders, I started at Embry Riddle, Joined the EAA, got started on my first airborne Corvair conversion and bought my set of Aircamper plans from Don Pietenpol, all in January of 1989. It was a pretty...
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More DFI testing
Builders, 14 months ago, I wrote this story about a dual electronic ignition system that I was working on: Ignition part #3301-DFI, a new optional system. Past of today was spent running a further...
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FMU – The greatest flying club never started.
Builders, Grace and I were a small part of promoting the Sport Pilot program all the way back to meetings held at EAA headquarters in the winter of 2003. I had great hope that it would usher in a...
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Today’s contest: Identity this Corvair motor mount.
Builders, Here is todays contest: Use the comments section to identify this motor mount. Bonus points for knowing which models of the aircraft it fits, and the landing gear configuration. First builder...
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Inexpensive carb testing
Builders, Inexpensive carbs, the testing of the day. Dan Weseman had been looking at an adaptation of a specialized carb for a while. Today was the day we ran it for a long time and ran a lot of flow...
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Evolution of a Pietenpol
Builders, In the previous story, The small world of Experimental Aviation , I mentioned how much N-1777W changed over the years. He is a look at some of it: . . This is the plane at Oshkosh 1970. The...
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