Brodhead Pietenpol Association

The same happened to NX41CC. I repaired the seat front twice during the time that I owned the plane, and the last time I did that I also added some supplementary framing similar to what you've done to provide more glued surface area to transfer the load from the plywood to the framing. I should also have used heavier plywood for the seat front as long as I was redoing it.

-Oscar

Center seat support glue up.

Interesting detail: the tapered wedges that slope the front seat bottom just a tad. Improves the pax comfort over a flat seat bottom. Was it originally that way, or is that improvement yours?

-Oscar

That is my fix to reading the print wrong and screwing up the pieces when I cut them. The glue lines and fits were so good, I didn't want to tear everything out and start over.

Got it. And if it's any consolation, pretty much anything in or on the passenger's seat is directly on the CG, so it won't affect the balance if you add weight there. In my W&B spreadsheet, I ran what-ifs to test the forward and aft CG limits. With the lightest possible pilot solo in the pilot's seat and a full 16 gal of fuel in the tank (which is upfront in 41CC), the spreadsheet said minimum pilot weight is 106 lbs but in that configuration with the CG at its forward-most limit the plane would be 248 lbs under max gross. If I place a 248 lb pax in the front seat, the plane is at gross but the CG only moves 1/2" aft. Thing is, I doubt whether a 248 lb person could physically get into the front cockpit of 41CC.

-Oscar

Trying to get re-motivated on the repair. So, rough cut out and test fit of the rear seat back.

Roger, three-four kilo papa. Proceed on course.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford OR

Pilots seat bottom cross brace.

Pilots seat back glue up.

Good to see you back at it, Richard. Steady progress wins the day.

-Oscar

Impressive how much those two seat backs stiffen up the structure.

There is much to admire and appreciate about Mr. Pietenpol's Air Camper. Simple but strong; not flashy but still timeless. Affordable, but not "cheap".

-Oscar

Another piece of the rear seat.

Keep that T-88 flowing...

-Oscar

Two vertical pieces gluing into the the rear seat structure.

Makes me want to build one. I've done a lot of work on them, but never built one from scratch. So enjoyable to work on these planes.

-Oscar

Gluing in a couple of rear seat supports.

Test fit of the plug and reinforcement of the pilots seat frame.

Very neat little detail. I was wondering how and why that seat support crossmember had been notched.

-Oscar

Oscar. It was notched because I couldn't get the torque tube out when the frame was assembled.

Fitting the pilots seat bottom. It turned out pretty good!

So, I decided I wanted the rear seat bottom removable. Measured and measured. Cut out the pieces, glued in the spacers and fit the seat bottom. Looks good. Hmmm. I clamped plywood to the sides. The seat bottom won't clear the diagonals. So rework the seat bottom. Clears now!

The bottom of the pilot's seat on NX41CC is removable and I made use of that quite a few times in the years that I had the plane.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

A couple of new pieces for the rebuild.

When Corky built my Piet, he mounted the gascolator at the bottom of the firewall, which makes sense from the standpoint of making the Curtis valve easy to get to for checking for water in the fuel. However, he actually mounted it with part of the bowl sticking down into the slipstream below the lower lip of the firewall. When the gear collapsed, the plane came down onto its chin and the air box and firewall dug into the ground, causing it to flip over onto its back. The gascolator got shoved up into the engine compartment, although it didn't shear off. Fortunately, the fuel had been shut off, but the point is- when I repaired the airplane I mounted the gascolator onto the new firewall up high enough to keep it out of harm's way. A bit less convenient to get to, but safer. One downside is that it made a bit less of the fuel usable by gravity feed when the fuel level in the tank is way down into the last couple of gallons.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

One of those little odd things that happen. When I started the rebuild of 34KP I took measurements off the surviving structure as much as possible. Especially in the engine mount area. So, I'm working on the firewall area again. I was looking at and measuring the existing ash engine bearers support, (to see if I could reuse it) that runs from side to side, just behind the firewall. Also referring to the plans for measurements. The measurements didn't coincide. It seems that when Ken Perkins originally built the fuselage, he built it 1/4" narrower at the firewall. So, after the outside plywood is installed it'll be 24 inches wide instead of 24-1/4". Maybe that explains the extreme high speed of this particular Pietenpol!

Richard;

I've tested your hypothesis in the wind tunnel simulator and find corroboration. With the 1/4" narrowing, drag in level cruise in still air at standard temperature and pressure is reduced just enough for 34KP to be faster than the model by at least one-tenth of one mile per hour, plus or minus one width of the ASI needle.

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

Trying to do something everyday, even if it's a little thing. Gluing in the rear quarter round.

Doing at least one little thing a day is what I'm trying to do as well, on the rebuild of my KR project. And a year later, progress is evident. Carry on, and as Mr. Churchill so aptly stated it, "Never give in. Never, never, never give in."

-OZ

Left side gluing.

Well, crap! When I laid out, cut and glued in the pilot's seat back, back last July I screwed up. I located and drilled the holes for the elevator cables pulley mounts, but forgot to do the same for the rudder cables mounts. It's always something, isn't it? I've already figured out how to line everything up and drill the holes. Just annoying.

Richard Roller wrote: Fri Jan 09, 2026 10:02 am I located and drilled the holes for the elevator cables pulley mounts, but forgot to do the same for the rudder cables mounts. It's always something, isn't it? I've already figured out how to line everything up and drill the holes.

Working your way through this stuff is just a mark of a homebuilder, isn’t it? Could be worse, I’m sure more than one builder lined up their fuselage side frames to find they’d put the gussets on the wrong side of one of them…

Fitted and glued in the engine bearer cross piece today.

Richard; will you be adding gussets to the undersides of the crosspiece to transfer the load to the verticals?

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

No Oscar. They are bolted to the verticals.

Well, good then! I brought up the subject only because of what I learned during the repairs of NX41CC after the nose-over incident. 41CC does not have a Ford engine and it does not have a fuel tank up in the wing centersection; it has an A65 and it has a 16 gallon fuel tank up in the nose just behind the firewall. The front of the tank is supported by the crossmember that you just installed in your airplane, using a pair of padded steel straps that pass under the tank. In the sudden stop and nose-over, the weight of the partially-full fuel tank broke the crossmember's butted glue joints loose from the verticals. When I rebuilt the damaged parts, I made sure that the crossmember was securely attached to the fuselage side framing, including gussets, to prevent that from happening again. Although your crossmember won't be carrying the weight of a fuel tank, it's just as important and it sounds like you're treating it appropriately. Carry on!

Oscar Zuniga
Medford, OR

Correction: at the time of the incident that I mentioned, 41CC had an A65 on it and today it has an A75. However, the physical dimensions and weight of the A65 and A75 in that configuration are virtually identical.

-Oscar