Luggage area

The only think holding me back from getting the plans is the amount of baggage space. I will be doing a lot of cross country flying carrying 2 adults and 2 little ones. The little ones are 14 months and -2 months. I figure by the time I finish this thing they will be a lot heavier. Any way... I was wondering if any one out there has modified there Cozy to make more room for baggage.

I noticed the modifications Rutan made to his LongEZ for his flight around the world in '97. Has anyone tried something like that for baggage instead of fuel?

I noticed the under wing pods, but it doesn't look like you could put a lot of baggage in there.

Baggage area is the only thing holding me back from buying the plans today.

Thanks,

Jeff

Jeff,

Have you seen the picture Wayne Hicks took after his trip to Sun & Fun with Marc Zeitlin. They had no-one in the back, but they carried an enormous amount of baggage. The picture shows it stacked up next to the plane. I think you'll find it on Wayne's web site.

I think you can buy baggage pods from Gary Hunter, or you could make them yourself. I'm not sure what the capacity is. With small children in the back seat you'll have plenty of room in the triangle behind the front seat. Perhaps you could make some triangular suitcases designed to fit there.

Another option might be to make a slide in shelf that fits into the turtleback above the kids heads.

Large rectangular suitcases would be a problem, but if you get a bit creative and pack in plastic bags using one of those vacuum things to squeeze it down there shouldn't be a problem with space. All you have to worry about is weight. You should be able to get 1000lbs including people, fuel and baggage.

I hope this helps.

Here are a couple of pictures I took at Arlington this year that give good views of the wing pods on Ken and Carol Murphy's Cozy. Although I don't know the actual volume, I'm willing to bet they are about the same volume as medium sized duffle bags. Anyone know the acutal volume?

I wasn't able to speak with the owner because each time I came around he was either talking with someone else or not present but I did talk with Jim White (thanks Jim) and he mentioned there is very little drag penalty. It is his understanding (correct me if I'm wrong Jim or Ken) that the speed loss is only around 1-2 knots. Not bad at all!

Jake

P.S. It didn't even register at the time that I was looking at the Cozy prototype! I take it Nat sold his and built another?

Here is the other photo: