Clasic Legal Design

Can anyone out there tell me if the Gypsy design by Jim Silhavy is legal for Classic PA. I know that there were several different models in the series from a Fox 35 powered 550 sq. in. model to a 640 sq. in. one powered by a ST 40.

Alan,

Bob Hunt reported on RCO about two years ago that the large version of the Gypsy 630-40 square inches is classic legal. The earlier version 550 square inches circa 1966 is definitely classic legal. The only question was about the larger one circa 69-70 that Bob Hunt said was OK for classic.

Jim Pollock

P.S. I have the plans from Dixon myself and have been considering building one myself. It is the last plane built by my late flying buddy Mike Thompson.

I have a question, perhaps someone here can answer it definitively.

What properly qualifies a Classic legal design? I had previously believed that it had to be kitted and/or published before a cutoff date. Is that still the case, or can a design that was never published or kitted be Classic legal, with some certification that it was actually built/competed/?? before the cutoff date?

Thanks,

Larry,

The Classic rules now say Kitted, Published or Designed. If you can prove it existed or even was designed before 31 Dec 1969 and no modifications to the design were incorporated during construction it is classic legal. Let's get somewhat real here - If I were to show up at a contest with a Warden Continental the CD would have every right to DQ it. The plane was designed and built in 1971, but really - in every other sense the plane is as classic a design as can be had. I don't see any harm in letting some of the 1970-1972 planes that are classic in every sense get flown in classic events. The rules as they exsist now eliminate some really neat planes that are ultimately classic in every sense. Just my rant on the subject of classic legal.

Thanks Jim,

Strange you mentioned Tom Warden's Continental, that was precisely one of the ships I was thinking of, which is very classic looking and outside the window dates.

Another Warden design that I'd love to have plans for is the Minado. This photo of it at a VSC many years ago looks a little muddy to get it under 50K bytes for posting:

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(The ship is finished in a gorgeous metallic transparent salmon color. I heard he had a pretty blue one too..)

I think it may be Classic legal (it was at a VSC), and I forget if anyone said they might have had the plans.

Thanks for clarifying this. Another candidate is Bill Melton's lovely Uncle Sam, which meets the design deadline but was never published or kitted.

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Best regards,