Brodhead Pietenpol Association

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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, ...

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...

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)

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...

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 ...

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!

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)

Beautiful firewall forward!

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

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.

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...

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!

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...

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...