Smoke 'em if you got em'......

[cncdoc]

Tires that is.....

 

And when you do smoke 'em (usually on landing) are you (or will you be) sitting on conventional Cozy spec fixed gear, or the viable alternative...Infinity retractable..

I know, I know. It's all been discussed before. But I read an old email or 2 and it seems the proprietor of IA has shipped many a kit out (at least 60). So, besides the Cozy girrls and King Cozy, where did they go??

Are they as advertised and how long did it take? Did you take it upon yourself to reinforce the spar?

Would you, could you eat green eggs and ham?

 

Curious minds want to know and ironically, so do I.

 

Basking in the sun here in lush and picturesque south Florida not wanting to ruin a perfectly good sling-shot by putting wheels on it.

 

Kevin

[Jim Sower]

Kevin,

I plan on IA retracts. There's good info on Phillip Johnson's site - http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/plmjohnson/index.html

He has good disertations on auto conversions, retractable main mounts and a couple of other "inflamatory topics". He is one of my main references along these lines - very articulate and well informed.

[Spodman]

My heart wants retracts. I reckon the silly muscle can just get on with pumping the blood, coz' my brains opting for fixed.

 

I don't think the Infinity website could be anymore defensive if it tried.

 

Philip Johnson spins a mean story, but I'm not convinced the benefits are appreciable, and the arrangement of ribs within his strakes look like a rat's nest compared to the genuine article. If he proves me wrong (cause he'll be flying YEARS before I can) I would be a happy person though.

 

The retract system for the Velocity looks great, and answers most of Nat's reservations. Has this been attempted on a Cozy? What is the performance difference for the Velocity?

 

I've seen many pictures of Long-ez with infinity, hows their performance?

 

Are ther any Cozys flying with retracts?

[marbleturtle]

As all of the long-timers here know... this is something I researched for about 3 months.

 

Velocities gain about 15 mph with retracts, even though they don't seal up the wheel well openings. (This creates quite a bit of drag).

 

The yellow Long EZ with the Infinity retracts gained almost 20 mph without changing his prop.

 

Most high performance production aircraft with similar wing/spar characteristics (+10g, -6g) have wing/spar mounted retracts.

 

Space normally occupied by the fixed gear can be used for gravity feed sump tank with single engine fuel line. Spacer blocks in strakes can be removed for added fuel. (See Phil's site for more details about that.)

 

Less likely to flip or nose dive in emergency off field landing. Wider track means better cross wind landing or normal ground control.

 

But then there is the price... $5600 does seem a little pricey for the parts you get. I've also heard grumblings about long waits and retroactive price increases before delivery. But JD says his supply problem has been fixed.

 

I'm still leaning toward using the infinity retracts... but just barely.

[John Slade]

As for JD's website being defensive - getting hit by a 2 * 4 every time you step out of you're house will do that to a guy.

If it wasn't for the extra 3 or 4k (difference in cost) I would have installed retracts. Maybe later....

[noodles]

Kevin Drybread, had worked with the swings in creating a retract kit for the LEZ. I believe Scott Swing had worked with him on it.

 

Unfortunately he died via a canard departure before he could start selling them.

 

He was very well known among the Long Jocks and was the Jedi master of Berkut and Long manufacturing.

 

The website is still up, but from what I understand his wife sold the rights to somemone. I don't know who? If you contact Scott Swing he might be able to tell you. Or try contacting the widow, she will obviously know.

 

 

http://www.geocities.com/ezrg/

 

 

I've always found JD's to be a little overly defensive. John you might want to offer some website services in trade for a pair of retracts. I think that if was a little more toned down and refined he would sell more. Then again in the world of Cozy, Unauthorized Vendor = Satan.

 

I think that he offers a good product but the pricing is a little heafty. It would be best if he could offer plans or a generic kit, that way he could expand his market share and bring in more buisness.

 

I did order his promo kit, it was a little hokey but it was also informative at the same time.

 

I always had the same question of where did all the retract kits go? I can only think of a handful of flying retract Cozy's.

[Jim Sower]

Originally posted by noodles

... It would be best if he could offer plans or a generic kit ... expand his market share ... had the same question of where did all the retract kits go ... can only think of a handful of flying retract Cozy's ...

All of the SQ2000s have IA retracts. But that's not a major market either. I would hazard a guess that after Phillip and Chrissi and a couple of SQ2000s get flying that a) hard data will dispel most of those "... only a 5-10 kt increase ..." rumors; b) we will see some Cozys that howl and JD will get a lot more business.

 

This is the first place I heard that he only had the canard community as a market. I thought there were several other types. I'll have to check.

[mplafleur]

I'll be gettin' one of them IA retracts too. The ride will be much sexier, cleaner, faster, a better ground handler, and I got plans to use the "Hell hole" for somet'n else.