John Slade

A detailed report of this very unfortunate crash, as provided by the NTSB, can be found here. The Probable Cause section can be summarized as "pilot error", like it or not.

My point was that every uninformed person I meet that has "heard" of JDs crash and is convinced that it was caused by X or Y or Z. All the reasons are different, and none of them are based in fact.

Wild speculation starts rumours, which get passed around as facts and before you know it the guy's been tried and convicted of something totally incorrect. Sure, we know from the reports that JD made some serious errors and we can all learn from them. Rich Hughes won't deny that he made a few mistakes - long cold decent, low & slow into a strong headwind to name two. Icing in the throttle body was probably the third one that got him. Rich was "tried & convicted" of poor workmanship on his engine repair. Fact is the engine was fine and ran well when the FAA started it up.

For those who've been following my progress toward actually flying this bird, the plane is now officially certifiable. So am I, but that's another story.

Take a look at:

http://kgarden.com/cozy/chap27.htm#murphyslaw

My approach was to leave the canopy unprotected most of the time, scratch it up to hell, then have Todd (from toddscanopies.com) come over and remove all the scratches. Worked for me

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I cannot help but feel "STFU" was directed at least partly my way.

I think you read me wrong here, Jon. Actually I think we largely agree. The STFU was aimed at people (in general) who insist on speculating when they have no facts and pretty few bad guesses. I've never seen you do that, and certainly wasn't aiming the comment at our discussion about what to discuss.

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somehow doubt you will consider saying such a thing to me in person.

Feed me a few beers and I'll say anything to anyone if I think it's warranted. In fact I often don't need the beer.

Don't be so fast to take things personally, Jon. I wasn't aiming at you at all. Had we having the discussion in person, you'd have known that.

John (Proud owner of a certified airplane.)

I'd make it as deep as you have room for. Mine was/is about 12 inches, and things disappeared under there, never to be seen again. Drawers would have been nice.

Anyone looking for a Velocity?

I know of two for sale.

There's one in my hangar which is complete and has flown a few hundred hours, but not recently. The owner / builder, Tim Ragonese, 561-625-6505, is out of currency and wants to sell. Its a retract with IO 360. Not sure of the model or asking price. Not gull wing doors.

The second one is a project. I'm told the airframe is complete. Haven't seen it. No engine. (but the owner has an '87 RX7 he's selling as well.) Asking price on this one is $33k. Owner is Tom Deringer. 561-357-0010.

Thanks for the support, Bill.

If I had a nickel for every uninformed reason I've heard for John Denver's death I could afford a Garmin 430.

Where might one come up with some facts?

I spoke to Rich Hughes at length about what happened, and posted a summary.

In the case of Hawaii we got a post from the pilot.

In the absence of first hand data from the pilot or a direct observer we can only guess until the FAA/NTSB publish something, and often even then.

but not a whole lot of reliable information so far that I have seen.

This is when I suggest that it's best to STFU until there IS some.

No, the Brock parts are not included in the chapter lists from either Spruce or Wicks.

I've heard that Spruce cut the fiberglass cloth for each chapter rather than adding it up and supplying the total on a roll. They may have fixed this now, but you might find it inconvienient if they do that to you.

As Dust says, check the lists item by item. You need to learn what everything is anyway. The sooner you do, the easier ordering (and building) will be. As for basic stuff like screws, nuts, bolts, nutplates, washers, etc. I'd recommend getting these up front for the entire built, and adding say 20% for wastage / additional usage to quantities listed. It's soooo annoying to screw up a nutplate and find you don't have a spare because they sent you the exact amount. Later you'll use lots of these items that aren't in the plans. When you get all the nuts & bolts I'd suggest sorting them all into one of those plastic sliding drawer things and labelling the drawers: #3 nuts, #3 washers, #3 bolts, #4..... you get the idea.

Before placing a large complex order with ANY supplier, I'd recommend trying a small complex order with each competitor (in this case Wicks and Spruce) and seeing what kind of service you get. Ask a few dumb questions - we all had some at that stage - and see whether you get meaningful answers. When you're small order arrives, see how well it's packaged, and see what response you get when you find you have something incorrect, or ordered wrongly. When ordering, always confirm that the items are in stock (at the store you're talking to) and available for shipment. Spruce will occasionally be out of stock in one location and ship from the other, and then charge you for the extra shipping cost.

You going to be spending lots of $ with you're supplier of choice. Make sure you get the best one. Most prices seem to very close with Wicks being marginally higher. Price is important, but I've been willing to pay a slight premium to help smooth things out and make life easier. But that's just me. Occasionally you'll find significant price differences between suppliers on certain items.

