There is a new subdivision south of the Brodhead Airport. The developer has good taste, at least in road naming. Here's a 1903 photo of the subdivision area.

If you are going to fly a Model "A" or Corvair engine in a Pietenpol, you better know your carburetor. So listen up as Terry Oberer conducts a seminar on "A" carbs, "B" carbs and Tillotsons. (Pietenpol used the "B" carb on his Model "A's" and Tillotsons on his Corvairs.)

Here's an older article about the building of an "A"-powered Pietenpol.

Larry Williams built and flies this "A"-powered beauty: This photo was not taken at Brodhead..

The last two airplanes Mr. Pietenpol built were Corvair-powered. He pronounced them "the smoothest powered ships I ever flew." His personal ship is Corvair-powered; it can be seen at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh.

Click on the Subaru for a sad but amusing story.

PEDAL PIETS There were a couple of very nice "Pedal Piets" tied down on the flight line.

On Saturday, Gary Karner fired up his replica of the BLERIOT XI MONOPLANE The most efficient plane of its day, the Bleriot XI was an inspiration for a decade of monoplane design. Louis Bleriot piloted the XI, open cockpit and all, during his famous English Channel crossing on July 25, 1909. His achievement was widely publicized and everyone from sportsmen to the military lined up to buy the Bleriot XI. More than 130 models were built before being phased out after the early part of WWI. Wingspan: 25 ft. 6 in., Length: 26 ft. 3 in., Height: 8 ft. 10 in., Weight: 661 lbs.

7/29/04 Hi Grant, Good to hear from you. How was Brodhead? No reports yet except your photos. I tried to make it but got held up my weather. Took me 5 days and 20 hours of flying time to make it to Hutchinson Kansas on Wednesday morning. I was stuck on the ground until Sunday morning with weather problems, just flew home. My gps showed 1872 NM for the trip, must be around 40 hours. I had 120+ temps in Arizona and low 50 in Kansas. I have made the trip 2 times in a 150, once in Stinson 108 and 3 times in the Fly Baby, never held up more than one day. My luck with weather just didn't hold out this time. GN-1 did a great job; only problem was hot starts at high altitude, same problem with the Fly Baby. At those times I wish I had a starter or had more people that knew how to prop. The plane got a lot of attention at any airport that had people on it. Surprising how many knowledgeable airplane people, even in the Midwest, had never heard of a Pietenpol. So I did some educating on my stops. Mike Madrid mike_madrid@msn.com Hi Mike, I was there for a couple of hours on Saturday. The rest of the trip I spent at Lake Lauderdale with friends. Lots of people asked about you. I assured them you "were on the way." Too bad about the weather. -=Grant=- PS: 2003 Brodhead Photos

(7/30/04) Mike: Sorry to hear that you made it so far and yet wasn't able to complete the trip. This year's event went very well and was the biggest we have had. From a people standpoint, we were certainly overwhealmed. Both evening meals sold out earlier that we had experienced in the past. There were fourteen Pietenpols by my count with the possibility that several more may have come and gone without being counted. We had also invited Luscombes and Hatz biplanes. There were nine Luscombes and eight biplanes including John Hatz's prototype. Approximately 25 old cars arrived for lunch -- most on Saturday and some on Sunday. We had a large number of other types use Brodhead as a stopover on the way to OSH. One of the highlights was the flyover of Chris Price's Heath on floats. Saturday morning Chris and his Dad trailered the airplane to a lake northwest of Brodhead and proceeded to fly the airplane off of the lake on the homemade floats Chris made over the last winter. Chris had flown the airplane back in February on skiis at our annual Chili flyin. Neat! (Here is a July, 2003 photo by Michael Cuy of Chris Price's Heath near Brodhead. ... gem) A Hisso Jenny was trailered in from somewhere in the Bay area, assembled, and flown quite a bit prior to a Sunday morning departure for Oshkosh. The owner had his pilot give quite a few people a ride. Hope this helps expand a bit upon the pictures ... Gar Williams aerocraft@aol.com Naperville, Illinois

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