Mods mods mods

[velocity dreamer]

I hear alot about mods to thier long ez's My question is who came up with the mods and how do they affect the aircraft. I have flown in a vereze and It was kinda narrow, if the longeze is about the same, fuslage wise then I would like to widen it abit. I know it will affect the cg but will it slow the aircraft down. Im wanting to build a longeze with retracts and a larger engine. My goal is 200 knots. I dont want any mods that will slow it down.

Also who knows much about the vortex generators. do they help or not.

 

Lynn

[Richard Riley]

I hear alot about mods to thier long ez's My question is who came up with the mods and how do they affect the aircraft. I have flown in a vereze and It was kinda narrow, if the longeze is about the same, fuslage wise then I would like to widen it abit. I know it will affect the cg but will it slow the aircraft down. Im wanting to build a longeze with retracts and a larger engine. My goal is 200 knots. I dont want any mods that will slow it down.

Also who knows much about the vortex generators. do they help or not.

 

Lynn

If your goal is 200 knots, build a Long EZ with fixed gear and a strong 180 hp engine. Use a good, clean cowl, a long nose, Klaus wheel pants and landing gear fairings. It will do 200 knots.

 

There's a guy out there that claims bigger engines make canards go slower. He's wrong.

 

VG's might help some on the bottom end, they certainly won't help on the top.

 

You can do retracts, but count on an extra $10k at least, another 500 hours building, 3-5 knots on the top end, and at least one gear up landing.

[tonyslongez]

Lynn

 

Widening your fuse won't necessarily slow it down. I widened mine 4in"at the front seat bulkhead and 2in" in the rear. Makes a hudge difference, I highly recommend that mod if you have wide shoulders. I'm putting retracts on my bird as well, though they are my own design (think F-16) just not as complicated but the same idea, gear swing forward into an airscoop on the bottom of the fuse. Really cooooll:cool: . I really think that you'll see more than a 3-5knt difference. Gear up landing? maybe. It's been my experience so far that most gear up landings are pilot error. Not using a check list for one, not holding down the retract handle while the gear are in transition can certainly cause a gear up landing. I often wondered why todays aircraft don't utilize a small camera in the wheel wells so you can see your gear going up and down. I'v e seen several cameras that weighed less than 4oz with screens, you plug them into a cigarrett lighter, in color even. Amazing quality. You can bet I'll have a few in my wheel wells. Anyway, do the mods you want. I'll support you 100% if I can help I'll certainly chime in. B.T.W. Lynn I posted some template drawings on the EZ.ORG web site that might interest you. It's mods for the long nose and few template bulkheads thrown in there as well enjoy.

 

Tony

[Jon Matcho]

My question is who came up with the mods and how do they affect the aircraft.

That's a good question to ask. You need to do your homework before jumping on the bandwagon for any mod you see. I believe the Longer nose and slightly widened fuselage have been borrowed from the Berkut design.

 

I have flown in a vereze and It was kinda narrow, if the longeze is about the same, fuslage wise then I would like to widen it abit.

The Long-EZ is a bit more roomy than the VariEze, so you may not need to widen anything.

[velocity dreamer]

I am wanting to do the Retracts found at infinityaerospace.com. We had a longez with this mod come through a few weeks ago. It looked good. I would like to do at least 200 knots but if more, than thats good too. The velocity I plan to build after the longez will only do 200. Ive looked at other engines such as deltahawk or Innodyne turbin. I worry alot about looks to. I dont want to put somthing on that will distort the looks. thats what I worry about using the deltahawk (Makes the rearend of the velocity look weird. This is my practice bird to see how well I do before I spend a ton of money on the velocity and screw it up. I like the LE and plan on keeping it even after building the velocity. Also I want to put full controls front and back, They say the stick in the back is for if the pilot is incopasitate( I cant spell ) Well how can you land an aircraft without throttle control.

 

thanks for listning

 

Lynn

[Richard Riley]

If you want retracts because they look good, by all means go ahead. If you want to do 200 knots and you really want to fly - go fixed.

 

Look at this graphic

 

http://wingsailor.com/assets/images/WingVsWireNoText600.jpg

 

The drag of the round wire is the same as the drag of the large airfoil shape. That gives you an idea of how much drag a properly faired landing gear gives you - about as much as a whip antenna the same length as the gear leg.

 

Keep the money you'd send to Innodyn. It's vaporware. DeltaHawk may actually happen, but I won't plan on it until they've shipped a dozen or so.

 

If you want a throttle in the back, it's simple enough to put one there.

 

If your goal is the Velocity - go build a Velocity. Very few people finish a homebuilt, fewer finish two. You won't get the money out of a Long EZ that you put into it, much less get any pay for your labor.

[Jon Matcho]

 

That's amazing -- although I haven't found enough backup information to verify this statement, I'll take your word for it. Would be curious to run the shapes through an airfoil program, but of course don't have the time to do that right now.

 

Another way of looking at this is that an external antenna has a LOT of drag.

