Brodhead Pietenpol Association

taildrags

1. Yes, I'm one who has used the tapered shims to get my Piet's wheels to track exactly where I want them to. Now, with the spring-strut "Cub style" gear that I'm using, the geometry changes and the gear is loaded, both static (just adding passenger and full fuel to the plane where it sits...

taildrags

A marriage made in Air Camper heaven! Nice work, Richard.

-Oscar

taildrags

John; I don't have any parts to offer you, but can tell you about my 6.00x6 Clevelands with brakes. Mine are off of a 1960s-era Bonanza and take 1-1/2" axles. Between the 5" and 6" Cleveland wheels, there are variations that take 1-1/4" and 1-1/2" axles but nothing as small ...

taildrags

Jeffrey; there are resources for those who are interested in making their own props and several talented builders have posted their methods and progress on this forum, on the Piet facebook group, and on their own blogs. The thing is, the Corvair turns in the opposite direction from conventional airc...

taildrags

Looks like an Aviation Products (API) tailwheel. I hear good things about them. Also, Ken, I notice that you have some bellcrank extensions on your tailwheel. Was this done to slow down the response a bit? My Piet had similar extensions on the Scott 2000 but I found nothing in the logs during the ai...

taildrags

Yes, that's one way of doing it with a wrench, some spring scales, and a 3 ft cheater bar. That is, unless you have access to one of these (like I do)-

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Nice and clean. Very pretty engine.

-Oscar

taildrags

Well now I can say I've seen hardwire tail braces nicopressed!

-Oscar

taildrags

Well I'll be hornswoggled! I don't think I've ever seen one with nicopressed hard wires! I couldn't tell from the photo, but are the short tails of the wires thenbent back up against the nico sleeve like they are with wire-wound ferrules?

-Oscar

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JimBob; I have no experience working with the hardwire braces so I'll let others chime in on that aspect of it, but one 'pro' of using the hardwire is if you're going for a period look, they look much more like aircraft work from that era. Well-done wire braces with nicely-made wire ferrules look ve...

taildrags

I have the leaf spring arrangement with a conventional tailwheel and the plus to using that setup is it's possible to buy most everything needed without having to fabricate/weld. The more traditional look is with the plans-style pivoting "A" arm and coil spring. Oscar Zuniga Medford, OR Ai...

taildrags

Found what I was looking for. Thanks, Pietenpolers!

-Oscar

taildrags

Looking for a pair of axles for these wheels, similar to Grove 5016, 1-1/2" diameter. Don't need to be new if they are used/serviceable. Thanks.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

John; there are several elements involved in the assembly you're looking at. Bolted to the landing gear legs are the axle stubs that stick out to the sides. Onto those, you slide the wheels, which have tires and tubes mounted onto them and typically also have a brake disc integral to them. Then ther...

taildrags

I have many of Pazmany's writings and really, really enjoying studying the "masters" on these subjects. Man oh man, imagine what would happen if you left blank sketch pads and pencils on the tables at the pub where builders and pilots hang out-! Sipping on a pint, sketching out force vecto...

taildrags

Kevin Purtee's little inspection viewport in the floor of the passenger cockpit helps with access to the front rudder pedals (and fuel tank, if yours is up there). But since libertyman's plane is the steel fuselage, I'm not sure what the floor framing looks like up there on it.

-Oscar

taildrags

My suggestion was that you try to do anything you can do that's inside the cockpits and empennage as early as you can, because it gets more and more difficult to work inside there as the fuselage sides and covering go on, but you've got a steel tube fuselage that makes it much easier to work on thin...

taildrags

Terry; you'll never be able to completely remove your dogtags from that airplane. Mine is still sometimes referred to as "Corky Corbett's Piet", or even "Joe Czaplicki's Piet", since Joe started it, Corky finished it, and I now own it. Get used to it ;o)

-Oscar

taildrags

Egg-zactly! I've been too lazy to do this right, and have marred a number of clean shiny pieces of metal due to my laziness. Let's do this right!

-OZ

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Clay; thanks. I had another Pietenpoler point me towards these magnetically-held vise jaw pads and it was a "why didn't I think of that" moment.

-Oscar

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Hello, builders; after years of doing my bench tasks with a simple little Sears vise and beating the heck out of it, I finally stepped up a notch and got a heavier table and a larger vise that allows three degrees of freedom and also lets me handle larger items. The problem is that the faces of thes...

taildrags

Yes, I've pumped my share of avgas too. My plane's tank is in the nose but it's still a bit of a pain to get the ladder in close enough so I can see down into the filler neck, while not bumping the plane with the ladder. Wing centersection tank builders should go for that filler offset for sure. -Os...

taildrags

Beautiful work!

