DavidLee
Member
Hello everyone, I'm DavidLee, new guy. At least to this forum. Getting older by the minute (66) and retired from the Railroad. 38 years as a locomotive engineer. Been a pilot since '69 (Commercial helicopter, private fixed wing) but stopped for some time to build boats. Got the bug to fly again, really bad. Boats are cool but they aint' airplanes I have loved since I was 7 years old. I was working on my Sailplane CFI when I ran out of cash and motivation many moons ago. Family to feed and a job that kept me away from home.
In the way back time I built a Starduster Too with a 245 Jacobs radial, a Weedhopper Gypsy and an original design ultra light. I owned a Cessna 150 and a Piper Tri-Pacer that I rebuilt. I regret muchly not keeping all of them. I think I'll start over with a Sandlin Goat and work my way up. The airplane intrigues me and I think I'd like to do some "improvements" after the baseline aircraft is finished to see if I can make performance gains maybe ending up with a new design. It should be fun and educational if nothing else. Secondly is the Pietenpol I started long ago but was relegated to the back burner and never touched again. I still have the control stick assembly I made up in the early '80's. This will be considered a "radical" airplane by Piet purist's but will finally reflect the beautiful shapes of the 1930's that the airplane has always deserved. No major structural changes but the outlines will certainly change. In his original writings Bernie Pietenpol said that it wasn't out of bounds to make the airplane conform to the individual builders taste as long as he didn't alter the structure and I'm going to do that if time permits me to accomplish the build. At least that's the plan. von Clauswitz said that plans change at the first moment of combat. We'll see.
In the way back time I built a Starduster Too with a 245 Jacobs radial, a Weedhopper Gypsy and an original design ultra light. I owned a Cessna 150 and a Piper Tri-Pacer that I rebuilt. I regret muchly not keeping all of them. I think I'll start over with a Sandlin Goat and work my way up. The airplane intrigues me and I think I'd like to do some "improvements" after the baseline aircraft is finished to see if I can make performance gains maybe ending up with a new design. It should be fun and educational if nothing else. Secondly is the Pietenpol I started long ago but was relegated to the back burner and never touched again. I still have the control stick assembly I made up in the early '80's. This will be considered a "radical" airplane by Piet purist's but will finally reflect the beautiful shapes of the 1930's that the airplane has always deserved. No major structural changes but the outlines will certainly change. In his original writings Bernie Pietenpol said that it wasn't out of bounds to make the airplane conform to the individual builders taste as long as he didn't alter the structure and I'm going to do that if time permits me to accomplish the build. At least that's the plan. von Clauswitz said that plans change at the first moment of combat. We'll see.
