FAA Registration / Model Names

[Jon Matcho]

I found myself deep in this exercise after a discussion on the Canard Aviators and Cozy mailing lists. An attempt was being made to count the number of registered canards using the most official data source possible (in the United States) -- the FAA registry.

 

After searching for a while, I finally gave up seeking an accurate count, but here follows the byproduct of my adventure.

 

Using the VariEze and Long-EZ for examples, we can find that individuals have registered their aircraft many different ways (not accounting for extraneous hyphens and spaces between Vari and Eze variations):

 

VariEZ: 11

VariEze: 691 (the correct model name)

VeriEZ: 3

VeriEze: 18

VeryEZY: 1

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Total: 724

 

You would think a breakthrough aircraft such as this would have been spelled correctly.

 

Doing the same for the Long-EZ, we find:

 

Long-EZ: 576 (the correct model name)

LongEze: 123

LongEasy: 1 (I'm betting this one was named differently on purpose)

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Total: 700

 

I'll blame the presence of 123 LongEze occurrences on RAF, as they changed their brand from *Eze to *EZ -- very confusing to us dumbfolk.

 

But now lay your eyes on the mess that the Cozy folk live in (keep in mind that these too are WITHOUT consideration for hyphens and spaces):

 

Cosy: 1

Cosy Classic: 3 (correct model name)

Co-Z: 1 (the Cozy Mark III prototype)

Cozt: 1

Cozzi III: 1

Cozy: 74 (correct 3-place model name?)

Cozy 111: 1

Cozy 3: 1

Cozy 3 Place: 2

Cozy Canard III: 1

Cozy Cub: 1

Cozy III: 9 (correct 3-place model name?)

Cozy IV: 1

Cozy IV Plus: 1

Cozy JM MK III: 1

Cozy Long EZ: 1

Cozy Mark III: 1 (correct 3-place model name?)

Cozy Mark IV: 36 (correct 4-place model name)

Cozy Mark IV 2: 1

Cozy Mark 4: 2

Cozy MK 3: 2

Cozy MK 4: 2

Cozy MK III: 2

Cozy MK IV: 35

Cozy MK IV Modified: 1

Cozy Modified: 1

Cozy No 170: 1

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Total: 184

 

All we can hope for at this point is for everyone to at least name their models beginning with Cozy (unless, of course, you're building something else), although I do suspect that the 1 'Cozy Cub' is NOT a canard.

 

Reasons for the Cozy disparity again lie with the publisher -- freely interchanging 'MK' for 'Mark', '3/4' for 'III/IV', and not being too clear on the official name of the 3 place aircraft.

 

My point? Homebuilders can name the model of their aircraft anything they want. The MANUFACTURER is YOU, but the model can be the name of your favorite pet (or the model name provided in your plans).

 

I try to keep a very accurate list of canard aircraft names here, but now I am left wondering of the official name for the Cozy 3-place. Is it Cozy, Cozy III, or Cozy Mark III?

[Jon Matcho]

FYI. I just learned that when the Cozy 3-place was introduced as plans, it was simply known as "the Cozy". When the Cozy Mark IV was introduced, the original Cozy became the Cozy Mark III, or Cozy III (take your pick).