In his own words - BWB and the OMABP

My thanks to for the three URL's which cover the
subject on which Bill took me to task.

http://tinyurl.com/2kblp
http://tinyurl.com/3fcuj
http://tinyurl.com/245zz

For those avidly following this thread, it started with BWB asking for
information on when the latest Kitplanes magazine will hit the stands
as it includes an article in which Bill's wife took some pictures. He
remarked in the post: "You might recall that I was the test pilot on
that project about 8 years ago and started posting stuff here on the
flights I was making in it each day."

Well, I kind of did remember Bill posting about his time as a test
pilot, but my recollection was that after a couple of interesting
posts about how much fun it was, he began saying some pretty nasty
things about the OMABP and told us he wasn't flying it anymore.

So I asked him in the Kitplanes thread if this was in fact the same
airplane he wrote about. I said: "Is this the same airplane that you
trashed here in this group because of PSRU failures?"

Innocent enough I thought as I really did think I remembered him bad
mouthing the airplane. So I thought that perhaps something had
changed and maybe it was good news. But to be totally honest, I was
fairly certain that the remark was going be be enough to light Bill's
tail and send him ballistic, whether I liked it or not. Understanding
that, I asked my question anyway.

Bill responded pretty much as per usual these days, i.e. creatively
trashing the person he's unhappy with (me), but also questioning if he
actually did badmouth the PSRU, because today, he thinks it's a fine
piece of machinery, excellently designed and very reliable, and he
apparently did not remember saying bad things about it.

He ended up challenging me to find that past article he wrote because
he didn't think he could have written anything so blasphemous. He
said:

So, Corkman, where did I post that anything other than a belt in the
PSRU ever failed? Go find it and repost it here or you're just
another RAHian dork trying to discredit the fine work of a great team
of guys...the guys of the OMABP.

I accepted the challenge, although I did not personally know how to
find the old posts, I thought someone in the group might. I was
correct.

Bill, I am truly sorry to be the messenger, but you did ask, you did
say it and it's shown below in it's entirety.

********Begin message********

I sent you a message by email too Tom, but here's what's happening.
I'm out of the project and on to another one with an RV-6 with an
O-320 160 hp engine. I should be test flying it within a couple
months. I was associated with the OMABP for fun only. I didn't ever
have any interest in promoting auto conversions or selling this idea
for Jess Meyers. I flew it for the first 100 hours and we had a lot
of problems I never exposed. I just sort of wrote a lot of fun things
about the positive portions of the test flying. It got to the point
where I wanted many things changed and I had asked many questions that
were not answered to my satisfaction. The Old Men had no intentions
of changing anything the test pilot wanted. So, in my own mind I felt
that the risk to fly it was excessive and my feelings were clear to
Jess Meyers. When the airplane changed ownership from Glen Smith to
Jess Meyers, I stepped out of the cockpit for good.

If you want my personal feelings about the design this is it. I think
the engine is great. I think GM builds nearly a million of them each
year and if there were any real problems, they would have fixed them
long ago. The engine is not MY problem. It's the rest of it. I
don't trust the PSRU and I don't trust some of the other external
components. I'm worried about the bearings, I'm worried about the
flywheel, I'm worried about the prop, I'm worried about the coolant
system and I'm worried about the electrical wiring since it burned up
once. There were many things I wanted done before I would fly it
anymore and those things simply were not done. I made a big list and
many of those items were ignored. I felt that my life was worth more
than the thrill I got from test flying it and I made it known that I
had serious questions about the safety of the flight-test program.
When Jess bought the airplane, there were no words spoken, that was
just the end. Jess had no intention of modifying anything I wanted
modified and I had no intention of ever flying it unless these things
were done.

I'm not categorically saying that the airplane is dangerous although I
personally feel that it is. In fact I feel that it is terribly
dangerous. What I am saying is that I have questions that have not
been answered concerning the loads and design limitations of various
things which I felt were critical. This thing needs a mechanical
engineer, a structural engineer, a CAD-CAM guy and an aeronautical
engineer to put it on a dyno, measure it, model it, figure out where
the harmonics are, the reverse torsional vibrations are (RPM) and so
on. The OMABP is a garage operation. In my opinion, to do it right
you'd need about 20 million dollars to run a few to destruction and
take millions of data points. This and only this can prove the design
to be safe over a long haul.

If I were spending 3 years of my life to build an RV I would buy the
Lycoming from Van for $18K instead of the Vortec from Jess at $11K or
whatever they quote now. The other hardware for that airplane is
going to cost you $25 to $30K plus three years of your life. I
wouldn't scrimp on the engine to save $6 to $8K. No way.

I've watched this newsgroup for over 2 years now and many have come
and gone touting auto conversions. I think Bruce Frank and the boys
have something worth really looking at. But the OMABP project was
just a bunch of fun loving guys having fun tinkering with a toy that
someone else was paying for. People bitch about the Lycosaurs being
old technology. Well, so is the wheel and I use the wheel everyday.
It isn't that the engines are old, it's that the technology is old.
What improvements have there really been in GA in the last 40 years?
NONE. The problem was solved when they built the Bonanza in the late
forties for the average Joe-Shmo to have his own airplane. That
doesn't mean Bonanzas are no good, just because the technology is old.
There's lots of technology that's old which we use everyday. When the
problem is solved, it's solved, the physics doesn't change like the
style of a car each year.

Anyway. I'm a crazy ******* and I like to do some flight test at
times just to tingle my spine, but I opt for a Lycoming in an RV for
many reasons and safety is the foremost. I could go on all day about
what is wrong with Lycomings. But, I could go on all day long about
what I worry about with that Vortec too. At least the Lycoming has a
few million hours on it and the failure modes are pretty well
understood. I don't understand where that Vortec may fail next at
all.

I hope this clears it up a bit for many of you who followed my posts.
In a couple months I'll be back in the cockpit of an RV-6 with an
O-320 160 hp on it doing some more testing. I'll write it up and post
it here and I hope you all will enjoy it.

BWB

*************End of Quote*************

After categorizing all the things you thought were at fault in the
airplane, I'm not surprised that you decided to not pilot it anymore.
Heck, it made sense to me back in 1997 when you wrote it. Can you see
why, remembering what you'd said, I might be confused by your
Kitplanes post?

But it looks like you are now solidly behind the OMABP. I guess they
must be relieved. I think I am.

Corky Scott