Jump to content

Kent's Long-EZ project


Recommended Posts

Here's an idea for adjustable rudder pedals.  You can flip them for shorter or taller pilots or just center them for the perfectly-proportioned.  I just made some 5" long for a potential Andre-the-Giant buyer.  I can flip them for a dwarf pilot.  Covering all the bases.  :-)

post-126542-0-16776900-1501773745_thumb.jpg

Edited by Kent Ashton

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I start by taping paper to the canopy to make a paper pattern and cut the pattern as shown in the pic--this is my Cozy IV pattern.  

How much do you charge to make a Cozy MKIV Cover?

Andrew Anunson

I work underground and I play in the sky... no problem

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been talking to prospective buyers about the H2AD or "76 Series" engine on my EZ.  I would not recommend building with an H2AD because there are several things that have to be changed to use the engine in an EZ but in some ways, it's an improvement over the regular O-320s.  "The Rest of the Story" by Bill Marvel and Bill Scott explains the initial problems with the 76-series engine and why the H2AD doesn't have the same valve-wear problems as the regular O-320s.   This is a good read for anybody who owns a Lycoming.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050217090118/http://www.prime-mover.org:80/engines/Marvel/tbo3.html

 

From my reading, valves, cams and lifters are the weak areas of the Lycs.  It's about time to do the "valve wobble check" (SB 388C) on my Cozy O-360 which detects the valve-stem wear they are talking about in the article.

https://www.lycoming.com/content/service-bulletin-no-388c

 

You can see one of the tools being used to measure valve wobble in this thread.  Recommended at 400 hour intervals, BTW.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=152293&page=2

 

post-126542-0-03032100-1503137238_thumb.jpg

Edited by Kent Ashton

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find that oil coolers must be almost entirely blocked off in the winter to get the oil temp up to the desired 180F.  Here's a mechanism I made for adjusting the door on my EZ oil cooler and a different style door on the Cozy.  There are probably better ways to do it but you will likely need something that is adjustable.  The EZ door adjusts by a screwing a nut sticking out of the opening.  The Cozy door slides.

 

One time I flew a cross country without opening the Cozy door enough.  The oil cooler got hot, melted the plastic gear on the vacuum pump nearby and I lost my vacuum instruments!  :-(

 

Also, my kit for bleeding brakes.  Suck the old fluid out of the reservoir with the syringe and pump the new fluid in from the bottom.  Takes about 30 pumps per side with this rig.  The wood piece keeps the pump from turning over.

 

 

post-126542-0-16907600-1503846168_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-68935000-1503846258_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-31791900-1503846299_thumb.jpg

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the link, interesting, not a site that I had stumbled across yet.

 

Just FYI, I went up to a sailplane club this afternoon, spoke to a couple people. I knew it would be too late to fly today when I went. I'll go back next weekend and weather permitting get up in the air.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Just reading a discussion on the VansAirforce site that reminded me I didn't have a way to monitor my aux battery voltage which is nice to know with an all-electric airplane.   See Lightspeed's suggested circuit (pic 1); it has a voltage meter but as long as the main battery or alternator are feeding the aux, there is no way to monitor the aux battery alone.  Here is a way the Vans folks suggest, using an ordinary 5-pin auto relay and a push button.  These little voltmeters are all over Ebay.  I stuck one to the panel with mounting tape.  And a pic of how it went in the nose (pic 3)

 

The 4th pic is an idea for setting the clearance between the Hall chips on the Lightspeed trigger ring and the flywheel.  The dimensions of the jig are obtained by measuring the depth of the flywheel and adding the desired gap.

post-126542-0-22035200-1506008443_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-25101000-1506008476_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-33226400-1506008524_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-83916200-1506008571_thumb.jpg

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess it's my day to post pics.  I was just talking to my buddy in France who needs wheel pants but shipping and excise taxes to France are outrageous.

