Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: Oscar Zuniga
Hello to all. You do not know me, but I know most of you from all of the post tothe board over the last 10 years. It is the high light of my day to get home fromwork to find out what has been going on in the Pietenpol world. I have monitoredthis list since before Mike C built his blue plane, Corkey started his first one,or Steve E flew from Utah. I purchased a partial built plane from Jim Markel.Avery year at this time I dream of flying to Brodhead, but my wife and I have ouranniversary during the meet. This year I have finally got the OK to go.I will not be in a Pietenpol but will be flying a blue and white 172 Cessna with my 25year old son, Cody. We should be there on Wednesday after noon. Our plan is tostay through the meet and heed to Oshkosh on Sunday.I will enjoy getting to putaface with all of the good people on the list. Thank you for allowing me to followalong on all of you building adventures. Until we meet, I hope you have clearsky, smooth air, and steady tail winds.Dean ElliottPampa,Texas---- Msg sent via CableONE.net MyMail - http://www.cableone.net________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By: "Lagowski Morrow"
I'll relate my experience with fuel shutoff valves (on-off). Corkyhad a genuine Cessna part on the airplane when I got it. Quarter-turn, plug style.Image at http://www.flysquirrel.net/piets/repairs/P1080006.JPGI made the mistake of dismantling it for cleaning, which was a goodthing because water had taken its toll on the steel spring over time,but the bad part was that it took a real trick to get it back togetheragain. But the bottom line is that despite overhauling it, it weepedfrom the stem and there are blue fuel stains on the front cockpitfloor to show that. I needed to change it but didn't want acomparable Cessna part... $480!!!Next attempt was a quarter-turn ball valve from Lowe's, with male NPTthreads on one end and female on the other. Kind of a polished orchrome finish. I found it in the compressed air accessory sectionand it seemed to be no different from similar valves thatwere rated water-oil-gas and this is a very low pressure application.Price was right. Valve started leaking after about 30-40 hours.Latest attempt uses the brass body 1/4-turn ball valve that bothWicks and Aircraft Spruce offer. It has female NPT threads both endsand I modified the handle by adding a shaped tab to allow the samefuel shutoff cable to act on the handle with proper leverage becausethe geometry was different from the Cessna valve. So far, so good.The valve was probably ten bucks and is a very common configurationfor ball valves but I haven't seen any that small at my local hardwarestores.Oscar ZunigaAir Camper NX41CCSan Antonio, TXmailto: taildrags(at)hotmail.comwebsite at http://www.flysquirrel.net________________________________________________________________________________