David Comstock's Pietenpol

[oldwoodsman]

On our recent Model a trip to Montana we found this interesting story in Roundup Mt. In 1932 17 year old David Comstock built the Pietenpol from scratch using a model a engine. Here is a link to the story http://www.mvhm.us/pietkids.pdf

 

[jhowes]

This is a really great story and an inspiration to work with students on some projects i have always wondered how a model a carburetor works in an airplane when the amount of fore-aft and side tilt can be so extreme? The gas would just fall out.

 

[dlfrisch]

I have a single engine pilots license and I was with some other pilots at a couple of meetings and a few times, I watched some sections of a Pietenpol being built by an acquaintance of a friend of mine. The builder guy had real nice Model "B" (4) rebuilt and ready to be installed. My friend, a past Alaska bush pilot was test flying it and the "B" quit. I don't know way, but he was just over the air port grass strip and near by rough brush area, put it down and walked away with some scratches. The plane had some pretty major injuries, but he put it back together, the last time I knew.

 

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

I have a single engine pilots license and I was with some other pilots at a couple of meetings and a few times, I watched some sections of a Pietenpol being built by an acquaintance of a friend of mine. The builder guy had real nice Model "B" (4) rebuilt and ready to be installed. My friend, a past Alaska bush pilot was test flying it and the "B" quit. I don't know way, but he was just over the air port grass strip and near by rough brush area, put it down and walked away with some scratches. The plane had some pretty major injuries, but he put it back together, the last time I knew.

Wonder if he tried loosening the gas cap? Did he have a "pencil" filter in the top of the gas valve? Kinda' hard to check for blue spark, from the coil wire to a head bolt, like Tom W. always suggests. "Maybe" a bad condenser, or that flag terminal in the dist, NOT bent right, according to Marco's FINE pics. Once, I had a little BLACK BEETLE stuck in the top of my float valve! (EEK!)
Bill W.

 

[oldwoodsman]

I have a single engine pilots license and I was with some other pilots at a couple of meetings and a few times, I watched some sections of a Pietenpol being built by an acquaintance of a friend of mine. The builder guy had real nice Model "B" (4) rebuilt and ready to be installed. My friend, a past Alaska bush pilot was test flying it and the "B" quit. I don't know way, but he was just over the air port grass strip and near by rough brush area, put it down and walked away with some scratches. The plane had some pretty major injuries, but he put it back together, the last time I knew.

DL
When I started flying my ultralite trike somebody told me any landing you can walk away from was a good one, and if you can fly the rig again it was a great landing.

 

[Tod]

That is a pretty plane. Are these the only ones that used Model A engines? I am making the dual plug aluminum heads mainly for Snyder's airplane customers.

I heard somewhere that the engines were upside-down. This sure isn't. How could they be upside-down and oil the bottom end?

Tod

 

[oldwoodsman]

Tod...I guess you would have to fly it upside down. This one and others I've seen in pictures are upright, but backasswards.
Tim

 

[Doug in NJ]

Doesn't the pilot get tired of staring at the radiator all the time?

Doug

 

[modela@aol.com]

that is a pretty plane. Are these the only ones that used model a engines? I am making the dual plug aluminum heads mainly for snyder's airplane customers.

I heard somewhere that the engines were upside-down. This sure isn't. How could they be upside-down and oil the bottom end?

Tod

Here is a Funk Airplane at Oshkosh that shows a Model B that is inverted....