Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Good Morning Piets!

Having just arrived back from a wonderful cycling trip to Yellowstone, and two days at Oshkosh Airventure, less the fact I wrecked my left knee, I wanted to share with those Pietenpol Builders, my most recent modifications to my aircraft.

As posted previously, the axle/brakes from Matco have been upgraded to the 1.25 taper bearing type Vs the straight sealed bearing I had originally used. Additionally, I have revised my thoughts and design after a long-hard look at Earl Brown's documentation which clearly illustrated I could/should have done a better job on my canister-spring main gear; thank you Earl for that info. Not stopping there, I had also went with the newest technology on batteries and purchased the EARTHX battery; weighing just 3.9 pounds and delivering much more power than my lead tractor battery. I also added some new gauges in the front seat for duplicity reasons. Still to be completed is the weighing of the plane, and test flying it, but I'm reasonably sure the improvements/modifications will be an asset to the design/build, I have created.

My Piet has 9.5 hours on it, and yes, they have been all above the safety of my airport, 74N; living in the woods of Pennsylvania, I remain cautious as I learn my new craft - but the plane has for the most part exceeded my expectations. In retrospect, I think having 150HP might have been pushing the envelope, but it sure gets off the runway quick! Pictures attached of the latest mods.
Herb Rose, 74N NX709HR

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 to the battery negative terminal will short it out.

Good Morning!

You are 100% correct, and I've been waiting on the extra large heat shrink I ordered locally to get here, so I can do just that. Unfortunately, living next to "No-Where" has it's on set of problems, and things just take a little time to get done.

Thanks,
HD Rose NX709HR, Bendigo Field

Good Morning!

You are 100% correct, and I've been waiting on the extra large heat shrink I ordered locally to get here, so I can do just that. Unfortunately, living next to "No-Where" has it's on set of problems, and things just take a little time to get done.

Thanks,
HD Rose NX709HR, Bendigo Field

Herb,

Where did you get your gauges? What engine are you using?

Terry; per previous posts from Herb to this list, his engine is a turbo'd Subaru. Zooming in on his instrument panel, the gauges say "AutoMeter", which you can Google to find their website. Apparently they have lines of gauges that you can "roll your own" style, face, bezel, and readouts.

As a point of comparison, John Dilatush's (now Gary Bacon's) turbo'd Subaru Air Camper, which was based out of Salida, Colorado... elevation 7.083' MSL, performed very well with that combination and could readily outperform a stock Corvair Air Camper... especially at altitude.

Belay that last. The Subaru EJ22 is a naturally-aspirated engine, not turbo'd, with multi-point fuel injection, rated 135 bhp at 5800 RPM. Herb's engine has a reduction drive on it and he claims a dyno-tested 150 crank HP per his post to this list on April 28 of this year.

Herb, I was wondering if you would be willing to post your empty weight. I've been following the various Piets at the Brodhead flyin since 1999 and I've always been curious at the vastly different empty weights of the various Piets.

Herb, are you ok?

Yes, doing fine; hope to get the Halo off on the 14th of November. Will have to dig out the W&B info, but in order to keep the plane legal under the LSA rule it was limited to one adult for sure. The engine was non turbo EJ 2.2, and I will dig out the dyno documents to prove the 150HP it developed at the crank. It was "worked" and went very well! Sorry to have been missing, but dealing with the one eye thing and the broken neck has been daunting.
Thanks,

Herb Rose
Bendigo Field 74N

Terry! Sorry I missed your question. At ZEMCO Speed Shop in Towercity, PA.. They deal with everything needed for racing, and also made my headers. Great guys to work with.

Herb

Morning Guys! Just found the W&B for 709HR, along with the documentation on the engine dyno; both are attached for your enjoyment. While it was like no other Pietenpol, and it was highly modified, it flew like a dream. Constructed like no other, it was my experiment, and I only wish I had more time to play with it!

Thanks,

Herb Rose
Bendigo Field 74N

herbrose wrote: ↑Sat Nov 04, 2017 7:27 am Yes, doing fine; hope to get the Halo off on the 14th of November. Will have to dig out the W&B info, but in order to keep the plane legal under the LSA rule it was limited to one adult for sure. The engine was non turbo EJ 2.2, and I will dig out the dyno documents to prove the 150HP it developed at the crank. It was "worked" and went very well! Sorry to have been missing, but dealing with the one eye thing and the broken neck has been daunting.
Thanks,

Herb Rose
Bendigo Field 74N

Glad to hear you are vertical! Those pictures look bad! Are you going to rebuilt it all or is it too far gone?
I'm sorry to learn of the accident and I was trying to be as non-subtle as possible in case that was taboo around here.
I hope the neck has heeled and I'm sorry to hear about the eye!

Nah, doing fine,and building yet another already; Citabria. The plane [709HR] was taken by AIG, for what I assume to be cost recovery of the hull damage I carried on the plane. From what I could see of the remains, what I did not wreck, my rescuers did a fine job of making sure those parts were unusable too! This coming Friday, we hope to begin to understand the heart issues that played into this crash, for I have a whole day scheduled with several heart labs within the Geisinger Health Network. Not sure what the future holds, but for sure I'm taking it one-day-at-a-time.
Thanks,

Herb Rose
74N Bendigo Field