Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Has anyone on here used a Luscombe 8 wing on their air camper? Are there any items worth noting in regards to flight characteristics or otherwise? I’m looking at buying a mostly finished and unflown project that uses a Luscombe 8 wing and wondering if there’s anything I should be concerned about.

I don't know anything specific about the wing, but just looking at a Luscombe 8 for example, it uses the NACA 4412 airfoil, has a wingspan of 35 ft and a wing area of 140 sq.ft. which puts the chord at an average of 48". The gross weight and top speed are both higher than that of the Air Camper. The 4412 is a 12% thickness airfoil, so if the chord is 48" then the wing is about 5-3/4" thick... which is thicker than the Pietenpol wing by 1" and has a chord that is 12" less at its root than that of the Hershey-bar Piet wing.

I have never flown a Luscombe so I have no idea how they handle in the stall, in slow flight, or in cruise. The Luscombe is said to stall at 40 MPH with flaps extended.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

That's pretty unusual.
Is the project actually a Pietenpol or a Grega?

Not sure if it’s a Grega or Piet. I will be going to look at it later on in the month and I will know more then. From the pictures it appears to have been modified, has no flaps any more and it looks like the fuel tanks have been removed from each wing and put in the centre section like a standard Piet.

It appears to have other mods as well. The Air Camper elevators do not have 'horns' at the ends for aerodynamic balance, nor do they have rounded ends.

-Oscar

Yes Oscar. I'm curious about that tail myself.

Tail and landing gear are actually from a cub. I suppose that qualifies this as being a Grega

The usual way to differentiate a Grega from a Pietenpol is to look at the main landing gear attach points to the fuselage. On the Grega, the forward mounting point is the same as the Piet but the aft is moved forward and does not coincide with the mounting point for the aft lift strut. However, they aren't all set up that way. Another difference is the mounting for the cabane struts. On the Piet, the cabanes are mounted such that the wing can be pivoted forward and aft, while the Grega mounts them such that that is not possible. On most Gregas, the tailwheel is steered via a pair of arms off the lower sides of the rudder rather than by its own set of cables going aft from the rudder bar.

Pix of the Grega GN-1 landing gear mount and tailwheel steering setup attached.

-Oscar

Lots of variations in Piet construction. N34KP (built from Pietenpol plans, short, wood fuselage) has tail wheel steering working off the rudder, with a wooden rudder structure.

Pat, the picture is upside down again, can you fix it?
**This is FIXED. I blame the Russians. -pjw

Richard; the picture is only upside-down in the preview. If you click on the image to open it, it comes out right-side up.

-Oscar