Loren Smith’s Panzl S-330

oren Smith has had a love for airplanes and flying since childhood. As a youngster, he remembers riding his bike to the nearby Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota International Airport, then known as Wold-Chamberlin Field and watching planes like the Stratocruiser and National Guard P-51’s coming and going. Loren got his private certificate in the late 1960s and flew at the University of Minnesota flight school. He currently holds a commercial certificate with CFI, CFII, and MEI ratings.

Loren became interested in aerobatics after a few trips to Oshkosh in the early 1980s. He found an instructor at Flying Cloud Airport who offered a basic 10-hour aerobatic course in a Citabria. His name was Marv Dahgren; a well respected area pilot who flew Corsairs at the end of WWII. Marv had developed an excellent 10 hours basic aerobatic course designed around the Citabria. Soon after, Loren bought into a Super Decathlon partnership and did a lot of flying in that airplane. In September 1993 he took delivery of a new Pitts S-2B. Before Loren bought the S-2B, he traveled to Florida and flew with Bill Thomas and Clint McHenry because he wanted to learn everything he could from those gifted pilots. Loren said, “The time with Bill Thomas and Clint McHenry was invaluable.”

Loren first competed in June 1994 at Salem, Illinois. “Flying at the Salem contest was a big thrill for me. It was the first IAC competition I had ever been to.” Loren flew Sportsman and was astonished to win first place and the highest scoring first-time Sportsman trophy. Loren honed his competition skills by becoming further involved at contests. “I learned that the best way to understand what the judges are looking for in the competition game is to become a judge yourself. Besides, being on the judging line at a contest is a lot of fun. I decided that becoming a national judge was important in order to learn more about judging, to be able to judge at the big contests, and to help out by acting as chief judge.

In 1998, Loren volunteered to do the tabulations for the L. Paul Soucy Award, which is presented annually to the pilot who in the previous year’s competition season achieved the highest percentage of points scored. While tabulating the Soucy Award, he also tabulates flight scores for all pilots at IAC sanctioned contests during the contest season. “I know how important the rankings are to competition pilots and I am pleased to provide the information.”

Since he was already figuring the winner of the L. Paul Soucy award and the pilot rankings, Loren decided to volunteer to run the awards program for the IAC. In this role, Loren annually requests nominations from the membership each spring for the most prestigious awards for our club: The Frank Price Cup, The Robert L. Heuer Judging Award, The Harold E. Neumann Chief Judges Award and the Kathy Jaffe Volunteer Award. Loren collects the nominations and organizes them for balloting by the IAC Board of Directors. These awards are presented annually at the U.S. Nationals awards banquet.

In December 1998 Loren had the opportunity to fly a Staudacher, which was for sale, and was really impressed with it. “When I found out that Greg Panzl was going to build a derivative of the Staudacher, I thought that would be a terrific opportunity. I’d already seen the quality of workmanship that Greg put into earlier projects and I knew Greg would carefully consider every construction detail to produce a really well built aircraft. Greg and I worked out the details and I would become the owner of the first Staudacher derivative. I sold my Pitts in 1999 and waited impatiently as the very first Panzl was constructed.”

Greg Panzl began working on airplanes at an early age. He helped restore a Piper Tri-Pacer with his father, Bruce Panzl, when he was 13, motivated by the desire to learn to fly. Greg began building racecars in high school, started restoring antique and classic airplanes and eventually earned and A&P certificate. He became interested in the Staudacher design while attending aerobatic contests in Bay City, Michigan where Jon Staudacher is based. “We got to see his airplanes and I fell in love with the shape and the size. The profile of the airplane just looks monstrous. I really like the look. I bought an airplane from Jon and my brother, Chris, also ordered one that was built at the same time. I flew that for a couple years and just loved it. I was always a builder and loved working on airplanes. One day Jon mentioned that he wasn’t interested in building the same airplane over and over and we talked about not wanting to let the design go away because it’s a great airplane. I worked out a deal with Jon and started in building the first airplane.”

Greg’s company, Wingtip to Wingtip is located in Onsted, Michigan. He has a private strip with a large hangar plus a big shed to fabricate the airplanes, although he’s not interested in doing mass production. “I like doing custom airplanes and I want to support this airplane. When they leave they’re still my airplanes! I have a big attachment. I’m talking to Loren weekly. I’m pretty selective—I want it to be the right airplane for the right person. We’ve built number 2; it’s already sold and being flown. We’re working on number 3, which has already been purchased and will be done in a couple months. Number 4 is looking for an owner.”

