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Chapter 13


DouglasHolub

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I put a Cozy Mark IV nose strut and a Wilhelmson electric nose lift on my Velocity.  I broke it when I landed badly a few months ago, and I'm installing the new strut now.  I'd like to see what the Cozy Mark IV plans look like.  I'm sure they're copyrighted.  Is there any legal way I could look at chapter 13 without spending too much money?

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The cozy IV nose gear is very similar the the Long-ez and the EZ plans are here in the Open-ez thread but neither shows the electric gear. They are drawn for a manual gear. I don’t know much about Velocity but my impression is they carry a lot more weight on the nose gear than the Rutan airplanes. You broke the strut? I would guess you need to make a bigger stronger strut than the Featherlite strut.

-Kent
Cozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold

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I put a Cozy Mark IV nose strut and a Wilhelmson electric nose lift on my Velocity.  I broke it when I landed badly a few months ago, and I'm installing the new strut now.  I'd like to see what the Cozy Mark IV plans look like.  I'm sure they're copyrighted.  Is there any legal way I could look at chapter 13 without spending too much money?

So..... how did you install a COZY MKIV strut / electric gear on your plane if you didn't have the COZY MKIV plans to work from?

 

In any case, if you don't have a set of plans, find a COZY builder/flyer somewhere near you in OK (yes?) or TX or KS or NM, etc. and take a look at theirs. Or spend $500 and buy them from ACS, or find someone with an electronic PDF copy of the Aerocad plans for Chapter 13 (hint) and ask them (via private email) to send you a copy (via private email). The Aerocad plans are functionally identical to the COZY MKIV plans.

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The maximum weight on my nose gear is 295 lbs.  Is that more than a Cozy Mark IV sees?  My empty weight is 1295 lbs, admittedly less than any Velocity that I am aware of.  In any case, I'm very pleased with the performance of the Featherlite strut.  I was landing once on a breezy day and I should have added a few more knots on final because of the gusts.  Right over the threshold the breeze stopped and the plane dropped onto the runway.  The airport manager was watching us land and was sure he was going to have to tow us off the runway.  But the strut was fine.  It did crack the torsional wraps, though.

 

This time I was landing with a crosswind, which I haven't practiced very much.  The nose wheel touched down, then bounced up, then a gust of wind picked up my wing so that when the nose wheel touched down again it was at about a 30 degree angle side to side.  The nose strut broke sideways, and the Wilhelmson screw snapped in two.

 

I got the idea of using the Cozy strut from Herb Sanders in Memphis.  He had already installed one in a Velocity he was building, so I went to Memphis and took some measurements and some pictures and pretty much just copied what he did. The measurement I am most interested in now is the distance from the top of the strut to the bracket which connects to the screw.  I could put the bracket where it was last time, but I'm just curious to know where it is on the Cozy Mark IV.  If it's too high, it makes the screw work harder.  If it's too low, the strut doesn't flex as much when the nose wheel touches down.  I also want to confirm where the microglass goes.  I remember packing it in around the strut at the top and the bottom, but I can't remember if I also did that around the bracket that connects to the screw.  Looking at the old strut makes me think I did.  Maybe someone could just let me know and I won't need to see any plans?

 

Doug Holub

2009 Standard Velocity w/ electric nose lift, 150 hrs

 

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The maximum weight on my nose gear is 295 lbs.

 

"Maximum" in what condition?  Loaded?  Below is a little sketch of the weight distribution of my airplane (Cozy Mk-IV) when loaded.  My airplane sees about 205# on the nose wheel and 1494# on the mains.  It would appear your Velocity is about 90# heavier on the nosewheel.

 

The distance between the hole in the bracket on the cozy strut and the upper pivot bolt is 6.71".  The plans say to use [wet] flox when attaching the upper and lower castings to the strut and a wet BID layup between the bracket and the strut.  The idea is to fill any voids and prevent any wiggling or looseness between the strut and the castings/bracket.

 

My crosswind technique is to crab down final.  Just before touchdown kick the airplane straight with rudder and anticipate a little aileron into the upwind wing.  Once I kick it straight I try to let it touchdown without delay so a drift doesn't develop.

post-126542-0-31616300-1528487275_thumb.jpg

-Kent
Cozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold

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"Maximum" in any condition.  Thanks for the info.  I usually crab until just before touch down, but I forgot to dip the wing on the windy side.  Maximum gross weight for the Cozy is just 1705 lbs?  The older Velocities like mine are 2250 lbs.  The newer ones are 2400 lbs.  Is yours a Mark IV?

 

Thanks again,

 

Doug

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Maximum gross weight for the Cozy is just 1705 lbs?  The older Velocities like mine are 2250 lbs.  The newer ones are 2400 lbs.  Is yours a Mark IV?

 

Cozy max weight is 2050 but I just used a two-person load I had on a spreadsheet.  At 2050 the nose load would be about 247

-Kent
Cozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold

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