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Pitts stuff

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Guido Lepore

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Heading out to my first contest of the year and thought I should fix an annoying oil leak first. Cracked Crankshaft. Dang. After 10 years of just gas and oil. 'Course you always want to put it back better than you took it apart. Last year I flew the WolfPitts (build by Steve Wolf for Norm Willis, now owned by Bob Higbee - world's most expensive Pitts) in an Unlimited Contest against some Edge 540's. Won the Unknown, came second overall, and fell in love with the airplane.


Like Chris McMillen I've been thinking about "Wolfing" my S1 ever since. Steve "Wolfed"his wife's S1 last yearand I'm going to have a look at it at Arlington next week. I guess it is a sister ship to Chris McMillen - RV gear,Wolf cowling, TwistedComposites prop, etc. I see on Steve Wolf's web page that he now sells cowling and gear kits for the S1, for about $2500 each. For the gear kit you just send him your engine mount and he sends it back with the gear, including carbon fibre wheel pants and fairings.


I guessed that the gear would be heavier than stock S1 gear, but probably there's a net gain in performance. After the pain of the new engine subsides I may go for it next.


I'm still on my trustworthy Sensenich 76-60, but got excited when Steve mentioned he put a Twisted Composites on his wife's plane. Thanks Chris for the information, 76-62 sounds about right. Is the Twisted Composites the same cost as a Catto? Anybody try a Catto? Up here in the Northwest if you can't fly through rain you won't get to too many contests. The metal is good for the rain, but I'm just a littlenervous about gyroscopics since my crank let go, and if a composite prop was working out I'd seriously want to look at it. Sensenich weighs 32 lbs vs the 17 I heard for the composite.


GuidoEdited by: Guido Lepore
 

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