Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/178050
H a t z Tr i c k this airplane to look like a production airplane circa 1933. I didn't want any aspect of it to have a modern vibe to it." Actually, it's impossible for a Hatz not to look old. Next to something like a Pitts, a Hatz looks like the Wrights or maybe Glenn Curtiss had a hand in designing it. Next to a Hatz, a Staggerwing looks like the Space Shuttle. Still, quite often the Hatz's overall antique feel is compromised through the use of new or modern details such as wheelpants, the engine, the instruments, or the paint. Mark Lightsey's life revolves around getting details right: He recognizes clearly that the details are what make any project. As it happens, the Hatz project predates Mark's antique restoration/replication business. In fact, this particular project predates just about everything aeronautical in his life except for his first airplane project in his late 20s: scratchbuilding a Corben Super Ace powered by a modified Model A Ford engine. It's a 1935 design and appeared old even when designed, so early on Mark's predilection for the ancient was showing through. Mark said, "I stuck as close to the plans as I could, including drilling the engine for a pressure oil system as part of the conversion. I was using plans from a 1935 Popular Aviation [magazine] including the Corben engine conversion stuff. That meant having to make a nose case to mount a thrust bearing. I went to night school to learn machining and hogged the case out of solid billet aluminum. Hardly old-school technology, but I like machining stuff and learning new skills. That's why I make it a rule to hang out with guys who know more than I do, so when I get stuck, I always know whom to call. "I learned to weld in night school and at EAA workshops and found it to be something I really like to do. I seem to have an affinity for rag-and-tube construction. Much more so than sheet metal. "I finished the Ace and got all of three flights on it before the Santa Ana winds kicked up and ate the airplane. But, the airplane bug had bit me pretty hard by then." Mark Lightsey used a super rare 0-290-3 Lycoming with a rear-mounted starter on his Hatz to achieve the look of a J-3 Cub on the nose. 16 Vol.2 No.9 / Sep tember 2013 Photography by Brett Brock