What you Should Know about the Pietenpol 

in about 5 days our son, aged 13, will wake up and find a full set of piet plans under the Christmas tree. we were at osh this year, and he had that stopped-in-his-tracks moment, insisted on buying WW's piet weight and balance book, spent every spare moment of the week with his nose in it. mom and i really can't wait to see his face on this coming morning!

Back in 1967 I was 16 years old and working for my girl friends Dad.He was just getting started to build a Pietenpol.I asked if I could help with the build and he was glad to have a few extra hands on the project.That airplane was the beginning of my flying experience that still goes on today.

I am so happy to see so many folks building and flying Tailwheel aircraft! When I learned to fly, in the early 70's, I insisted on getting all my Initial training on tailwheel aircraft! And, at that time, the mostly 20 something instructors had ZERO experience in them! I had to find an out of the way grass strip, with "Old timers" in their 60's to train with! IT WAS FABULOUS! Still my best memories ever!

A neighbor at the airport where I grew up had one of these. He was a aerobatic pilot and I remember being in the front seat during some manouvers that the air camper definitely shouldn't have been doing:)

I bought a set of plans from Mr.Hoopman and he signed them and added a personal good luck comment on them . I was 17 years old back in 1981 ,the plans still remain in the tube waiting for the day to begin,life does get in the way for sure.

I've had my set of Piet plans for at least 10 years now. I finally am about done getting my shop set up in the new house that can accommodate the build.

My cousin, Mr. Herbert Rowley, of Leicester Ny. built 2 of these machines in his garage in the early 1970’s. One for the Air Scouts & one for him. His machine had a home-converted Corvair power plant, with a A/C tractor 6 cyl. mag. on it. The usual “Pete” colors, yellow & black, wonder what ever happened to them. He used to fly out of Dick Cleveland’s field, in Genesso. He was my hero, an old-school mechanic whom could make anything, and a damn good job of it to be proud of!

Love Dan Helsper's talk about the Piet. Very, very well spoken .Thank you Dan . In 1991 I purchased a GN-1 Aircamper ( Pietenpole with Piper wings and Continental 85 hp ) unfortunately, the previous owner had worked on the fuel delivery and installed the fuel line wrong and on a early flight it ran out of gas ( with over 12 gal on board0 and I dead sticked it into a fields .Didn't see that I was landing in a swale and hit the far side hard -collapsed the gear and flipped over.Broke my back , paralized from the arms down and slit my nose open. An angle appeared and flew me to the nearest airport where an ambulance was waiting and I was in emergency within 30 min of crashing. I was told my lungs had collapsed and I had a few minutes to live had I not been rescued. Told by the Dr. I would never walk again i started working hard to prove him wrong. A year later I won the Canadian national Sportsman Aerobatic championship in my Pitts Special. My accident was not the fault of th ePiet. It was my fault for not keeping my landing spot in sight and adjusting for the swale. Love the Piet and am considering building my own with the T engine. Dan's comments are inspiring. Thanks you . Dave

That black Pietenpol is one of the most beautiful airplanes I have ever seen, congratulations to the builder.

Family Stories - It was mentioned that Orrin Hoopman was a high schooler. Grandpa Orrin had an 8th grade education. He ordered the drafting tools from Sears and Roebuck. He courted by Grandmother by homebuilt airplane. The person that flew the plane with Bernard to The Cities was my Great Uncle Don Finke. I was told that Bernard taught him to fly in a day do he could make the trip. He went on to be a Northwest pilot for many, many years.

Got my sport pilot license in a Piet. Pretty challenging airplane to fly an land without wrecked it… especially on concrete with a crosswind.

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL ! What a work of art.

Just love that plane.... nice looking build ! The prop is awesome.

Dan, just saw the nice article in KITPLANES magazine this month (my first physical copy) about you building a gorgeous 4 blade prop. Thanks for the inspiration and keep on trucking!

Purchased my plans the week after OSH! Thanks for the great content and can't wait to get started on the build!

They used that Model A engine for everything! Great story, great plane with history!

I read that the designer tried different airfoils on the plane and found that the one he selected provided the best performance. That gave me confidence.

Thanks, a great review of the Pietenpol for the uninitiated...

thank you for the video

Nice video! Thanks for sharing...

Bought a Piet yesterday.... NH69 Ossipee, NH

I appreciate what they're doing and talking about this aircraft as I'm thinking I'm going to send in a retainer on one that I've looked at on the west side of Wisconsin. Well looked at in pictures and spoken with the owner over the phone. The only caution in this video is coming across like your slamming those who do purchase kits for experience reasons. I guess I'm a little sensitive to that because a good friend of mine is building a kit that is pretty drilled and there's still a tremendous amount of work involved in that. Fortunately he retired early and is able to get this airplane done in about 16 months and it would have been done in a year but he was building faster than he was able to get the series of kits from the manufacturer. Again. Great interviews on this airplane. I wanted one of these since I first saw them as a young kid. I currently have a Tailwind w10-8 and I plan to purchase one of these in addition to the tail end. Opposite ends of the spectrum flight wise but a purest form of flight in a way except maybe the glider guys might take issue that lol. Again just a caution about saying anything against or that could be taken as a slam to get builders themselves. Other than that great information. I did learn a few things especially about the corvair being the engine of choice later on. When I'm looking at is powered by a corvair.

