Corvair College #10 Part 2
November 10-12, 2006
Also on hand was the great aircraft designer Ed Fisher. Our friend Ed holds the distinction of being the only guy ever to
design, build and fly two Oshkosh Grand Champions: the Skylite and the Zipster. He's designed a dozen other light planes, which
have been built by the score. He's best known to Corvair builders for his ongoing Sport Fleet project. Although from Ohio, Ed now
operates a giant facility at the Sebring Airport in Florida. You can learn more about his work at RaceAirDesigns.com.
Here, Murray Rouse's 601 XL engine at power on the Dynamometer. A good idea of the prop blast is shown by the
distortion of Bill Clapp's face at the controls.
Joe Horton's beautiful KR-2S leads the lineup of Corvair powered planes outside our hangar.
Above, Chris Smith and Chuck Cameron, both of Florida and charter members of the Future Cleanex Pilots of America Society,
inspect Bill Clapp's KR-2S. Bill's taking his cowling off to give everybody a good look while he eavesdrops on the compliments.
The underside of Bill's super-simple installation. Note the use of cast iron exhaust logs. The 35mm Aero-Carb has a K&N filter
and does not require carb heat. Bill is the primary source of operational info for Corvair builders who want to use the Aero-Carb
in a gravity feed situation. His breather has proven to be too small for the engine. His engine has one of our
Deep Sump Aluminum Pans, and is mounted to the firewall with one of the dozens of
KR-2 mounts that's come out of our jig in the past few years. The installation now has more than 400 hours
on it. Look for a feature article on KRs of the modern era with extensive photos of Bill's plane in the December issue
of Sport Aviation.
Top view of Bill's engine. It has welded on head pipes and a Front Starter and alternator
arrangement. The oil cooler is made by Long in Canada and marketed under various names. It serves on a number of other Corvair
powered aircraft and we flew one on our 601.
Land-based Corvair aficionado Bob Bentz of Lakeland, Fla., showed up with a trailer full of very nice 95 and 110 cores. Bob has been
a good friend and my major source of cores over the past five years. He upholds the supply is as plentiful as it's ever been. He keeps
a few in stock, but out of area builders should know that Bob prefers not to ship them in favor of builders picking them up.
Three and a half hours of sleep and countless cups of coffee brought to me by well-meaning friends aware of my addiction led to
the quintessential Capt. Kirk moment above. "Must ... find ... cores."
I'm covering core selection, but a number of faces already are looking skyward. Dan Weseman and the Wicked Cleanex mark their
arrival with a series of slow rolls over the hangar.
Minutes later, the Wicked Cleanex taxis up and debuts its new paint and polish job. Thus ended all interest in cores.
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