I am one of those lucky guys who have decided to build a corvair powered airplane and have a very close neighbor, Jim, who knows corvairs and has the recourses. This also weighed into my decision to use a corvair motor in my aircraft. He is not a vair person per se but does have an aviation background and I just feel really fortunate to have his knowledge and help so close by. He is going to pick out a nice 110 hp core for me and I will get to work. I was also able to acquire an RK case that has had some conversion work already done to it. I'm not yet sure if I will use it but it is nice to have options. I've done some pricing research on a complete FWF corvair and I'm thinking this will cost about $12K-14K. This may sound high to some people but I think this is pretty close when you consider using premium top of the line parts. On first look this is getting pretty close to the Jabiru at $20K complete. Considering the total cost of the aircraft at around $50K, the difference is about 10%. That figure seems almost insignificant but I'm counting on savings in the long run. Corvair parts are relatively cheap. I don't know who long I'll keep the aircraft but if I decide to hang on to it this will pay large dividends in the future. Resale value may suffer a bit from the corvair engine installation, but I think it is the right way to go for me, considering the resources I have.