Loren visited Greg couple of times during the construction process. They talked a lot about the details, but the main thing was the paint scheme. Loren would send Greg a paint scheme in the mail and the next day Loren would call me and say, “Throw that one away, I’ve got a new one.” Greg would get the new one in the mail and three days later he’d get another call from Loren saying, “Throw that one away, I’ve got a new one.” Greg says picking a paint scheme is the hardest part of working with customers!

Loren took delivery of his airplane in July 2000. He found the transition from the S-2B to the Panzl quite easy. “I don’t have a tremendous amount of experience in different types, but I think it’s one of the most docile airplanes I’ve ever flown. It’s easier to fly and even easier to land than a Champ. You come over the fence at around 70 knots. Stall speed is right around 59-60 knots. It has an excellent landing attitude so you’re close to a full stall for a three-point landing. If you look at the pilot’s seating position in relation to the canopy and the wing, the visibility is awesome. I’ve been in Extras and the Edge, where you’re sitting way down in the fuselage and the wing location is higher. The view is so much better in the Panzl. It makes it nice for flying in the pattern, landing and for ground handling. Takeoffs and landings are easier compared to the S-2B because the Panzl is not as squirrelly on the ground. If you can fly a B or a single seat Pitts you can easily fly this airplane.”

Loren found getting used to the speeds the Panzl flies through the box and the rate at which it rolls was quite a learning experience. “You have to catch up to the airplane. The roll rate is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. When I first test flew the airplane I wanted to know how fast it went around so I decided to do a snap roll. It broke into the snap so fast, even bracing myself, I still banged my head on the canopy. After thoroughly exploring the flight envelope, I haven’t found any nasty characteristics. It is completely predictable in every aspect of flight. Some airplanes will spin easily when you botch a figure, but in this airplane you can do something really stupid and get all torqued out of shape, it doesn’t go into a spin, it has so much power, it just wants to keep on flying - from any attitude. The pilot position in relation to the wing makes for great visibility. The pilot sits nine feet behind the prop. You can look down and see the box markers coming up below and beneath the aft part of the wing so you don’t need to look through panels in the belly. That’s a big deal for contest flying and it’s wonderful.”

Not only does it roll fast but Loren’s Panzl also makes quick work of getting to contests. Throttled back to 21 inches and 2200 rpm nets 140 knots in cruise at about 13 gallons per hour. In straight and level flight at full power the Panzl will easily go 200 mph (Vne is 240 mph). A 23 gallon main tank and 21 gallons in each wet wing provides more endurance than the pilot’s bladder and butt can take.

The Panzl’s fuselage is constructed with 4130 tubing. Fabric covers the area behind the cockpit with a removable turtle deck that’s made out of carbon fiber. The front panels and cowling are carbon fiber. All fuselage panels are removable for maintenance making it easy to inspect. The heart of the airplane, the wing, is the same as John Staudacher’s design. The wing features an all-wood box spar with some carbon fiber inlays for strength in the spars. The wing skin is 1/8-inch plywood covered with fabric. The tail feathers are tubular construction covered with fabric and braced with flying wires. Spades on the rudder make it really light with good centering characteristics. The landing gear is aluminum. Greg builds everything in-house with the wheels, canopy, and flying wires outsourced.

Greg also built the Lycoming IO-540-G1D5 that powers Loren’s airplane. This is an angle valve Lycoming engine that was used in the Aerostar twin engine aircraft. It produces an honest 330 hp and is equipped with 10 to 1 pistons. Dual engine oil coolers and some modifications to the oiling system help keep things cool during the rigors of aerobatic flight. An MT propeller is mounted in front of the stout Lycoming. Loren’s airplane weighed in at 1285 pounds with a gross aerobatic weight of 1650 pounds.

With all that capability Loren says Greg gives him a hard time if he doesn’t win a contest. “He calls me and says how’d you do? Third? What’s wrong with you? He knows the airplane can easily win, it’s all up to the pilot.”

For IAC awards nominations and pilot rankings contact:

Loren Smith

651-698-3682

loren@limasierra.com

Greg Panzl can be reached at:

Wingtip to Wingtip

7453 M-50

Onsted, MI 49265

517/467-7420

wingtiptowingtip@aol.com