 

Here are some scratch-built wheel pants.  I used a pleasing shape from "Theory of Wing Sections", scaled it to fit over the tire and brake, glued up some 2" house foam, cut it, sanded to a pleasing shape and glassed and filled it to make the plug.  This is no small task but my friend has an old wheel pant he can use for a plug.  I used the plug to make two molds.  On one side, I applied a gelcoat, the other side no, hence the two colors.  The molds were made from polyester resin and chopped boat cloth.  That resin gets hard pretty fast but it made good strong molds about 1/4" thick.  Wax, wax, waxed the molds and layup 2 layers of BID in the molds.  Two BID turned out to be rather flexible so I added some reinforcing ribs that stiffened them quite a bit.

post-126542-0-27331900-1506027728_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-77273100-1506027767_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-68540000-1506027803_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-26940700-1506027881_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-07729100-1506027923_thumb.jpg

Edited by Kent Ashton

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks good. I have wondered why I do not see more lightweight cowls made with stiffening ribs that way, instead of just adding more glass overall.

  • Like 1

Aerocanard (modified) SN:ACPB-0226 (Chapter 8)

Canardspeed.com (my build log and more; usually lags behind actual progress)
Flight simulator (X-plane) flight model master: X-Aerodynamics

(GMT+12)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I have a surplus guy near me that sells interesting things.  This has it's advantages and disadvantages.  One time I bought a Huck pneumatic rivet puller for peanuts thinking I could use it to pull rivets on a project.  I got it home and tried pulling some ordinary smooth stem rivets and it would not grip the stem of the rivet.  Turns out it's a puller for Cherrymax-style rivets that have a ridged shaft.  Ordinary pop riveters use a strong spring that forces the jaws into the smooth rivet stems.  No way to use a strong spring on the Huck.  Live and learn.  

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I posted this before, anyway . . .  This is the panel on the first airplane I owned, a Cozy III.  I scared myself one time by not having an attitude indicator so I added a Dynon and changed the panel to the second pic.  I used a metal panel over the fiberglass.  When I sold it, my friend added a Dynon engine monitor, electric nose lift, autopilot, and changed the panel to his own idea with some spare circuit-board panel.  Wow, a real Space Shuttle!  :-)

 

The original builder made air vents out of PVC elbows.  The caps had a small disk drilled off center which allowed you to twist the cap and remove it.   Love little hacks like that.  I'm sure a lot of EZs go through mods like this over the years.  It's a fun thing about owning an experimental.

post-126542-0-10314900-1512575751_thumb.jpeg

post-126542-0-53681800-1512575801_thumb.jpg

post-126542-0-72669200-1512575991_thumb.jpeg

Edited by Kent Ashton

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

It looks like I am not going to get to use the SAE plugs I installed for heated vests (I sold the EZ), but I want to point out this company that sells carbon tape and shows many ways to make heated vests, trousers, seats, etc.

https://www.carbonheater.us

 

They look very EZ to make and running a few wires for the plugs sure seems like a lot less fabrication and weight than the usual in-flight heat systems folks try in their canards.

 

The plans heat system in my Cozy will barely take the chill off our feet so when the weather gets warmer one of my projects is to wire the plugs and make some heated seats.

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow...!! It took me a while to go thru this thread, but i am AMAZED with the amount of information in here. Thank you all for maintaining this forum. Amazing job with the prop Kent. 

 

There are many great ideas from canard builders over the years but they are poorly indexed.  Google or Bing images will bring up a few.  Doing a search on this website, or www.canardaviators.com, or www.canardcommunity.com will bring up a few.  The old printed Canard Pusher newsletters and printed Cozy newsletters are online.

 

There are little-known builder pages all over the web that are good but hard to find.  Marc's cozybuilders.com site lists some. The Central States Association is a great resource and there are indexes to CSA newsletters but you must have the back issues to read the articles (I guess).  I don't know how a new CSA member would get access to all of them.  CSA also has thousands of pictures at www.ez.org but they are not indexed and you have to be a member to access.

 

It's really haphazard.  Most anything you would want to do on an EZ or Cozy has been discussed somewhere and much of it is online but web resources slowly disappear as site-owners stop paying  their domain registration fee or retire.  

 

I had to go to https://archive.org the other day to try to find some info on one of Lightspeed Engineering's earlier ignition systems.  

  • Like 1

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doing a search on this website, or www.canardaviators.com, or www.canardcommunity.com will bring up a few. 

 

I could not find a www.canardaviators.com.

I'm assuming you meant www.canardaviation.com, yes?

T Mann - Loooong-EZ/20B Infinity R/G Chpts 18

Velocity/RG N951TM

Mann's Airplane Factory

We add rocket's to everything!

4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 9, 10, 14, 19, 20 Done

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information