Wayne, Bob and Jeff
Here's a bit of background on our Piet. The plane is owned by Bob Boatright, Wayne Whitaker, and Jeff Boatright. In August of 2005, Wayne and I flew into Rochester, NY, loaded the Piet into the largest Penske truck available, and drove it back to Atlanta.
Our Piet was originally built in 1976 by W.D. Hartway in upstate New York. It may have originally been a shop class project. The
workmanship is very good - all joints tight, everything true. The plane has always been
hangared; fabric and paint are still in top
shape. It has a three-piece wing, split-axle gear, unknown motorcycle wheels with brakes from same. The original A65 only had about 350 hrs
SMOH, but had low oil pressure. We've now replaced it with a C-75. We've just re-plumbed the fuel system so now the wing (12 gal) and
fuselage tank (14 gal) are useable. We did it similar to an Aeronca system in which the wing tank refills the fuselage tank.
The owner partnership is a good fit. I have several Piet movies uploaded at
http://www.youtube.com. Just search on "Pietenpol".
Jeff
We had a hard landing in the
Piet. For those of you following the
drama, I can't lay claim to that particular landing (but my previous
landings caused the tail gear to collapse).
I have attached some photos of the damage. Basically, the front left
gear strut was forced up into the fuselage, putting a twist in the
longeron (cracked it slightly) and pretty much breaking the
surrounding plywood floor and gusset.
After the repair it's looking better then ever. (Got to love that propeller!)
