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Interesting item one of the Fly Baby guys found: A low-wing single-seat Pietenpol for sale:
http://www.barnstormers.com/classifi...Low+Wing+.html
I especially like this part: "Built in late 1960s Never flown. "
Interesting to contemplate *why* someone would do this. Looks like the cabane support structure is still in place....
Ron Wanttaja
he found out he couldn't get in the cockpit?Quote:
Originally Posted by rwanttaja
[QUOTE=rwanttaja;51481]I especially like this part: "Built in late 1960s Never flown. "
Interesting to contemplate *why* someone would do this. Ron Wanttaja[/QUOTE)
That's only the second "why" for me. The significant and irrational "why" is if you want to build a Fly Baby, why do you build a Pietenpol to look like a Fly Baby. Homebuilders, eh? (tongue planted firmly in cheek).
While I meant my "why" in a larger sense :-) a tight stock cockpit might be a possibility. The guy may have built it as a single-seater hoping to give himself a bit more room. Guy in one of my chapters has been building a Piet, and he's added a couple inches in length and width to the fuselage to give himself a bit more room. Mind, he's putting in a Rotec, not a puny 65 HP Lyc....Quote:
Originally Posted by martymayeshe found out he couldn't get in the cockpit?Quote:
Originally Posted by rwanttaja
Looking at the photos, it appears that the wing has no dihedral. I think Piets are built this way, but the parasol configuration of the standard version probably gives some stability that this low-wing variant would be lacking.
A couple of Fly Babies have been built with struts, but they're pretty rare. I think since the struts connect considerately more inboard than the normal wire bracing, you'd probably have to beef up the wing spars. Might be that this was mentioned to the original builder of this low-wing Piet, and that's why it was never flown.
Floats has a good question, too. :-)
Wonder how much work it'd take to convert it back to standard configuration?
Ron Wanttaja
"Dammit, the spar stock is too short!" exclaimed Earl as he missed the cat with his foot and upended a coal bucket instead, thereby putting a literal dark cloud into the air along with the figurative one produced by a steady stream of profanity that had gone on for fifteen minutes but seemed like much longer. "And just a fargin shutting cat biting thirteen blasting inches! I'll be dipped if I'm gonna give even more goldrun cent to those cork stocking thieves and their shackhole lumber yard!"
Then, as if by Providence, the opened step ladder he stormed past fell next to the fuselage, the apex onto a bucket that had so far escaped Earl's wrath and the legs jutting away from it, the rungs perpendicular to the ground and miming the front and rear spars of a wing.
Earl knew now how he could use the stock on hand and still keep the wingspan called for in the plans.
Contrary to the seller's assertions: this is NOT a Pietenpol! The builder may have incorporated several Piet design elements, fifty-some years ago, but it is NOT a Piet!