Brodhead Pietenpol Association

taildrags

Boy, you would think whoever is missing that walking assist would sure be anxious to get it back! Maybe somebody can cross-post this to the Piet Facebook page-?

taildrags

Herb; in the photo that shows your battery, am I seeing a bare copper bus from the + lead of the battery to where your cables bolt to it? That should probably be covered or guarded by insulating material, since anything touching from that bare bus to any metal part of the airplane that is connected ...

taildrags

Ozzie; I also rented space in the EAA 35 hangar for a good while... about a year, maybe more, if I recall. There are a lot of useful tools in there but even better, there are some very knowledgeable people around, especially on weekends. By the way, I think I left my VW engine stand there when I mov...

taildrags

I thought I had seen mention of the EAA 292 fly-in coming up next month, but maybe not. Scheduled for Aug. 18-21, the keynote event will be the solar eclipse on Monday the 21st. Here's the info: https://www.eaa292.org/fly-in . The person who introduced me to Piets is Ernie Moreno and his airplane is...

taildrags

Bill; congratulations on getting your airplane in the air! Looking forward to pireps from you on how she flies. By the way, what do your Phase I operating limitations say about your flight test area? Independence Airpark, 7S5, is only 15NM from Albany and there is a fly-in to Independence Aug. 18-21...

taildrags

Ozzie; welcome to the list. I just missed you by a couple of years... moved back out here to Oregon from San Antonio in 2011. My Air Camper was based at San Geronimo Airpark while I was there. Steve Dortch is another Piet guy in your area, I thought he was still at San Geronimo but may have moved up...

taildrags

Mike; most of the instruments you'll see in Air Campers are the minimum required by the regulations for day VFR flight and are pretty basic. From that point, it depends on whether you have a water-cooled or air-cooled engine and whether you want any additional information such as cylinder head tempe...

taildrags

Terry; of course I was aware of the relief tube solution, but deploying the apparatus in flight can present a challenge while conducting solo flight and attempting to maintaining straight and level. The gel pack seems like it might require less manipulation to deploy but some discretion upon landing...

taildrags

Rick; I agree with your assessment of getting in and out of the cockpit at our age. I can slide in and out effortlessly with my flop flipped over, even in winter gear, but it sure would be a pain without it. Speaking of our age, I will turn 66 in just a few weeks, so I probably feel some of your pai...

taildrags

John; I have not built or even seen the UK wing spars up close and personal, so my responses here will be generic. 1. The UK group does not distribute or sell the Jim Wells "UK spar" drawings to builders in the US, nor have I seen them on the web. Perhaps someone in the UK can help you wit...

taildrags

That's the Steve that I remember, alright. The only ground crew I have ever known to paint an entire Chevrolet Suburban red using only rattle cans! Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating just a little, but I'm sure those spring struts for your airplane will be purty as can be. Can't wait to hear the result...

taildrags

Ken; Are you anywhere near Cedar Rapids? I have good friends there and besides offering whatever photos, opinions, and insight into Piet building I might be able to offer you from my lofty perch here in southern Oregon, my friends Dan & Linda Bunn in Cedar Rapids can offer you the best of any ki...

taildrags

I am *not* typing this from Frazier Lake Airpark ;o( I am sitting in my office trying to wrap up several projects that have long since passed their deadlines, wishing I were at least at the airport. So.... anybody out there have a report on the 2017 Gathering? Current weather for Hollister shows it ...

taildrags

Stephen; as I replied to you by email, I have the cast aluminum hinge parts, but they are not in finished condition. If you have the time and inclination to finish them, or have a buddy or hangar-mate or EAA connection, the parts are not difficult to finish. If you are looking for steel fabrications...

taildrags

Steve; as I understand the term, "heim" has now become somewhat of a generic term for the ball-end fitting we're discussing. The original patent was to a German company (Heim), but the patent has since expired so others are making the same product. In the automotive world, if you say 'heim...

taildrags

Yellowing: does your airplane have the fuel tank in the nose? If so, have you only flown it with a mostly-full fuel tank? Back pressure on the stick in my airplane is normal when I have anything more than about a half-tank of fuel (my 16 gallon tank is in the nose), but it eases up as I burn fuel fr...

taildrags

Terry: why didn't you submit this for publishing in the newsletter? Excellent!

taildrags

'pilotman'- the section properties of the extruded spar, and the properties of the material that it's made of, would be required in order to calculate the competency of the spar to carry the design loads. Carlson's literature says those spars are 6061-T6 aluminum and they post the strengths in shear...

taildrags

EAB4, thank you... I understand that the modern (WW) conversions don't use the original tin and blower and all that... I have been in the Corvair movement for 20 years and I own and have studied William's videos and four different editions of William's conversion manual in detail, including the late...

taildrags

Well, here are the pix of the belt/blower Corvair that I have, but it's not possible to determine whether it had a starter or not. What seems obvious is that the standard conversion parts that William designed will not work with this setup because something has to either bolt to the top cover or to ...

taildrags

Steve; if you're not on the CorvAircraft list, I'd be happy to put your post up on that list to see if anyone has info on that combination. I doubt that there are many (if any) builders or pilots who are still using the belt and blower setup though. I may have some pictures of a Piet with the belt a...

taildrags

JT- a little bird tells me that there may be an article (or series of articles) on Piet wing spars in an upcoming issue of the BPA Newsletter, but it sounds like you're ready to get started and you need to make a decision on spars pretty quickly so you can build your ribs to fit your spars. I'm surp...