Oh. By the way, you'll need one of those smart level thingys, and (at least) a dremel fairly early on. I've heard wonderful things about the Finn Sander (sp), but I've never seen one.

Have fun.

One day to inspection.... and the #$%@@#$ engine won't start....

Where can I find a list of all the things to build/buy?

luggage pods, take your wife and her baggage

I don't know how much room is actually in them

Probably not enough room to get the wife in.

The epoxy guru guy makes them. Gary something.

The biggest issue you're going to have with a "short field" (and you haven't defined what you think is short) COZY is takeoff, not landing.

You can shorten the take off distance by adding more horses, but this wont help with the landing.

In general terms the Cozy is NOT a STOL vehicle and can't easily be made into one. I'd suggest that you're heading in the wrong direction if you want to operate out of a field that's less than 3000ft.

RST is a bit of a "mom & pop" setup. The owner, Jim Weir is VERY knowledgeable, but not always easy to reach.

I'd recommend keep trying. They're good people.

John

A guy I know built his fuselage in his one room apartment.

It CAN be done.

My advise would be to start building now, and only stop when there's NOTHING left in the plans that you can do in the space available.

By the time you hit that point you'll find somewhere to do the rest.

I'd agree with you, Jon, that we should openly discuss these incidents in the light of what can be learned from them.

Having said that, I am, however, seriously bothered by the many posts I've seen right after accidents (even those where death has occured) which speculate on this that and the other with no actual information to back them up.

I guess there's a subtle difference between theorizing and speculating. Many times assumptions and judgments are made that are simply not based in known fact, and are totally unfair on the poor sod that's either just lost his airplane, or worse. The recent LI crash comes to mind. In this case one so-called EZ expert, with no direct knowledge of the facts, even went as far as to make a nasty phone call to the pilot. I'll avoid this particular bigot if ever I have the misfortune to meet him. I won't go a far as to name the creep, but I'll give you a clue. He's named after a beer.

Whether it's John Denver, this guy with his broken VariEZ, Rich Hughes, Jean-Patrick (both of whom I've met personally and consider to be excellent people) or anyone else who has a misfortunate incident, lets show a bit of respect for the fact that they had "the dream" too and have suffered serious hardship and loss.

THEN lets learn what we can from whatever FACTS we can glean.

[END OF RANT]

Inspection on Tuesday.

Excuse the out of order posting

Mike,

Glad you enjoyed the visit. Thanks for the compliments, but she really needs a repaint.

How did the video of the taxi test come out?

If it's digital, how about uploading a short sequence so people can hear the Brrraaaappp noise

I keep waiting to hear a flying success story from you. When?

 

Would you believe April 1st

Inspection is scheduled for early next week. Once that's done I need to get current, fly a 172 flapless and, ideally do some pattern work in a Cozy. Haven't even done a full power runup or high speed taxi test yet.

That looks like an email address, Steve. The correct URL is http://msnusers.com/cozy4

Click on pictures. Select page3

That looks like a metal prop and some sort of automotive engine.

Looks like the N number is N200TZ which is a VariEZ registered

to MENEFEE, MICHAEL O of Silverdale, WA.

Not a Cozy.

The owner doesn't look very happy, understandably.

Yes, that's a nice video. Worth the download time.

Speaking of inspiration, Wayne, how's the Cozy coming along?

A quick update...

We're getting closer. Taxi test # 4 went well. Todd (of toddscanopies.com) is coming today to help me buff the canopy. mplafleur plans a visit tomorrow, and I found a reasonable DAR who builds and flys Velocities. I still have a few things to do, but the inspection is scheduled for some time towards the end of next week.

I built my mount before Fred's mount became available. He double checked his cg numbers with mine, so I did have some contact with him. Seems like an excellent guy. Bulent bought one, but I haven't seen it yet.

Bottom line is that Fred's mount is the mount of choice, since its the only one available. It's fairly expensive, but I hear excellent things about it, except from PL, and I've learned to ignore his rants.

How does one become a DAR?

1. Complete an experimental

2. Do 3 annual "condition inspections" of that plane

3. Attend a training course

maintain a small independent psychotherapy practice

John, do you need any employees?

Just noticed this thread.

I do business development consulting and software design.

Anyone need a business plan?

Will work for avionics.

Well, $1500 was on the high end. I do have a quote for $650.

Down here both the FSDO and the MIDO say they don't do experimental inspections any more, so DAR stands for Designated A..hole Rammer. So much for the wonderful new EAA ABDAR program. Can you say BOHICA.

The good news is that ICOM are EXCELLENT. They say they'll have my radio back turned around in 48hrs. Most likely cause - voltage spike.