Hello from Kansas City - New LSA build starting...

[spudspornitz]

Spud Spornitz here in Olathe, KS (Suburbs of Kansas City)

I’m scratch building a Bearhawk LSA L-148
E-mail: spudspornitz@gmail.com
Cell: 913-484-0508

I’ve been a member of the forum for a while, but have gone thru a DELAYED retirement (Grin) and I am getting started later than hoped so I purchased the Tubing kit, Rib & spar kit & gear legs from Mark at Bearhawk Aircraft (Beautiful stuff!!!). Right now… I’m leaning towards the Corvair engine.
Visitors are always welcome, but not much to look at as of April 2021 as I’m just now getting rolling.
Also, any suggestions or ideas will always cheerfully be accepted.

Very Best Regards, Spud

[davzLSA]

Hi Spud welcome aboard. Im building an LSA with a Corviar also. I have lots of pix on my thread DavzLSA. Feel free to check it out. Questions and comments are welcomed.

[spudspornitz]

Hi David and thanks for the welcome!! I did check out your thread and see you are nicely along with your project (75% done and 75% to go!! - grin) and yes with your permission I certainly will have questions.

Another question, forgive me I'm still Bearhawk Forum Boot Camp...but what do the "Subscription. Subscriber and Subscribe" do?? Is there a cheat sheet on using the system somewhere??

Regards, Spud in KC

[jaredyates]

If you subscribe to a thread, you will get email notifications of new replies in that thread.

[davzLSA]

Hey Spud, what Jared said!!! I have never used it. But I am honored that you subscribed to my thread. And I will be happy to attempt to answer any question you have. I am by no means an expert and there are plenty of guys here that have much more experience than me. I recommend you look at the thread by BTAZ. He built his LSA in 3 years. I looked to his thread a lot to get as far as I have.

[David Swartzendruber]

Spud, there are two of us that I'm aware of building LSA's down in the Wichita area. I haven't really started on the airframe yet as I'm finishing up some non-aircraft projects to free up my schedule. I hope to begin in earnest this fall and scratch-build some wings followed by purchasing a fuselage kit. I have already done some work on a Corvair engine build to use in my LSA.

[spudspornitz]

Hi David S.
Nice to meet you, keep us posted on you project and one of the only reasons I'm finally getting start on this project as the wife as RAN OUT of her projects to give me to do (Grin!!!)

Regards, Spud in KC

[Bacon]

Hi Spud. The corvair sounds like a smooth little engine for the LSA. Good luck with the build!

[Patrol28]

>>deleted.

[PropMan]

Welcome to the LSA Spud! I'm building an LSA Quickbuild with an O200. Its an Awesome Plane. The Corvair is a neat engine and sounds awesome. You will give up some climb performance, just the nature of a faster turning engine with small diameter prop. Fortunately the engine mount is worked out for you. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

[schu]

My concern with the Corvair engine is that needs RPM to run, I've read something like 3100RPM. That would probably force the builder to run a cruise prop instead of the climb prop you might find on a Continental engine.

From my reading, it looks like most Corair engines run a 66" Warp Drive prop. That's a lot shorter than the 72" Sensenich that a lot of people run on a 65HP J3 cub.

If I was going to run an experimental engine (or at least not made up of Continental parts) on a bush plane, I'd consider something with a gear box so that I could gear the thing down enough to run al larger prop, but my mission for a tiny little airplane would be gravel bars, so YMMV.

schu

[spudspornitz]

Thanks for the welcome guys and I appreciate the input, all valid info to digest. One of the reason to use the Corvair is economics me, I'd think long & hard if the right deal came along on a 0-200 Continental, BUT I'm not certainly scared of the Corvair at all.

Regards,
Spud in KC

[Patrol28]

Don't want to start a debate but if economics is driving you to a corvair the prices to build one right are in the lycoming/continental range. My friend put a corvair on a Pietenpol and it was nice and smooth but he started from scratch and had a lot of money in it.

[David Swartzendruber]

This may be getting a bit off topic for this post, so I apologize if I am straying too far in the subject matter, but I'd like to say something about rpm for Corvair flight engines. I like to view it as having more freedom to operate at the best rpm. With a Lyc or Continental, your redline sets the limits of how fast you can turn the engine. Some people in the experimental world will operate their engine beyond redline to gain performance. I've heard that even Bob Barrows likes to run his LSA engine past the certified redline. The 3.3L configuration of the Corvair has dyno results showing 119hp at 2800rpm, 125hp at 3300rpm and even with 1 cylinder intentionally disabled, it produced 99hp at 2700rpm. If I choose to, I'll be able to match Lyc O-235 performance at Lyc O-235 rpms but at a weight a little less than a Cont O-200. Prop efficiency is one factor in aircraft performance, but if aircraft performance is the goal, factors other than prop efficiency should also be considered. Increased hp at higher rpms can possibly have more benefit than the decrease in prop efficiency. I don't know where that crossover point will be in my aircraft, but I'll have a fair amount of freedom to find that sweet spot. Now back to work.

[davzLSA]

The corvair flight engine is de-rated to run at 3100 RPM for max hp. The car can run all day long at 6000 RPM so the 3100 RPM is not stressing the engine. And with the ground adjustable warp drive prop the performance can be tailored to where and how you fly. As William Wynne will tell anyone the corvair is not for everyone. So you pay you money and make your own choices.