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Mail Sack, Easter 2013, Part #2
Some more mail on the subject of thankfulness: Builder Jon Ross writes: “William, I fully agree with you. Having traveled the world I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am to have been born here in...
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Corvair Power Row in homebuilt parking at Oshkosh 2013.
Builders, I got the letter below from Zenith 601XL builder Ken Pavlou. He has been doing a lot of work with EAA headquarters to get us a row to park just corvair powered planes in at Oshkosh this...
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Away at CC#25 and Sun n Fun,
Builders, We are packing the truck and trailer to leave at 6am for Leesburg and CC#25. We will be there from the 5-7th. We will have one day off, and on Tuesday the 9th, we will start my 25th...
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Sun N Fun 2013
Warning: This story contains a four letter word in bold print, it is a direct and exact quote, it is here for a reason. The story also makes literary reference to an imaginary day with Richard Branson....
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Risk Management, Factor #1, Judgement.
Builders, I was at the airport yesterday and spoke with Dan Weseman just after he completed test flight #4 on the Panther prototype. You can read the story of these flights on the Panther blog at:...
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Risk Management, Judgement Error, money in the wrong place.
Builders, Below is a five-year old photo of a 601XL built by a great guy named Ken Lien in WA. Paint job on the plane is super detailed, and it easily could have been a champion at Oshkosh. The major...
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Cloudn’t have happened to a nicer guy……
Builders Since we are working the risk management topic, let’s take a look at a different story; in the last one we examined ‘when bad things happen to good people.’ In this one we can get a look at a...
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Risk Management, Wrong airframe, Wrong experience level.
Builders, Continuing on the theme, let’s look at a different risk management topic. It is often the first decision a builder makes. Stop and think about that: when a guy is new, he makes a critical...
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Mail Sack, 4/21/13, Risk management.
Builders, Here is a sample of the mail on this topic: Zenith 601 Builder Ken Pavlou writes: “William, I’m glad you write stories like these. It’s easy and nice to read about success stories,...
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Risk Management, Experience vs Judgement.
Friends, Before I leave this topic and go back to speaking of Corvair hardware and airframe components, I would like to put down one more story on the subject. As the title indicates, part of this...
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Corvair powered Dragonfly, Charlie Johnson, Aka ‘One Sky Dog’
Builders; One of the guys who has been around the Corvair movement for a long time is Charlie Johnson. He is a very unique guy, an aerospace engineer of great experience, and something of an actual...
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In defense of plain speaking……
Builders, Over the weekend, The stories I wrote on Risk Management pulled about 1,900 page reads. Give or take, that is 700-800 different people reading them, some visiting more than once. From this...
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Mail Sack, 4/23/13, Plain speaking
Builders, The note on ‘plain speaking’ generated more mail than we have seen in a while. The quality of the thoughts are a real stand out. To my personal perspective, aviation is for thinking people,...
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New builder, question on long term part availablity
Builders, Below is a letter from a new builder in CA named Doug Eaton. Doug’s original letter was longer and split his thoughts between two topics. For the sake of covering just one of them here, I...
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Carl Sagan, Corvair Owner, Practical Philosopher, Individual.
Builders, I have always admired the work of Carl Sagan since I first saw “Cosmos.” He also wrote the story to the film “Contact“, which I think of as great Science Fiction. Many people in the Corvair...
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Corvair College #25, In Photos
If the photos are small, try hitting the “F5″ button at the very top of your keyboard. Builders: It has taken a little while to regroup after SnF and CC#25, but here is a pack of photos from CC#25 for...
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Mail Sack, 4/28/13, Various topics;
Builders; Here is a sample of the mail: . On the topic of Carl Sagan and the value of individuality: 601XL builder/flyer Dr Gary Ray writes: “If each Individual strives to be the best that they can be...
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Gary Burdett, 2,850cc Zenith 750, now flying. (engine selection)
Builders, A few days ago, I spoke with Gary Burdett of Lincoln Illinois and covered some notes on his upcoming first flight of his Zenith 750. The conversation was fairly short because Gary had done...
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Dick Otto in California, S.R.B. (Senior Ranking Builder)
Builders: Our man on the West Coast, Zenith 601XL Builder/flyer Woody Harris made another house call last weekend, to Dick Otto’s place to be on hand for the first run of Dick’s 2700/Dan bearing...
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Flying Zenith 750 w/3000cc Corvair, Doug Stevenson, California
Builders, Below is a picture of Doug Stevenson’s Zenith 750. It did it’s first flight two years ago, it was the first Zenith 750 to fly on Corvair power. Doug keeps the aircraft at French Valley, in...
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