taildrags

Another update on the Vi Kapler-style cast aluminum hinges. The foundry that I work with has just run a new batch of castings for me, somewhere in the neighborhood of 260 sets, but I have not seen them yet and have no idea what the rejection rate is going to be. Even with the anticipated rejection r...

taildrags

Semih; it really depends on what you're looking for. If you want an actual aviation panel-mount throttle cable, you'll have to buy a longer one and cut it to the required length. We have a multitude of similar Bowden-style cables available to us here in the US, with a very typical one being a manual...

taildrags

Am I the only one who is getting numerous BPA Newsletter digests all of a sudden? Many are repeats. My spam filter is snagging them because the sender is listed as the "Brodhead Pietenpol Association Robot" and that word alone would trigger some filters...

taildrags

Tony; the biggest advantage to recessing the hinge bases is that it reduces the gap between the surfaces, which is said to improve control effectiveness by reducing the tendency of higher-pressure air on one side of the surface to bypass through the gap and reduce the airflow over the control surfac...

taildrags

By the way, my reading on the matter does NOT find that changing props or prop hubs constitutes a "major change" anyway. Changing engines or changing from a fixed-pitch prop to a constant-speed prop (for example), would constitute a major change.

taildrags

Kenny; when your airplane was signed off for its first flights, the inspector should have issued you the flight restrictions. Very important. During the first phase of flight testing, you don't have to ask anybody permission to make changes, and you don't have to get another inspection, or anything ...

taildrags

Don; by the way, there was an excellent climb test procedure published in the October 2000 issue of EAA Sport Aviation, by Ed Kolano, to develop an airplane's climb charts. It's a perfectly good procedure that will generate enough data points to establish a useful graph of climb performance at diffe...

taildrags

Don; I've gotten the same advice about recently-overhauled cylinders/pistons/rings... in order to seat them, the engine needs to get up to temperature and stay there, although not at a constant RPM (simply ground running it, for example). I was once lucky enough to get a ride in a Starduster Too tha...

taildrags

Don; I'll add my congratulations to those of the others who cheered you on, and it's great to have another Air Camper flying. I'm very interested in your performance stats since our airplanes weigh within about 30 lb of each other empty and both have recently-overhauled A75s. My prop is a 72x36 and ...

taildrags

Hello again, West Coast Pieters; well, I'm a very poor example for all of you as far as being fired up and ready to go to the Gathering, which is only about 9 weekends away. I have yet to pull my airplane out of the hangar this year, much less go fly it! We have had such a long, cold, wet, and yes, ...

taildrags

My thoughts: 1. Radios cost money and don't fly the airplane. 2. Electrical system costs money and doesn't fly the airplane. 3. Operating the radios distracts the pilot and doesn't fly the airplane. 4. Transponders tell ATC where the airplane is but the pilot can see that by looking out of the airpl...

taildrags

Clay; what do you reckon the gross weight of that downsized version might be? I'm thinking if I take a pair of binoculars, turn them around, and look at myself in the mirror, through them I might be small enough to fit. What do you think? ;o)

taildrags

This being experimental aviation, I don't believe the DAR will be grading you on the airplane's performance, but rather will be looking at workmanship, safety, and overall construction. You don't have to wait till it flies the way you want it to before you get it inspected. In fact, you jumped the g...

taildrags

Kenny; These are not the ramblings of an idiot. They are the expressions of a dedicated builder and experimenter who also happens to be a VERY experienced aerial applicator with a LOT of time in aircraft operating at the edge of their performance envelopes in very challenging conditions. If anybody ...

taildrags

Oh, wait... next you're going to say that you weighed them *after* applying the green primer on yours. If that's the case, I'd better hit the mounting bases of the cast aluminum hinges even harder!

taildrags

Dang it, Dan-! Your hinges beat my cast aluminum ones, which are 0.64 oz/set. Yours are 0.06 oz lighter (a U.S. dime weighs about 0.08 oz). I guess I need to start taking more material off the mounting bases to get them closer to what yours weigh ;o)

taildrags

Beautiful firewall forward!

taildrags

This is NOT a show plane... it's a flyer! I bought Corky Corbett's NX41CC. Original A65 Cont swapped for an A75.

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taildrags

Wow, I've got to agree... those are compact, VERY attractive, and probably lighter than the cast aluminum ones since they appear to be smaller.

taildrags

First weekend in June, Frazier Lake Airpark, California. From Brodhead (C37), plot a true course of 247 to Frazier Lake Airpark (1C9), 1736 statute miles. Establish cruise speed of 65 MPH, arrive in 7 hours less than it took Lindbergh to cross the Atlantic. Those flying in on floats will find that 1...

taildrags

I will certainly second the motions that Steve mentioned. The Flybaby site is a real treasure chest of information and reference material, so is Westcoastpiet. The UK Piet site has some really nice photos and other good information, but some of it is only available if you're a member. Good call!

taildrags

I am not a Luddite, but I'm still snooping around to figure out how things work here too. I'm used to seeing the icon next to a forum topic be a distinctive color, or blinking, or some other way to let me know there is a new post or posts in that topic thread that I have not read yet. Same for new t...

taildrags

My first post to this discussion board... just signed up and just renewed my newsletter subscription, so I'd better stay alive for another 2 years to get all my money's worth out of it ;o) Discussing the VGs with Joa Harrison, who designed and manufactures the Landshorter molded polycarbonate VGs, h...

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