EAA284 Meeting June 12 2011 and Corvair College Report

EAA Chapter 284 will hold its June meeting on Sunday June 12, 2011 2 PM at Red Stewart Airfield. Program topic will be building wooden ribs. We have several members building or contemplating planes with wood wings. Ribs and tail feathers are usually where the builder starts. The the building process for ribs and tail feathers for the most part are the same, Just the size of the pieces is different. If you are currently working on theses pieces you might want to bring a sample of your work or you rib jig.

Corvair College # 20.

I just returned from Corvair College #20 in Hillsdale, MI. I can say that if you are contemplating building a Corvair aircraft engine the Corvair Colleges are well worth attending. In fact you will probably need to attend 2 or 3 colleges. The colleges are more hands on building than lecture. They are a good way to meet other Corvair builders and flyers. There were about 30 engines in various stages of construction as well as several engines that were being disassembled. Four Corvair powered aircraft flew in; two KR2S’s and two Zenith 601s. William Wynne was there with his test stand as well as Mark Petniunas from Falcon Machine (http://www.falconmachine.net/) and Roy Szarafinski of Roy’s Garage (http://www.roysgarage.com/new/Welcome.html) as well as 5th bearing fame. Roy, Mark and William were there to help with all of the technical details of engine assembly. Measuring main journal bores in the case, installing cylinder hold down studs, installing wrist pins in the rods. Roy has a neat little furnace for heating the small rod end and a jig for assembling the rod and wrist pin into the pistons. Takes about 1 minute per piston. I also learned of a nifty stud extraction/insertion tool made by Snap-On. It has a threaded collet the screws on to the exposed thread. The collet is tightened down, gripping the stud by the minor part of the thread.

I was able to see five engines run for the first time. The Corvair is one of the smoothest running 100 hp engines that you will ever see or hear. The engines reached maximum rpm in the 3100-3200 rpm range. No need for a redrive or PSRU.

While I was able to learn a lot by just observing, the college would be more profitable if you actually have an engine that you are working on. The Corvair engine is an excellent substitute for the 100 hp O-200.

See you on Sunday.

Bob Luken