Pietenpol

In my hometown (Bozeman, Montana) they have a Pietenpol at the Museum of the Rockies - and also a 1929 Tudor. There is plenty of other interesting stuff to see from Dinosaurs, to Native American artifacts and turn of the century antiques etc. I'll share below some pietenpol photos I took on my last visit there to see family.

It would have been fun and interesting to fly a Pietenpol! I have my fixed wing flight instructor licenses (instrument and multiengine) but the oldest thing I've ever flown was a 1947 Aeronca Champ we called "patches." I can only imagine flying with that radiator obstructing your forward view! I'm flying 737s currently and haven't flown anything single engine in almost 17 years.


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The Pietenpol here had a B engine.The owner bought an Aeronca,but he never liked it.Nothing wrong with it,he was just obstinate.He sold that to the man here with the J-3,and his daughter still has it in her barn.The last time I looked at it the wings were on sawhorses being recovered.They all called it the,Air Knocker.
 
Somebody mentioned inverted engines so i figured I'd add this. The first Funk model B airplanes had what was called the Funk model E engine which was an inverted and highly modified Ford model B engine. To run it inverted would have required not only full pressure oil system but and external sump engine as well. This link has a photo.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23269353@N00/6649786935/

I've never seen one of these early models in the flesh but the Photos are interesting. Photo 821 on this link.
https://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled/Funk-B/1193766
 
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I built ond flew a pietenpol with a model B engine. Flew it for 20 some yrs.Got to old to get in and out of. sold it 3 yrs. ago. fun airplane.
 
The owner of the one here told me the plane was well under 700 pounds.Sounded light,but after being hands-on with it in the early 70's made it believable.
 
Seth Swoboda said:
Back to the subject....does anyone here on the barn own a Pietenpol with a Model A engine?
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A member of our club just bought back a plane that he owned 20 years ago. I have no idea what it is but it's A powered. Thought it was interesting that he owned it, sold it and it fell back in his lap this year.
 
I was at the Air Zoo Museum in Kalamazoo, MI in September and they had this engine on display and the plaque next to the engine mentions Pietenpol Aircraft Company. Interesting adaption of the Model A engine…..
 

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A couple of those adapted A engines had surprisingly long intakes with no pre-heating from the carb to the block.

How oil is collected from the sumps of inverted aero engines like the ones mentioned and the V12 in a Bf109 has always mystified me. I guess the piston undersides throw it out while going up and down.
 
The Pietenpol Scout.

It was more than 1 year ago I wrote of the Pietenpol Camper in this Model A forum and more recently in my Toc Flyers short magazine. In an aviation career I had never heard of the aeroplane and was fairly intrigued with it. My friend Jim Brearley has recently told me of the Model T powered version (Pietenpol Scout) so I researched this on YouTube and planned to publish in my Tocumwal Flyers short magazine this coming January. So here it is, a preview.

The Pietenpol Sky Scout.

From the December edition of Toc Flyers I received an email from my friend Jim in California and this is it below. The 2 Pietenpol aeroplanes have been news to me. I first learned of the Pietenpol Camper and now of the Pietenpol Scout. Jim’s email is below and I have gone to the internet for specs and the picture.

Did you know that Pietenpol made two versions of his aircraft? The first was Model A powered, a two-place craft. Piets came out during the depression years, so the public wanted one that was less expensive to build. He then made a Scout version, powered by the Model T, and was a one-place plane. The 2-place plane was called the Air Camper. If you thought the A powered plane was scary, would you want to fly in a Scout ???

In answer to your question Jim. Yes, provided there were plenty of pasture paddocks in proximity of the aerodrome and the fuel was in the wings.

The Pietenpol Sky Scout aircraft specs are below:
Engine
The Ford Model T engine was a 177 cubic inch (2.9 litre) inline 4-cylinder engine that produced 20 horsepower. It weighed 385 pound. It was known for being simple, reliable, and economical.

The Pietenpol Sky Scout was a single-seat aircraft designed to be less expensive than the Pietenpol Air Camper, which used a Ford Model A engine. The Sky Scout was redesigned to accommodate the heavier Model T engine by reducing the aircraft to a single seat. The pilot stood up to get in and out of the aircraft through a hinged section of the wing called a "flop". The Sky Scout was designed to be built from spruce and plywood.


Back to last months issue the Pietenpol camper has a Model A 200 cubic inch (3.3 litre) engine delivering 40hp (except in UK where government tax was proportional to engine HP so a 28HP engine was fitted). It’s weight was 350 pounds. Remember the radiator obstructed the pilot’s forward vision. Picture on right. The internet pictures (of which includes these 2) show many without the radiator so there must be a mod to relocate it.
 

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Bruce of MN said:
I guess the piston undersides throw it out while going up and down.
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A friend had a French built Messerschmidt ME208 4 seater with an inverted engine. Once you lit it you waited a little before revving it up to let the oil be thrown out of the pistons.
 
I'm sure that they used some form of catch tray that was likely part of the valve chamber cover to catch the oil for return to the oil tank. Most radial engines have a two stage oil pump or two separate pumps to scavenge oil out of the engine case and back to the oil tank and then provide oil to feed the oil system. Inverted engines likely use a similar set up. All of these type engines require pulling then through before first start to make sure no bottom cylinders are liquid locked.

The tankers that operated radial engine powered tanks had provisions to hand crank the engine through two full revolutions to do this. It's a lot easier to pull a prop through than to hand crank a big engine like that,
 
My dad and brother started building one back in the 90s. They had all the spars built and an engine ready. Then Mom found out. She gave them the ol' "Over My Dead Body" speech, and they ended up selling everything soon after.
 
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