Original Posted By: Ben Charvet
Thank you everybody for the congrats, and especially for the help andencouragement through the years.CONGRATULATIONS BEN!! What a funny coincidence, two in one day.Dan, he did not ask me to start it. I had called him up before hand aftersomeone mentioned it was a possibility. He said "I figure if it won'tstart, you won't fly very far". Super nice guy and a great experience, theguy actually had the mindset of a... public servant. He was very helpfuland informative and gave me lots of "inside tips" about various things.Gave me a huge test area, 75 mile radius. Lowell suggested I ask for a100yd wide strip up to Brodhead as it would probably be about the samesquare mileage!She's in my studio so we've got to take the wings off and get her to thestrip, reassemble and start her up. Been awefully cold here for too muchground running but I will be completely ready for the first decent days sowe can get all the bugs worked out and then, Mr. Lowell Frank will be comingdown to do the honors as he's probably got more Piet time than anyone alive,THANKS LOWELL!!FYI, the inspector said you CAN take passengers up during the test phase IFthey are "needed for the testing". So, for example, rather than a sandbag(a guy got killed recently when his sandbag shifted and blocked thecontrols) you can take someone up for a gross weight test. Or if you needsomeone to watch for traffic while you monitor gauges, he said that is okay.He said, just be sure you inform them they are participating in a testflight and be sure you LOG it prior to the flight and give the reason theyare there.Someone asked how long... I've purchased this project from Bill Marshallwho started it in 1991. He worked on it part of the year (did winters inFL) until around 2000 when he got sick. I bought it from him right beforehe died in 2002 and have been working on it since then. Had to tear down myengine once and built three sets of wheels and a second gas tank so I took afew steps backward, but finally made it... almost.Like everyone says, the trick is to just keep it moving forward, and areally good tip is to "try to touch it every day" even if you just spendfive minutes painting a part or sanding some edges or even sweeping theshop/hangar. Try to look at it as a bunch of little projects, like "thisweek I'm going to build a bunch of controls" and approach it like anindividual project. Building this plane was really just a LOT of littlebuilding projects which in the end go together to create somethingcompletely worth it.CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, and one day, you look at your "to do"list and it's allcrossed off.Thanks again.Douwe________________________________________________________________________________Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:21:52 -0500
Pietenpol-List: Thanks all! congrats BEN!!
Re: Pietenpol-List: Thanks all! congrats BEN!!
Original Posted By: airlion
Pietenpol-List: Re: Thanks all! congrats BEN!!
Original Posted By: "Jack Phillips"
Ben: Congrats to you for your diligent work, and you might ask your Wife if shedoesn't mind me helping her into the front seat of my OLD Piet I will give hera ride at Brodhead year 2010.Pieti LowellPS In spite of my old Piet and body I still get a kick flying with a passengerjust to see them smile, some times I get a peck on the cheek.Read this topic online here:http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.p ... __________
Ben: Congrats to you for your diligent work, and you might ask your Wife if shedoesn't mind me helping her into the front seat of my OLD Piet I will give hera ride at Brodhead year 2010.Pieti LowellPS In spite of my old Piet and body I still get a kick flying with a passengerjust to see them smile, some times I get a peck on the cheek.Read this topic online here:http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.p ... __________