Panther Sport Aircraft Forums

Jinkers wrote:

at7000ft wrote:
Email me any weekend with a good weather forecast if you want to come down to Meadow Lake and see my Corvair, but if you want to save a long drive Ken Bickers has a Pietenpol/Corvair up at the Loveland airport, I can email you his email.

Rick H

Rick, please send me Ken's email at 'sflugu at yahoo dot com'. I'll look him up. Still would like to see yours as well, never been to Meadow Lake. Is Meadow Lake open to the public to fly in?

Yes Scott, can fly in anytime, just let me know when, would enjoy showing it to you. - KFLY

Rick H
at7000ft@gmail.com

at7000ft wrote:
Email me any weekend with a good weather forecast if you want to come down to Meadow Lake and see my Corvair, but if you want to save a long drive Ken Bickers has a Pietenpol/Corvair up at the Loveland airport, I can email you his email.

Rick H

Rick, please send me Ken's email at 'sflugu at yahoo dot com'. I'll look him up. Still would like to see yours as well, never been to Meadow Lake. Is Meadow Lake open to the public to fly in?

I'm looking at close to $10K in the 0-320 but I'll have more than a stock 160hp when I'm done. Not yet sure if I'm using 10:1 pistons but I'm sure about using a throttle body, non-stock Vetterman exhaust and electronic ignition which will buy some horsepower but not sure how much. I'm pretty sure it will pull the LSA up the hill in our summer DA especially at the higher back country fields. 54F here today...time to get the motorcycles out!!!

Jinkers wrote:

at7000ft wrote:

Lowrider wrote:Rich,
....Never seen a rattlesnake in CO, but I have heard they are around....

See them all the time in the summer while hiking and mountain biking. They like to layout out in the middle of the trials and soak up the sun.

My parents live in Castle Rock. Nice Place!

I wouldn't mind seeing your Corvair engine some time if you wouldn't mind. I haven't made a decision yet on what engine to use. The more I add up the cost of an O320 the more I think about the Corvair.

And the more I add up the cost of building another Corvair and compare to a used O320 the more I lean towards the O320 ;|

I have also thought about selling my Pietenpol airframe and putting that Corvair in the Panther. Big advantage having a flight proven engine when test flying a new homebuilt (plus a flyable Pietenpol is not worth any more than the cost of building a new Corvair). But another factor is density altitude here in Colorado, I fly out of Meadow Lake (elev 6800) which on some summer days results in a 10,000+ DA on the runway. Rate of climb is very moderate, not a big deal in a Pietenpol, like flying a Cub, but in a Panther it's a different matter where I am really going to want to do aerobatics.

Email me any weekend with a good weather forecast if you want to come down to Meadow Lake and see my Corvair, but if you want to save a long drive Ken Bickers has a Pietenpol/Corvair up at the Loveland airport, I can email you his email.

Rick H

at7000ft wrote:

Lowrider wrote:Rich,
....Never seen a rattlesnake in CO, but I have heard they are around....

See them all the time in the summer while hiking and mountain biking. They like to layout out in the middle of the trials and soak up the sun.

My parents live in Castle Rock. Nice Place!

I wouldn't mind seeing your Corvair engine some time if you wouldn't mind. I haven't made a decision yet on what engine to use. The more I add up the cost of an O320 the more I think about the Corvair.

So, you end up with dual ignition with points and electronic box...makes sense.

Burt makes it up to our EAA meetings in Sandpoint and with Quest in town we have lot of folks with real life experience in design and construction...great place to be if you build and drive airplanes and many other things too. I was back East picking up an airplane when Burt had his first tour of his new plane...it's flying some and will be ready for the snow and water soon I believe. If you get up this way, stop in.

Lowrider wrote:Rich,

Turned out beautiful...there is a gem under all that grease and dirt!!

I wanted to use an electronic ignition with a crank trigger...so the distributor wouldn't be needed unless that won't work on the Corvair?

BTW, Castle Rock is a beautiful place too. I used to fly to DEN and drive I-25 to get to the Springs back in the 80's when we had a site there. That area was one of the short list places when I retired but we don't have any rattlesnakes in North Idaho so my wife liked it better.

Hey Joe, William Wynne sells a points/electronic distributor (which I am using and has worked great) uses a switch on the inst panel to switch from points to electronic. WW recommends a crank sensor for tach input (rather than pulling the signal off a coil) but I think you will need a distributor.

Never seen a rattlesnake in CO, but I have heard they are around. Idaho is at least as nice or better (and much lower density altitudes for flying), lived near coeur d'alene for a few years (Rutan territory).

Very nice Rick!

Rich,

Turned out beautiful...there is a gem under all that grease and dirt!!

I wanted to use an electronic ignition with a crank trigger...so the distributor wouldn't be needed unless that won't work on the Corvair?

BTW, Castle Rock is a beautiful place too. I used to fly to DEN and drive I-25 to get to the Springs back in the 80's when we had a site there. That area was one of the short list places when I retired but we don't have any rattlesnakes in North Idaho so my wife liked it better.

Mine started out like this ($200):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Y1jV ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Y1jV ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Y1jV ... sp=sharing

And ended up like this ($6800 later):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Y1jV ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Y1jV ... sp=sharing
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipM ... h3cKKnyxPi

I started 10 years ago with my Corvair core but now if you are building a 3 liter and am using one of Dan's bearings and cranks about all you need from a core is the case itself, a core distributor, two core heads, pushrods and tubes, and a couple valve covers. Much easier to put together a Corvair conversion now (but more expensive). Have 80 hours now on my Corvair/Pietenpol (with Dan's bearing) and the engine runs great, has required nothing but oil changes. Total cost was about $7000.

Rick H