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Pietenpol-List: Red Bull Air races report

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:45 am
by matronics
Original Posted By: Steven Dortch
Builders,We have only one week to Corvair College#30 in MO, so it is out to the shop on100% duty cycle. The sign up for #30 has been full for several weeks, but if youare a Piet guy, Corvair College #31 and Barnwell with PF Beck and his crewis not only the next event, (November 7-9th) but has the highest density of Pietbuilders and flying Piets on our calendar. . PF has said many times that all Piets are welcome, and even if you are not a Corvairbuilder, there is a lot to be gained at the event. Don Harper's and PF'sPiets are based there, We will have the fuselage, mount and gear on displayfor Terry Hands steel tube Piet, I have invited Bob Lester to fly his up fromFlorida, and there will be a number of better known Piet builders on hand. Ifyou are building a Piet, but have never flown in one, come on down, PF Will remedythat, as he has flown more than 250 people in his plane. ---------------------------When I signed up for this list 6 months ago, I had the following simple goals:1) Have more people understand Doc Mosher's great contribution to the Piet Community.2) Have more builders look at the 3 safety points, diagonal cabanes, fuel linesand CG.3) Get more people to look at and understand the power of the CG data to plan andbuild their plane with confidence.4) Have builders understand that it is fine to be a 'low and slow' guy, but thereare many builders who like planning and getting more out of their planes andthe time they spend building them. Homebuilding is a very rich mine, and thedeeper you dig the more you get out of it. If you want to do more than scratchthe surface, know that there are others of the same mindset to guide you andbe of assistance.-------------------Dowe is right, there are a lot of benefits to people staying positive. The onlyexception I might validly make is plain speaking about things that directly effectthe safety of others. I don't much care if people knowingly take risks,but it is that knowing part which is the rub, and their non-pilot passengers alwaysfit in the category of "unknowing risk taker." .Some people didn't understand why I named the builder who put cast pistons in hisengine, they thought I should have told him privately. Basically I did, bywriting it all over our manuals and website, and I even had the builder at CorvairCollege #20 where he saw that every other person was using forged pistons,but he instead followed his 'local expert'. Naming him here was round three,after the first two failed. Look at it backwards: If your kid was in that planeon a young eagles flight when the head comes off the cast Chinese piston, andyou found out that I knew about it in advance but didn't say anything becauseI was trying to be 'nice', how mad would you be?.There is value in plainly speaking, but not for most builders, who are not listening.The value is to myself, so I don't later ever have to sit on the frontporch at night and regret not having spoken up.---------------------------Hope to see many of you at Barnwell. -ww.Read this topic online here:http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.p ... ______Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 08:49:35 -0500Subject: Pietenpol-List: Red Bull Air races report

Re: Pietenpol-List: Help With AC 8050-88

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:23 pm
by matronics
Original Posted By: "Charles N. Campbell"
Looks are deceiving! I'll squeeze into any Piet seat offered to me!Great to meet you too, Steve! I'm excited to hear/see your plane in the air verysoon.--------Curt MerdanFlower Mound, TXRead this topic online here:http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.p ... ttachments: http://forums.matronics.com//files/img_ ... ______Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 13:48:56 -0400Subject: Re: Pietenpol-List: Help With AC 8050-88

Pietenpol-List: Re: Red Bull Air races report

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 6:00 pm
by matronics
Original Posted By: "Boatright, Jeffrey"
That mirrors our experience. We were just left of the start/finish line up inbacked seats. The Fort Worth race will be aired 9-15 @ 6:30 on Fox. [quote="steven.d.dortch(at)gmail."]Got to meet Curt Merdan from Flower Mound, Texasthere.Nice guy, Looks too tall to fit in a Piet. My best guess was that between 35,000 and 45,000 showed up. 1/2 of the standswere not used as a safety area. the other half were less than half full. I hopethat is enough to get them to come back next year. Then again, how do they chargemoney in other venues? Other places the races are in the open over riversor lakes. My guess is that almost every pilot within 200 miles was there, plus a lot fromall over, but not many of the non flying public. Everyone setting around mewas a pilot or with a pilot except for one lady who just liked the races. Almost all had a "pilot" hat or tshirt on. IE EAA, AOPA, aircraft brand, or Pokerrun logos. Races were good. we had "reserved seats" in the open withplastic seat backs andarm rests. I selected not under the cover so I could see up and paid the priceby setting in the sununtil 1:45. Planes were not close enough to be noisy,but the speakers were still set to compete with NASCAR, so we wore our earplugs.race planes took 1 min to do two laps at 100 to 227MPH. A piet would have neededa calendar. Grandson (a wingnut) and Dr buddy (NASCAR Fan) enjoyed the races. EAA young eagles was there handing out flyers to young eagles flights. Also theaviation museum and it's supporters had an old Thorp T18 that they had cut 4foot off of each wing so that they could easily trailer anddisplay it. Kids wereencouraged to climb in and out and play with the controls vigerously. Greatmotivation. The Vision jet mockupwas there. Big single engine single pilot Vtail jet, with7 seats. (staff said 5 plus 2) Slick.$1.9 million. Jet mockup was funny to get close to, Engine fan was really just a photo cutout,all control surfaceswere just pinstripes, not real controls. Fuse sat on anelectric powered 4 wheel dolly that was coverd with a black cloth. Built to pullapart and stick in the trailer. Had a good time, will go again if I can. Blue Skies,Steve D> --------Dan PlettN28WHRead this topic online here:http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.p ... __________