Dear Paul,

I would like to sign up for your newsletter.  I have met you several
times at Sun 'n Fun.  I bought a partial BD-4 last year.  I drove out to
Fountain Valley to visit my son and his family for a few days, then
picked up the fuselage (pretty much complete firewall aft but without
wings) and towed it back to NH.

I want to put it on floats and power it with a Mazda rotary, hoping to
get 200 HP from it.  I have located four RX-7's in a local salvage yard,
one Gen 1 and three 13-B's.  I like the idea of fuel injection.  Your
thoughts on the 13-B versus the Gen 1 please?

Thank you very much.  And thank you for all the work you do helping
people get rotary engine power into their aircraft.

Sincerely,

Gerry Hanscom

I know where you might be able to get a set of wings.
One needs minor repair. Bob do you still have your wings? Are you willing
to sell them?

I would stick with the 13B. The RX7 gen one (12A) is smaller displacement and
lower power.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

Hi Paul,

I'm not willing to sell assembled parts off of the plane because of a
liability agreement with the original builder.  Besides both fuel tanks
developed leaks after that landing.  They would probably be more work
to fix than just building new ones.

Gerry,

Please, please reconsider putting floats on your BD-4.  This plane has
a fairly high wing loading, a relatively high stall speed and sinks
like a rock without power.  These characteristics are not a good match
for floats.  The only attempt I've heard of to use floats on a BD-4
resulted in the pilots death on the first flight.

Bob W.