-Oscar

taildrags

Let's look at the side-force scenario, where there is a crosswind and the plane lands hard on the downwind side till we can get the upwind wing down and things under control. gear2.JPG As the plane is pushed to the downwind side and the tire contacts the runway, a force pushing the gear back the oth...

taildrags

Also note that in the hard landing scenario, the wing struts are applying a down force into the same attach fitting as the landing gear legs are applying an up force into, which somewhat balances or offsets the forces there. The weight of the wings as the plane hits the runway pushes the wing struts...

taildrags

Let's think about this. In the conventional J-3 gear, and the gear on my airplane, the two diagonal downtubes that form the vee are welded, not bolted, onto the tops of the rectangular plates that the spring struts attach to. That being the case, they form a rigid triangular assembly that might as w...

taildrags

Ah, yes... back to the original question. I assume you're talking about the same setup and geometry as I have on 41CC, and if so, I can throw in my two cents' worth on what I think the forces might be in different loadings. Is this the setup?

-Oscar

taildrags

I'm not a welder, so I can't provide advice or opinion on that subject. I use a very skilled welder for all of that work. He is also a pilot and an experimental aircraft builder, so he's comfortable with doing aircraft welding.

-Oscar

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Yeah, that was my article in the Newsletter and you raise an interesting point. Let me chew on that a little while ;o) Meanwhile, let me encourage builders not to skimp on the landing gear parts, pieces, or connections- and especially not on the welds. Ask me how I know. Rough off-field landing, gea...

taildrags

Kinda thought I recognized those turned wood 'streamline' blocks at the bungees ;o)

taildrags

Terry: wait. It's only February 22, not April 1. No foolin'-? This is a sad state of affairs, letting this excellent project go, and at such a low cost. Whoever gets this project will indeed have a solid start on a very well constructed Pietenvair.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

taildrags

Spend a little time on Westcoastpiet. For starters, look at Jim Boyer's pictures, and Kurt Shipman's. I realize that those are pictures of complete, assembled spring struts, but you'll learn a lot about how they go together from those pictures.

-Oscar

taildrags

Jeffrey; As you'll see from these pix of the starboard and port side axles on my airplane, they are stock items, bolted to matching pads that are welded to stubs that form clusters where the gear leg downtubes and the spring struts all attach. You may not be planning to use bolt-on Cleveland-style a...

taildrags

I have 6.00x6 Cleveland wheels and brakes on my Piet and would be happy to send photos of how it all attaches. Probably be useful to you since I have the wheels and brakes off the axles right now for overhaul, so you can see the axles and how they attach to the gear legs without anything else in the...

taildrags

I think it's been shown both from the plans and from anecdotal comments received from people who knew and worked with Bernard Pietenpol that the strap between the gear/strut attach fittings running under the belly is not a critical structural element. Drawing No. 3 of the Hoopman plans notes that th...

taildrags

If you had some time to spare, you could get up to Frazier Lake Airpark (near Hollister/Gilroy) the first weekend in June for the West Coast Piet Fly-In. Only about six hours' drive from Riverside ;o)

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

The place to get your answer is on the CorvAircraft list or William Wynne's Flycorvair facebook page.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Sorry... I don't think it was me, but now you've got me curious.

-Oscar

taildrags

How to build the spring struts is all right here: https://flycorvair.net/2012/10/27/new-d ... a-m-4-p-m/

-Oscar

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John; if you're thinking of the Cub-style gear, I can highly recommend the "canned spring" die spring gear setup as done by William Wynne. My spring struts are similar but are not enclosed as the WW style are. See photo below, side-by-side comparison of the traditional Bungee shock arrange...

taildrags

Glasscamper, since you moved away from looking for an engine mount to purchase and are now building your own, you should post followups on the regular chat part of this site rather than here in the classifieds. I'm sure others will be interested in how your mount progresses. Oscar Zuniga Medford, OR...

taildrags

I just looked at my plans and I see what you mean. About the only reason I can think of is that the brace wire anchor points end up about as far out on the stabilizer spars as practical without getting into gussets and hinges, and if the wires are run clear out to the ends the angle of the brace wir...

taildrags

I am not using bungee cords but to me there's a question when people say they used safety wire to secure the ends. My question would be, 0.032" safety wire, or 0.041"?

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power
die spring struts

taildrags

Oh, and I guess I should say my references were to J-3 Cubs, not the E-2.

-Oscar

taildrags

I have time in my Piet as well as time in J-3 Cubs and Super Cubs. You'll hear comments about the flight characteristic differences that are all over the place, so just take my comments as my own observations and not universal among other pilots with the same experience. I don't think that anyone wi...

taildrags

The W&B manual is a very useful and important resource for any Piet builder or pilot. And 'hey' back to you, glasscamper.

-Oscar

taildrags

I have a set of plans for Muktuk wood floats that I lent to Dick Navratil (I think) and a set of floats were to be built from them at Brodhead or Oshkosh as a demonstration. I don't think that ever happened and I now have my plans back.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR
Air Camper NX41CC, A75 power

taildrags

Thank you, Doug. Now Gladewater is a fur piece away from Houston, but coincidentally is only about 82 miles from Shreveport, where my Air Camper was built and first flown.

-Oscar

taildrags

Nothing new to me, Richard, and it doesn't faze me.

-Oscar

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Howdy, Pietenpeople in and around Houston (Hans van der Voort in Waller- you too!)- my wife and I are thinking ahead to when I retire, maybe heading back to TX and the Houston area, but not the busy metro area. I've never lived out that way; the nearest thing to it was the summer I spent in Nacogdoc...

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