About to purchase a VariEze, thoughts?

[Higgins918]

Hello everyone, I’d like to get your input and opinions on what I should look for during pre-buy of my first variez.  I am new to experimentals having flown only Grumman tigers and Cessnas before with about 300 hours of total time.  Are there any failure points in the aircraft, any parts that have excessive wear I need to keep an eye on, or any big things that I should know in general about these aircraft? Thanks 

[Kent Ashton]

I suppose the main thing to be aware of is the Varieze wing attach corrosion problem.  There are many qualified people in S. California who could inspect the airplane.  They may know about it already.  Here is one  who is well-regarded   https://www.burnsideaerospace.com/

There is lots of info out there about these airplanes.

https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/38999-buying-long-ez-kit-and-have-questions/?do=findComment&comment=70886

 

[Higgins918]

excellent! Thanks Kent! 

[bmckinney10]

I was right about the same time in Cherokees and Cessnas when I flew my VariEze for the first time last November.  I spent time in Covington,TN flying with Ryszard Zadow in the Speed Canard to learn.  This was the best money spent in the entire process.  I now have about 30 hours in the Varieze since November.  So much fun to fly!

[Ron Springer]

On 5/24/2021 at 12:12 AM, Higgins918 said:

Are there any failure points in the aircraft, any parts that have excessive wear I need to keep an eye on, or any big things that I should know in general about these aircraft? Thanks 

Another thing to check for is looseness in the main gear. Jack the wheels off the ground and grab the gear legs and yank them fore and aft and check for any play. You can check for corrosion on the outside of the wing fittings, but ideally, you would want to pull the wings off and look at the exposed parts that are inside and hidden from view. I would also look over the condition of the fuel lines and other critical parts if you are going to be flying it soon.

[Marc Zeitlin]

37 minutes ago, Ron Springer said:

Another thing to check for is looseness in the main gear. Jack the wheels off the ground and grab the gear legs and yank them fore and aft and check for any play. You can check for corrosion on the outside of the wing fittings, but ideally, you would want to pull the wings off and look at the exposed parts that are inside and hidden from view. I would also look over the condition of the fuel lines and other critical parts if you are going to be flying it soon.

While Ron is correct in all of this, unless you're intimately familiar with canard aircraft and have seen/built/flown them (all three - not just one of the above, and multiple, not just one) you're just not going to be competent to perform an adequate Pre-Buy examination. I wish it were otherwise and that you could just go kick some tires, get a ride, and be fine, but a substantial part of my work is fixing issues with airplanes that didn't get an adequate pre-buy examination, and now the new owner is stuck with expenses they didn't foresee or expect, and may not understand. So, good for my business - crappy for the new owner.

You need the right set of tools, the right knowledge, the right questions to ask, and an understanding of all the issues that have occurred on canards and what do do about them - particularly on VE's, with their uninspectable wing attach fittings that have potential corrosion issues. You need to be able to interpret the <possibly extremely thin> logbook entries, if there are any.

A good pre-buy involves a substantial amount of disassembly, and takes me about 5 hours at the plane, if not more, even with the owner's assistance. Borescope the cylinders, compression check, operations check, etc.

You want to gamble - go to Vegas. You want to buy an airplane, hire someone that knows their ass from a hot rock to examine it for you. Since you're in Socal, well, I know at least one person in the region who knows the difference... :-).

[Owen]

On 5/24/2021 at 5:43 AM, Kent Ashton said:

I suppose the main thing to be aware of is the Varieze wing attach corrosion problem.  There are many qualified people in S. California who could inspect the airplane.  They may know about it already.  Here is one  who is well-regarded   https://www.burnsideaerospace.com/

There is lots of info out there about these airplanes.

https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/38999-buying-long-ez-kit-and-have-questions/?do=findComment&comment=70886

 

Ashton - what is the "wing attach corrosion problem"? 

Cheers,

Owen

[Anthony P]

Read the posts from Monday to now on the last page of this thread.