Work of art

great video!

Hi Chris, My UC is coming along slowly. I don't have alot of time during the week , I have a super busy schedule. It's been a year for me, just little at a time. I buy mostly kit parts, the guys at Hummel are great. I am going to the gathering in October.

Great video!

There were quite a number of these built from Heathkits in the fifties. The flying magazines I read when I was a kid had ads for them. Really cheap too.

Bernie Pietenpol was a genius! Plans available almost 100 years later!

That's a beautiful airplane! My only concern is that if it pops a radiator hose, the pilot is going to get a face-full of scalding hot water.

beautifull

Nice little airplane. Thanks for all the info. Interesting. For it fly?

first time seeing one of those. sure would like to hear it run..( the old ford engine)..

think i would have moved that radiator fifty years ago .

What’s with the radiator , isn’t there suppose to be a wind screen where the radiator is? How do you see?

Ive helped stich a few ribs

Going a step further I believe last I heard some of Bernards Grandchildren are offering not only the plans but also a precut kit of wooden parts still tabbed or attached pin 4X 8 foot sheets of Plywood BTW that system is very common in Wooden Boat building and the use of CNC routing Machinery RU-vid has plenty of videos from Chesapeake Light Craft Company that shows their kits being made and how the process works I’ve also heard that there are many engine options for the Aircampers now available from the Corvair ,VW based , the Bombardeir 2 Strokes and even a Mazda Rotary engine that people have outfitted into these planes

Thats it. I am building one. What type of spruce, and are there other wood species you can use? I have a saw mill and am going to collect the logs, mill the wood, and build the plane.

Buying a kit is the best way to go, if thats what YOU like the best. If someone ask, "Did you build this yourself"? You could tell them you built it yourself, even though you assembled the parts, that someone else built for you, and thats ok. If you bought some plans, and actually did build it from scratch and were asked the same question, you could say, " Yes I did".

Beautiful piece of work, but that radiator sticking up in front of the cockpit no only obstructs forward vision, but it seems to me it creates a scald hazard if the radiator or a coolant hose let go.

12:21 Is that a Ford Trimotor taking off behind the guy talking?

❤

I want to build one with st croix aerial supplemental biplane plans seem cool and would make a splash at Oshkosh

I wonder if you could mount up a aircooled harley davidson in one.

not an expert but can the radiator be put below/under the engine instead ? i mean under the nose.

E se o radiador fosse posto abaixo do motor, liberando a vista frontal e melhorando a aerodinâmica?

Having a radiator (or really anything) blocking my forward view would drive me nuts, but then I'm not a tail-dragger enthusiast. To each their own, though!

Couldn't the design incorporate a horizontal radiator, like an Albatross?

I was wondering why the radiator could not be mounted on top of the wing

What's the take off speed of the pietenpol?

Where do you find a model A engine today?

Has anyone ever widened the fuselage 1 foot to make it a 3 seat, like some wacos or spartans?

Definitely drop that rad down behind the prop at an angle with a nice protective grill. No Way would I have Hot Coolant up in front of me just waiting to leak or overheat & blow . No Way ......

Eye of beholder?

There is a steel-tube fuselage plan out there somewhere. Have one of those CNC fuselage tube cutting companies create a kit of perfect fitting tubes to weld yourself or hire a fabricator. Spend the $ to have a factory quality steel frame that's twice as strong, and better in a crash. Save yourself countless hundreds of hours and months of work, gain potential airframe longevity and strength to fit more powerful engines, Conti 65 from a cub, etc. Or just do it the original way and find a Model A Ford Engine. But that's really not ideal, IMO.

Just bought a Piet 2 months a go... NH69

damnit, I'm a complete speed demon. When I heard the guy say that it cruises at 80 that put me off... I'm on a huge budget, but still want to go fast. I'll never be satisfied until I break Mach 1.1

I'm gonna throw a Subaru engine in my plane once its finished, hope it'll work

should not show the prop bolt safety wire close up ! What a piece of history !

Can an amateur built experimental plane be sold?

And Yes, back to...... darn what was that phrase again ??? 😁😁

1 minute in and 2 adverts??

Looks like one of the prop bolts at about the 3 o'clock location is incorrectly safety-wired.

people were just more capable back then. there are a lot of reasons for this, but it's so sad to see how far we've really fallen. Pietenpol made an airplane with no plans and used a regular car engine to power it, then when he wanted to show plans, he hires a literal child taking a drafting class to make his plans he would actually show others. think about all dozen or so reasons why that would be impossible to do. Not nearly impossible, I mean it would not happen. Not a gifted student that he knew was special and capable or whatever. it was just some random high school student. this kills me.

What should you know about the Pietenpol? There is no dihedral in the wing. Just like the Ryan Spirit of St. Louis, the spar is flat.

Hi

Not a true parasol wing.

I wouldn't fly behind a Corvair engine for anything.

Oh, boy. Is this you? Please keep your creepy self in California.

Not a fan of old designs. Imagine driving a model T today instead of a Tesla Model 3.