Brodhead Pietenpol Association

taildrags

Not to get off into the weeds too far on this, I thought I'd use a representative example to illustrate this subject. Scott Liefeld, who flies the heck out of his airplane and posts regularly about his flights and experiences, just flew an out-and-back to a very hot desert lakebed in company with Ed...

taildrags

See? I just *knew* there was going to be some excellent information on Chris Tracy's Westcoastpiet site! That information on spoked wheels is great. Like a Woolworth store, you can find everything on Westcoastpiet ;o) Probably with a little time and enough digging, you can find the formula for a gas...

taildrags

Dave; if you subscribe to the BPA Newsletter (and you should!), John Egan of Greenville, Wisconsin has written up a nice little summary of all the parts and pieces that he used to make his 19" spoked wheels. Your rims and hubs may not be the same size as John's, but at least you'll get a frame ...

taildrags

Dave; those are very interesting wing spars! Pretty, too. They look like C cross-section similar to the UK spars. Would you care to elaborate on how you built them? And are those biscuits locking the upright stiffeners to the capstrips? I've never see that method used before; always just triangle gu...

taildrags

And Caleb, PS- find someone else who is building an airplane and visit them to see how it works. It might also get you a ride in an airplane, or at least you can sit in one and get the feel of it. Let others on this list know where you're located and you might be surprised to find that there are oth...

taildrags

Caleb; you can build anything you want to in your backyard, as long as your building restrictions allow it. From the aviation side of things, you don't need any sort of license or permission to build an experimental amateur-built "homebuilt" airplane, or parts of it, anywhere you like. My ...

taildrags

Kenny; please contact me offline, taildrags@hotmail.com , about getting some photos of your Jeepenpol. Thanks!

taildrags

Dunno, but it looks like it was mounted to a Piet at some point in its life due to the bed-style engine mount and exhaust stacks. By the way, posters with something to sell on this board should note that there is a separate area for Classified Ads that may get you more attention than posting to the ...

taildrags

Unless you're clear over on the East coast and don't have a friend who is a trucker, you might try Edensaw Woods in Port Townsend, WA. Other builders have gotten spruce from them.

www.edensaw.com

taildrags

Gary's beautiful Air Camper made the cover. Nice-!

taildrags

Was the Frazier Lake event held this past weekend? Any pix or reports? My wife and I were out of the country the last 10 days.

taildrags

Mark; I'm just a ways down the road from you in Medford and I have a full set of plans if you have any questions or any difficulty interpreting the intent of the plans. Some of the materials called out in the plans have been superseded by more modern materials and methods, so unless you're striving ...

taildrags

Ron: yes, absolutely... the instrument compares ram air pressure to static air pressure to come up with an airspeed indication, so the static port has to either be open to the cockpit or else have a tube run from it to a static port on the side of the fuselage. Check that brass plug again though: it...

taildrags

Steve; if you just look at the A engine, which was about 200 cu.in., had a compression ratio of 4.11:1, and was rated 40HP at 2200 RPM in the original setup, see if you think you can get it to make *three times* its rated power output without cranking it up too much higher than its rated speed, whic...

taildrags

Ron; I'm surprised that nobody has replied to your question, because it's something that every airplane needs to have done and it's important to how the plane ends up flying and handling. I haven't had to adjust mine from scratch, only take the wings off and reinstall them a couple of times to move ...

taildrags

Most Corvairs will likely see 5-6 gal/hr fuel burn at cruise, but it depends on how the engine is operated.

taildrags

Ron; can you clarify that a little? That tire size doesn't sound familiar to me. Taking a look at the first dozen of the smallest tires available from Aircraft Spruce, there are only a couple for 4" wheels and nothing like what you're looking for:

taildrags

The jury struts on 41CC are made of steel tubing with the ends flattened and drilled for mounting. I think mine are 3/16" tubing. The whole intent is to create a rigid rectangle and the jury struts are in compression and aren't very long, so it would seem that 6061T6 would work. I'm sure others...

taildrags

Ron: I must add the caution that you should NOT attempt to operate the aircraft in the air without a fully-functional and tested carburetor heat system. This is imperative with carbureted engines like the Continental A65, and I can attest to this by personal experience. Ground operations without car...

taildrags

Ron; I'm ashamed to say that my new responsibilities as president of our company have left me with very little free time, so I have not sent out the carb heat box yet. It is still on the seat right next to me in my Ford Ranger. I just need to box it up and get it sent out!

taildrags

Ron; I went through the logs and although I couldn't find anything indicating what the metal prop was that was on 41CC originally, a log book entry by the test pilot indicated that he was getting 2300 RPM static and that it should be more like 2100-2150 so if you're not even seeing 2000, you're low ...

taildrags

Ron; my airplane, NX41CC, originally made its first flights and most of its test hours behind an A65-8 with a metal prop. I'll have to look through the original logs to see what pitch and diameter metal prop were on it, but it later flew with a wood prop that weighed somewhat less so there is a log ...

taildrags

Area code 203 puts this project in Connecticut, so this would most likely be of interest to potential builders east of the Mississippi...

taildrags

Ron; the distance from where I'm sitting typing this to the center of the Brodhead airport is 1,704 miles. At an average groundspeed of 60 MPH, that's about 30 flight hours each way. If I were to manage four legs of 2 hours apiece each day, it would take me about 4 days of flying to get there. Proba...

taildrags

Ron; I would be happy to donate the carb heat box to the cause, just maybe $10 for me to box it up and send it out. Give me your info and I'll send it out to you. Note also that you can remove the tube that sticks out the bottom and just let it dump into the cowling if you don't want to make a hole ...

