CorvAircraft> another engine out (LONG)

[Dave Morris "BigD"]

Too bad they gave us no real information upon which to make any 
assumptions.  We don't know if this Corvair had even been "converted" 
or whether it was one somebody yanked out of a running car and 
slapped into the Piet.  From what I read, there could be 100 
different possible reasons for the power loss.

Dave Morris

At 09:38 AM 7/26/2006, you wrote:
>This was posted on the Pietenpol list from a father-son who were flying
>their Corvair Piet to Brodhead, which is close to Oshkosh and hosts a Piet
>fly-in prior to OSH.  It sounds like a fuel problem (Marvel-Schebler carb).
>==========================
>Hello Guys,
>
>     Shad Bell here, what an adventure this past weekend was!  It was
>dissapointing
>to say the least but what a story.  My dad Gary and I headed up for Brodhead
>on friday morning at 9:30 am from central OH. Fuel stops atevanwertthento
>Warsaw
>IN.  The only set back untill then was low level scud clouds and an
>unsceduled
>fuel stop at Lima OH to wait for clearing skys.  I was driving the truck
>at this point, over to Warsaw for my turn to fly.  I get in all fueled up at
>Warsaw and fly over to "Valpo" IN with no problems.  I wait for Dad at Valpo
>and he bring a couple quarts of oil to keep in the airplane since we have
>the
>corvair and run 15w40.  So I take off again excited but cautious about the
>wind
>at Joliet airport in IL.  The WX briefer called for 8-12 ktsout of the NE.
>Well along I go headed for Joliet and it starts raining lightly, no big deal
>it's
>only 8 miles to joliet.  HOLY s- - -! I look down and see corn blowing over
>so hard it looks like waves of water.  With out
>hesitating I punched in awos for joliet and the winds were 26kts gusting to
>36
>kts at 020 deg, almost directly accross joliets runway.  I remember passing
>a
>small airport to my east with 2 runways and one of them was halfway in to
>the
>wind, so I turned around and realized my ground speed at my 2000 ft alt was
>close
>to 30mph.  I got to the airport and got her down with no scrapes tears or
>bruises and the airplane handled it relitivly good.  After pretty much
>flying
>the piet ( stalls at 34 indicated) to the ramp in blowing light rain I went
>inside
>to see if this seemingly abandon airport had weather radar.  The airport
>was Howell / New Lenox airport, and the attendant told me he was leaving to
>go
>home shortly but I could put the piet in a T hanger untill the weather
>cleared.
>He also let me do something unheard of these days, He gave me the key to
>the fuel pump and let me pay for how much gas i thought I would need and
>trusted
>me not to take more than I paid for.  He then
>told me the sad news of how his airport would be bull-dozed in 10 days for
>housing
>developments.  After waiting for 3 hrs I accepted I would not make Brodhead
>on friday I called dad, who was fighting Chicago traffic at 6pm, and said it
>was no-go and I would like a ride and some food, bed etc etc.  He found the
>airport which is way off the beaten path and we stayed in joliet at the
>holiday
>inn. On saturday the sky was clear and the winds light so we went back early
>and got the piet ready for the 3-4 hrs of flying on up to Brodhead.  I was
>flying
>and after taking off the engine rpm dropped about 300 rpm, and I remembered
>that corvairs are very prone to carb ice so I pulled out the carb heat and
>it raised about 200 rpm so I figured It was OK.  I circled the field 3 times
>to
>make sure she was going to run and then headed west the 15 miles to joliet.
>I passed joliet about 2 miles south west of the field and the engine started
>loosing power badly.  At 2400rpm it would just
>barly hold alt.  I turned back to joliet airport and made a scary approach
>to
>joliet, with nothing below me but hi-ways, houses and industry.  I made the
>airport
>without complete power loss and called dad who was only 30 mins away, and
>told him we need to do some work on the engine.  We ended up checking the
>sediment
>bowl, it was clean.  The carborateor was the next susspect so we took it
>off , took it apart and cleaned it on the tailgate of his pickup truck (with
>people looking at us like we were crazy).  We found just a little bit of
>verry
>fine sediment in the fuel bowl cleaned the bowl and blew out the jets.
>After
>getting the carb installed we test ran tied down at full power for 10-12
>min.
>It ran fine and made the full 3300-3400 rpm. Dad test flew around Joliet for
>20-30 min and no problems.  We fueled up and I was still flying so I went
>off
>to the north to Dekalb IL for fuel.  The engine was running great and it was
>a very great flight.  Took o fuel at dekalb and
>headed north to Poplar Grove airport for one last fuel stop before Brodhead.
>I went in to pay for my fuel and chaked the radar and saw the pop up storms
>around
>the Brodhead area, This was about 5pm on sat.  I only had 35 miles to go
>so I taxied out and took off and right after passing the end of the runway
>on
>climb out the engine started acting up again, so I circled and landed and
>called
>dad.  He was near Beloit WI getting the hotel room. He headed down, we ran
>it and we could duplicate the problem on the ground so we made the decission
>to
>truck her home.  By this time we are very stressed out 500 miles from home
>and
>now we have to find a way to get her home without dammaging her.  This is
>where
>an uncommonly generous man, Steve Thomas, the owner of Poplar Grove airport
>let us pull the airplane into his hanger and start pulling the wings.  He
>then
>offered us use of his 24ft flatbed trailer to haul the piet home.  This was
>VERY appreciated as we had no idea how or what we
>were going to do with this ordeal.  So while the porkchop dinner was being
>served
>we were pulling dad's pretty little airplane apart to be shipped home on the
>back of dad's truck.  I guess in hind sight it could have been much much
>worse.
>I, my father, and lastly the airplane all live to fly another day.  We also
>foud out that esspecially in our chosen hobby of airplanes and aviation
>there
>are generous and out-going people.  So to all you fellow Pietenpol
>enthisiasts
>: like the Cubs fans say, "There is always next year".
>
>     Fly safe
>
>     Shad Bell
>===========================
>
>Oscar Zuniga
>San Antonio, TX
>mailto: taildrags at hotmail.com
>website at http://www.flysquirrel.net
>
>
>
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