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My other "airplane"

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skyscooter

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Messages
141
Location
USA
When your wife gets excited about an unnecessary purchase, you do not ask twice! That was the situation that I found myself in last June when I brought up the idea about purchasing a Ford Model T. Within a few weeks a 1921 touring car ended up in our garage. Why bring this up on a site about homebuilt airplanes? I've found that most homebuilders and pilots generally like all things mechanical, so I doubt most readers will mind.

After "operating" the T for over a month now, I have found it interesting that its 100 year old technology has perhaps more in common with many general aviation airplanes than a modern car. Those items include

  • Requirement to manually prime prior to starting
  • The ability to hand start
  • Gravity fed fuel system
  • Gascolator at the low point in the fuel system
  • Carburetor heat (always on in the T's case)
  • Manual fuel mixture control (lean or richen it for peak RPM)
  • Magneto ignition
  • Hand throttle

Anyway, it is a fun car to drive in an area where the speed limit is 40 mph, or in lightly traveled country roads. Fortunately the later is how I can get to Stearman field in Benton, Kansas where I keep my Thorp Skyscooter. I can eventually drive it out there to fly or to their restaurant overlooking the runway. It is a popular local destination place for pilots looking for an excuse to eat, as well as a lot of motorcycle riders.

I was able to find a 1921 Kansas license plate in pretty good shape that I was able to restore and use as the car's plate. The car's gravity fed fuel system does not provide much head pressure, as the tank is under the front seat and there is probably less than 6 inches of head pressure from the bottom of the tank to the carburetor. You do not want to let the tank get too low, or there is not enough head pressure to keep the flow rate up. My wife and I discovered that the hard way one evening out on a drive going up a slight hill!

With a maximum 20 horsepower, it is hard to believe Pietenpol used it in the Sky Scout. Developing that horsepower at around 1500 RPM helped, but I doubt that many were built with that engine. Depression era pilots were a bit lighter than today's average pilot, so that would have helped too.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of getting it is that it is taking up the spot where I built my Skyscooter, so building another airplane will require kicking my wife's car out of the garage. I have not told her that yet!
 

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