Leesburg, Florida-Based Chapter Hosted The Corvair College Workshop

From March 28 through the 30th Corvair engine aficionados from all over the county converged on the EAA hangar with their engines, parts, tools and a combined knowledge of how to convert these 1960s something automobile motors into finally tuned aircraft power plants. Their ages ranged from those with gray hair to teenagers.

The objective is to find one of these air-cooled 6 cylinder engines then take it apart, clean it, see what parts can be salvaged and rebuild it. Hopefully it will not need too many new parts to turn it into a reliable piece of machinery to power a home built airplane. Much elbow grease and patience is needed just to get them apart to see what condition the engine is in and how much of a project it will be to get it running again suitable for flight.

The instructor for the college was William Wynne from Orange Park, Florida who arrived with boxes of parts and a wealth of knowledge that he passed on to his students. He is considered the Corvair engine authority by the aviation community and runs several of these workshops each year around the country.

There were about forty people working on engines, testing them or talking about them. The participants were from all over the United States. They ranged from Alaska to Florida. There were several father son teams who were working on engines to put into home built aircraft.

(Image provided by EAA Chapter 534)

FMI: www.534eeachapter.org, www.flycorvair.com