taildrags

Ron; I have the heat box but need to hold it up to a Stromberg carb to make sure it's the right one. This one has the intake air 'dump tube' that sticks out the bottom to dump excess intake air when carb heat is applied. It works fine but is not new and has had some dents straightened out on it in t...

taildrags

Ron; I may have one in my hangar but will have to look next time I'm out there.

taildrags

Brent; if the part is held up to the wood, you're right... it will not be possible to insert the bolts with the part assembled. However, if the bolts are inserted into the holes in the metal and they're not a tight fit, the part could then be moved into position and the bolts pushed through the hole...

taildrags

r1200GSDave- I have never built this bracket myself, so there isn't much that I can offer. However, seeing that the plans call for brazing the inner brackets to the main "U" pulley holder bracket, I have read about problems with brazing 4130 steel and cracks developing. If you are making y...

taildrags

There are some distinctives on this airplane that may make it easier to spot in a crowd. In the first place, the main landing gear attachment points make this out to be a Grega GN-1 Aircamper, not a Pietenpol Air Camper. Second, it's got the elevator bellcranks and cables outside the fuselage skin a...

taildrags

By all means, please post the drawing of the needle and seat on this list. This question seems to have come up repeatedly.

taildrags

Steve; I'll have to take closer notice next time I'm out flying, but my flop does not have latches and I've never seen it budge from the full-down position in any flight configuration. Perhaps I was too busy flying the airplane in a stalled condition to care about looking up at the flop...? I'll see...

taildrags

rmueller23, you have the airplane-building wisdom of the ages. Well said! You have just summarized why I have a partially-completed experimental airplane project in my hangar and it looks much the same as it did when I moved it from Oregon to Texas in 2002 and back from Texas to Oregon in 2011. Howe...

taildrags

Steve; I am not a welder or a steel fabricator but in my opinion, if the four mounting points for the Champ or Cub mount don't closely match the horizontal and vertical dimensions and geometry of the Piet mounting points, the rework required to bring one into alignment with the other might not be mu...

taildrags

John; do you know if this mount is fabricated in accordance with the supplemental drawing from the Pietenpol family?

taildrags

Stephen; If you build using the materials that are called for in the plans and if you employ best practices in the assembly, assuring yourself that you're mixing, applying, and curing your adhesives in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations, that's about the best you can do to assure you...

taildrags

OK, not sure what exactly is being sought, but Doc Mosher has just about every variation of the Pietenpol plans that has been put out. Perhaps you're looking for the "lost" Orrin Hoopman plans? Check Doc's website, here: https://sites.google.com/site/docspietshop/catalog-of-pietenpol-plans...

taildrags

Those might be available through Doc Mosher. Let me look to see what I've got in my "collection" of stuff I've gotten from him.

taildrags

Hello, DCB Family! If you don't mind letting the group know, where are you located? It's helpful to know if there are other builders and Piet owners near you.

taildrags

My airplane, NX41CC, made an unplanned power-off landing into an unimproved south Texas brush country area where it struck encountered very rough terrain and a bad weld let go on one of the gear legs. Both gear legs failed, the nose dug in, and the airplane went over on its back. The airplane had a ...

taildrags

I put up a few pictures of where my airplane has inspection covers on the wings, here: http://www.flysquirrel.net/piets/repairs/inspection.html I have a few others on the empennage, along with a removable rectangular metal cover on the underside of the aft fuselage right below the walking beam that ...

taildrags

Not to put too fine a point on what Steve wrote, "bending in compression" in this case may more clearly be termed "buckling", which may make it clearer since we're all familiar with things that buckle under a load (like my knees). Most wing lift struts are quite slender (a struct...

taildrags

FWIW, epoxy will generally not adhere to anything with wax in it. Just sayin' in case you think about getting the linseed oil near anything you're going to try to epoxy. Also a reminder that if you're going to lay up fiberglass or epoxy something with threads in it that you don't want to have clogge...

taildrags

John: more information, this time from somebody that knows what they're doing (an A&P friend of mine). He raises the excellent point that the basic rule is that you should follow the recommendations of the manufacturer of the covering system that you're going to use (Poly-Fiber, Stewart Systems,...

taildrags

John; my Piet certainly doesn't have rib stitching on the turtledeck, and from what I can tell from the pictures when it was being covered, there is nothing but Poly-Tak cement between the wood and the fabric on the turtledeck strakes. I can't imagine why it would be needed back there.

taildrags

I'm not an instructor so I can't answer your question definitively, but the Air Camper fits into the Light Sport aircraft category and as such, you could operate one (solo only) with a student pilot certificate, a valid medical, and a tailwheel endorsement. You could also operate an Air Camper (dual...

taildrags

If you do incorporate magnetic latches in the flop, just don't install your magnetic compass anywhere near it and make sure you swing your compass after you get everything set in place so you can adjust for any deviation that might result. You'd be surprised how sensitive the compass is.

taildrags

That Vega engine made its peak torque right around the 2400 RPM range and wouldn't have been any heavier than a Ford A engine. That would have made it a great candidate for the Sky Scout or Air Camper. I wonder how it performed for Forrest?

taildrags

Yes! It's a Chevy Vega alright! There's that distributor...

taildrags

Ditto... I hadn't seen some of those Sky Scout pictures either! I'm assuming the one with the clamshell-style cowling is a Ford Escort engine, but is it? Distinctive positioning of the distributor.

Search found 646 matches