Corvair College #9
November 11-13, 2005
Kevin Comaty, above, is a 601 builder who drove down with two friends from Pontiac, Mich., Gus' hometown. He made some good progress, and
as seen here, drove away with a longblock. The smile on his face tells most of the story.
The weather at the College was the best we've ever had. There was not a drop of rain, the wind was moderate, and this
was the first week of cooler weather in Florida in seven months. A good indication of how busy the College was and
what the outside temperature was is shown by an exhausted Whobiscat sleeping on a car hood venting warm air.
This complete engine is the handiwork of KR builder Sam Sayer of Zephyrhills, Fla. Sam is a frequent visitor to our
hangar, and has been working on his engine over the past year. Notice that he correctly has his engine rigged for a
four-hose oil system. The only methodology of rigging the oil system on a rear starter motor which will make the oil
system function properly.
Another photo of the inside of the hangar. We pulled out all the aircraft and set up tables everywhere. This gave
everybody enough space to work inside.
Above, Gus and Dave The Bear set up a ground adjustable Warp Drive on Dave's plane. Dave's plane is complete. He's
just waiting for an FAA inspection. Standing in the foreground is Dennis Hall of Hawaii. He's working on a two-seat
Flybaby. Just what you'd expect from a guy who's a carpenter by trade.
Jack Cooper checks out the 601XL of Phil Maxson from Washington, N.J. Phil built his engine at our shop last year.
He has returned with the entire airplane so that we can complete the engine installation for him. Test flights will
be conducted out of our airport by Gus. My educated guess says the airplane will be completed the first week in January.
It could be done sooner, but we have a lot of things on the schedule in the coming weeks. We'll have updates on this
installation on the Web site. It will be an excellent learning opportunity for 601 builders everywhere.
On the left stands Sam Sayer. Sam is in his early 80s, but is still in good health. His KR-2 is almost complete.
Sam is a very interesting character. He was a B-17 co-pilot in WWII,
and was shot down on his first mission by an 88mm flak shell that went through the throttle quadrant but failed to
detonate. He evaded capture and returned to England. he's wearing a Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame shirt. He was
inducted for his career racing hydroplanes. Standing beside Sam is Larry Koutz, a Q2/Corvair builder from Valdosta, Ga.
Larry is a former Air Force F-4 Phantom pilot who is well known in Dragonfly/Q2 circles. He has several hundred hours
of flight time in tandem wing aircraft. I tease Larry a lot, but I'd just like to say here that he was truly an
outstanding visitor at the College, devoting almost all his time to helping other people and having a really good
time doing so. Larry has attended previous Colleges, and wrote a very interesting piece about his experience at CC#8.
If you've never been to a College, it remains the ultimate student perspective of the event.
As a good example of Larry's character, he and I worked together to cut and reweld Sam Sayer's motor mount at the
College. Sam's mount required numerous alterations to fit his custom rear starter setup. I would not normally take
time out of a College to address such an issue, but it was Veteran's Day, and a man like Sam Sayer is a special
case. Larry felt the same way, and the modifications went quickly, and Sam was very thankful before he drove home.
Another of the father-son teams were the Dalstroms, 601 builders from Dublin, Ohio. Their aircraft will be a near
duplicate of ours, a taildragger XL. Gus took Doug flying in our plane to give him a sample of what's in store.
A view of several engines in progress in the hangar. The one in the foreground belongs to Fred Roser, a 601 builder
from Ocala, Fla.
The 601 returns after another demo flight. Preparations for the College left us so busy that we did not have time
to paint the new nosebowl or the sheetmetal on the cowl. The appearance didn't bother any of the guests. All the people
who took a flight went out of their way to thank the Hangar Gang.
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