 

The page is from a boat builder who says he got it from an "old EAA magazine"... any idea which one?

 

Great information.

[RDangredo]

When I was out purchasing the Roncz Canard Plans using the Rutan Aircraft Merchandise Order form on the Rutan aircraft.com website (that Jon Match had pointed me toward) there were additional plans that could be purchased on the form as well, but there were no explanations as to what aircraft each plan was applicable to or the real associated benefit of any of the mods

 

There were plans on the purchase order form for Large Rudder Plans, speed brake plans, 0-235 installation, the Roncz Canard, and Flush Belhorns Plans. Are these all necessary Mods for someone considering building an Open EZ? If these are all applicable to an Open EZ, Where can I go to get a good understanding of the benefits of each? Any discussion?

 

Bob

[dpaton]

All of those extra mod plans are, as I recall, on the TERF CD. I'll check later. The ailerons improve control and just plane look cooler, the flush belhorns clean up the outside of the winglets, and the 0-235...well..does anyone build an EZ and put a 235 in it any more?

 

-dave

[RDangredo]

I'm assuming that the larger rudders also probably act as better air brakes. How effective is the optional airbrake plan? Are there any numbers out there as to what the air brake can slows the plane down to?

[swinn]

VelocityDreamer: Your 200 knot goal sounds much like mine. I am building a Long-EZ with a friend using a 200HP IO-360 on the back and planning for a 190-200 knot cruise. We are fixed gear and quite a few mods. A berkut style fuel system utilizing an internal sump tank, modified shark shaped nose, downdraft cooling, exhaust augmentation, and more. YOu can check out our project at www.briansplane.com I haven't updated in a while because I've been too busy working on the plane.

[Jon Matcho]

There were plans on the purchase order form for Large Rudder Plans, speed brake plans, 0-235 installation, the Roncz Canard, and Flush Belhorns Plans. Are these all necessary Mods for someone considering building an Open EZ? If these are all applicable to an Open EZ, Where can I go to get a good understanding of the benefits of each? Any discussion?

A couple points:

• All of those items are desireable for building both a Long-EZ or Open-EZ.
• Some of those items may still be available from www.rutanaircraft.com -- you should attempt to purchase everything through them. Please let me know if items become unavailable. I understand the Roncz canard plans may no longer be available, and so the Open-EZ project team is considering options for how to make these avaialble.
• Feel free to ask questions here, repeatedly, until you're satisfied with an answer.

Addressing each of these items:

• Roncz canard plans -- a must for building a Long-EZ or Open-EZ.
• Hidden bell-horn plans -- a nice-to-have for building a Cozy, Long-EZ, or Open-EZ.
• High Performance Rudder plans -- now a standard for all Long-EZs (and Open-EZs), and so also a 'must'.
• Speed brake plans -- I'm surprised this isn't in the original Long-EZ plans, and if not, another 'must'.

The engine installation is up to you... maybe you want a 235, 320, or... ? You don't need to decide on that yet.

[dpaton]

Oops, I lied. The landing brake isn't in the original plans at all. It may be on the CDs, but I forgot to check last night before I went to bed, and I didn't bring the discs with me to work today. Something to take care of later I suppose. I plan on building with all of those things included, but acquiring them may be harder these days. The last time I checked with RAF about their stock, they were very low on everything, and in the 3 months since then, they've been sold out of the Roncz plans for a while, which makes me wonder what's left.

 

One of the other things we MUST add to the list is the rollover mod. I'd consider this a mandatory addition to any OpenEZ or Long-EZ, strictly as a safety item. The documents are located here:

Article

Roll over documents

Drawings

Plan

All are in PDF format, and the links go direct to RAF.

 

-dave

[Spodman]

...MUST add to the list is the rollover mod...

I'd think again about this particular mod. If I had a Long-Ez I would consider this, but would also consider a tube steel arrangement. I would do one, just don't know which. There are plenty of Longs flying with neither. My main objection to the Rutan version is there is un-cleanable canopy between the rollover and the canopy that would look smeggy quickly???

 

If I was building an Open-Ez (which I'm not planning to, but I just had to download the stuff - thanks guys ) I'd tend towards splitting the canopies (like a Berkut) and beef up the resulting turtleback as a rollover (that doesn't have to hinge or latch).

[dpaton]

If I was building an Open-Ez (which I'm not planning to, but I just had to download the stuff - thanks guys ) I'd tend towards splitting the canopies (like a Berkut) and beef up the resulting turtleback as a rollover (that doesn't have to hinge or latch).

The thought has crossed my mind too. I'd basically build the rollover structure per the plans, but make it a little bit larger, complete with the carbon roving, and call it good. Of course, that's only assuming I'm patient enough to add that extra time to my build.

 

As for that uncleanable canopy bit, Mike noted in the directions that he put a thin rubber seal between the rollover structure and the canopy to keep it from rattling. I'm guessing that would keep it relatively clean too.

 

-dave