William Wynne

Merry Christmas And Happy Holidays From FlyCorvair.com Post College . . . Long Week In the Hangar through Dec. 2, 2006 Part 3 An inside look at a 3,100cc cylinder head, above. Note that the head has to be opened up until the bore actually reaches the bolt holes. This has no effect on sealing because the head gaskets are at the bottom of the well. However, I've seen more than one case where the papery thin section near the bolt hole has broken out upon assembly and snagged under the head gasket. When we assemble a 3,100, this area is carefully cleaned out and inspected. None of the people who produced 3,100 kits ever paid attention to details like this. We still have people making inquiries about 3,100s, and it could be built, but I earnestly dissuade first time builders from trying it. The only 3,100 modifier who appreciates detailed work is Ray Sedman, and he's back ordered a year and not accepting any new orders. A standard Corvair motor is a great powerplant and has plenty of parts availability. It's the right choice for almost all builders. Kevin hard at work his first week back in the shop. Kevin, who's traveled extensively in search of good surfing, was laid out by an illness he picked up in his travels and was out of the shop 18 weeks. This is the first time we've had him back since early July. He's healthy now and knocking out work. A late night photo from the hangar shows the abudance of work in progress. In the foreground is Texan Jack Nelson's engine, destined for service in his near complete Wagabond. Our airport is an interesting place to work at night. Jan Eggenfellner's Subaru shop is on our east side and in the hangar on our west side, a young Embry Riddle student named Matt LoPresti works to complete a German Alpha aircraft. The plane has a VW Type I engine with a massive belt reduction on it. Matt said our Nosebowl is reminiscent of the cowlings pioneered by his Grandfather Roy and family. We thank him for his nice compliment. Above is the backside of a Rear Oil Accessory Case. The end of the Allen wrench points to the surface where our CNC manufactured top plate bolts onto GM's case. When we rebuild a rear cover, we machine the surface completely flat. It's important because there's pressure oil in this area, and although it's never happened, a leak in flight is at least a big mess, if not an engine failure. If you carefully study GM's original design, the rear case cover clears the top of the engine case by .025". After decking, it comes pretty close to flush. We've never had trouble installing a Rear Case we've remanufactured, but it concerned me that someone might install one in the field without trimming the rear case cover gasket and end up with an oil leak. The original 60 top covers were all hand machined in our shop by Dave The Bear with great precision. For the next batch of 50, we switched to CNC manufacture using the GM oil filter housing as a template. These had looser tolerances on the holes than the ones we sent out. These covers can be seen in the grey bin above. To make the part perfect, we redesigned it with far tighter tolerances on the holes than GM had, which allows the edge to be machined flush with the case. This means there can be no trouble on field installations. The parts in the bin cost nearly $2,000. I scrapped these because its the right thing to do even though it's caused delivery delays. The new ones are almost done, and back ordered Rear Accesory Cases will be shipped out with them starting the end of this week. Many people in aviation companies define "tested" as being babied around the pattern once, or installed by experts and proven to work under controlled circumstances. My definition of testing encompasses rigorous consideration as to how the part might be installed and used by amateurs, including field variables. It is much harder to make parts work under these circumstances, but this is what we always shoot for. Two of the nicest people I've ever met in my life, Bob and Sarah Bean. Many times, people repeat stories in aviation which they have no firsthand experience with. They all start something like, "well I heard of a guy who had ... ". Lest anybody think that my refusal to use Ivoprops on Corvair engines is based on such stories, read closely. In 1996, I sold an Ivoprop to Bob, which he installed on an O-320 powered Tailwind he built for Sarah. The airplane first flew in 1998. It was the nicest Tailwind that most people could ever remember having seen. Sarah raced it in the 1999 Sun 100 Air Race, where it threw 12 inches off one blade, the engine nearly came out of the airframe, and the aircraft was destroyed in the crash landing. I had an understandably hard time facing Bob and telling him that I had not personally flown the same model prop I sold him. This marked the last time I ever sold or recommended any flying part to anyone that I had not personally flown behind. Today I cringe at how bold people's recommendations are when they've never flown what they're recommending. Today, Bob and Sarah fly the country in the Oshkosh Award Winning Glasair III Bob built as a replacement. I stopped by Dan Weseman's to see the final assembly of The Son of Cleanex. Builder Chris Smith enjoys the breeze in the cockpit. Note the break-in airbox. Inspection is scheduled in two weeks. Lower right hand side of Chris' installation. It is closely patterned after the Cleanex, but represents a lot of Chris' hard work. Left hand side, above. The exhaust is stainless, built from our new CNC stacks. It is ceramic coated by Landshark in Valdosta, Ga. The prop is a Sensenich 54x58. 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