John Slade

Actually it's even easier. People could send money to you're email address via paypal.... They won't, but they could. That's a helluva view, Joe. I'd think that would be good incentive to build.

Sunday was a family day. We had a house full and ate crab legs, shrimp and steak until we could hardly stand. However, I DID manage a couple of hours down at the hangar before it all started. Sometimes a short visit can be very productive. This one was. Not in terms of physical progress but in terms of "getting my head around" a couple of issues. My first task was cleaning the upholstery. Yes, I know this could have waited, but the front seats, console and the shoulder support had really gotten dirty and it was bothering me. I found some leather cleaning fluid and set to work. In about 1/2 hour the seats looked like they're supposed to - brand new. Satisfied I went around to the back and started looking into the AC connections from the compressor to the dryer and condenser. I found the short pipe and dryer I'd taken from the Honda Civic when I got the condenser. The pipe is 1/4 aluminum, about 12 inches long with the ac type connections on each end. I found I could bend the pipe fairly easily. Based on the length of this pipe and the best position for the condenser, I found a home for the dryer, strapped to the engine mount upright with a couple of clamps. All I need now is a pipe from the condenser to the firewall. I can have a boss welded to the connector and do the rest in AN stuff. I'll take another look at this in the morning and make a list of the parts I'll need. I shortend the expansion tank drain hose and fitted it. Next I moved on to the bracket for the overflow bottle. I had this half made when it came time to leave. Just before leaving it occured to me that I hadnt turned the engine for a while. I flipped the master, moved the key to "start" and was rewarded by the sound of the engine turning. I could hear the compression "pops" as it turned which I hope indicates that the seals arent stuck. I was locking up when someone called Jerry stopped by to look at the plane. I gave him a quick tour and invited him back another time. Plan for tomorrow Intercooler & condenser mounting get push-fit barb for engine top air bleed remeasure labels for annunciator panel finish bracket for overflow bottle Fit overflow bottle Get hose & fittings for AC Order al bends for turbo Order silicone transitions for turbo Order hose clamps for turbo Order 2 feet 2.25 scat tube for turbo inlet Order battery - Panasonic (LC-RD1217P) Plan for next week Complete AC plumbing Start on FAA paperwork Prepare engine for first run (add oil, fuel, coolant) Start engine by Friday

Joe, Before I make further comments on you're panel design, let me confess how mine came about... It evolved. I obtained stuff as opportunity and funds allowed. As each panel item arrived I found a home for it. There was a basic plan, but I just couldn't see (or afford) planning the complete panel and installing it as planned. At least for me, things just dont happen that way. My take is that the first panel was a "throw away". A walnut throw away, perhaps, but still disposable. Later when funds allow and I know better what I want, I'll probably redo the whole panel in one go. I know you're just passing time prior to getting into the build, and panel planning is a valid exercise, but I'd suggest that you remain flexible on the issues until the last possible moment, then consider the options available to you then. Here's a picture of my panel before I added the Tach just above the roll trim and before I cleaned up the labelling. http://kgarden.com/cozy/cz803.jpg I still have a volt meter to put somewhere. You'd be amazed at how many items seem to appear out of nowhere and need panel space, especially if you have an automotive engine. I'm not saying mine is the perfect panel by any means, just providing it as an ugly example of what can happen when reality sets in. Anyway, back to you're revised panel: You might consider putting the master switch where I did, off to the left. You dont want anybody else reaching the master, and this location would free up space to have you're second CDI below the first. This can be handy when you're tracking an intersection in IFR and waiting for a needle to swing. By the way, what are the white switches next to the red master/alt switch? You'll find that Bob Nuckolls advises against having a key or a split master. I disagree with him there and fitted them anyway. If that's the full panel size, which I think it is, you'll loose the top 3/4 inch or so to some sort of glare shield if you make anything at all like my panel cover. This means you're switches on the left will need to move. Personally I like them in a line. Normal convention is flight guages on the left, engine stuff on the right. There's good reason for this, but we've talked about scans. Lets not go there again. As you see, I squeezed the compass in on the left side near the vent. I see you have digital engine gauges. I chose analog because I take in analog data more easily than digital. ADF is becoming less and less useful. I'm not sure it deserves the weight and real estate. There are a couple of items I dont recognise. What's that below the compass? Hope this helps.

Working with the excellent label printer software and clipart.com I spent a couple of hours composing and printing labels for everything in the panel. Armed with my printed label strips and a pair of scissors I headed down to the hangar and spend another couple of hours removing the old dyno labels and putting the new lables in place. Paul arrived [saturday inspection] and said "Why don't you leave that cosmetic stuff till after it flys". I replied,"Because there are a lot of switches and buttons, and even I don't know what they all do yet. Besides, the FAA guy is going to want to see labels on everything." Paul, being the good mentor he is, accepted this, then proceeded to grill me on a bunch of other details - how are you controlling boost? Are you planning to use boost on the first flight? Do you have a fire extinguisher on board? Who's going to be at the back when you do the first engine start? When are you going to fit the prop? My answers (Manually, no, yes, me, later) to his questions were greeted with, "Good. I think we're on the same page", so Paul went off for his nap and I carried on with my to-do list. The day was cut short by a trip to an Indian (as in from India) cultural event where we enjoyed six different curries, beer, ice cream and sitar music. Before leaving the hangar I was able to examine the AC fittings a bit more and work out what was needed from the hose shop. On the way home I dropped off my duct taped turbo pipe at the welding shop and asked Charlie to "make it whole". He mentioned that next time I should use masking tape, not duct tape. Apparantly the duct tape adhesive causes a problem with welding. I thought I'd invented this method of prototyping pipes. Apparantly not. Everyone else does it this way too, except they all use masking tape. No chance of a trip down to the hangar this evening. It's Valentines day, and Char wants me home.... Plan for tomorrow Finalize intercooler & condenser mounting get push-fit barb for engine top air bleed remeasure labels for annunciator panel shorten expansion tank return hose and fit make bracket for overflow bottle Fit overflow bottle Plan for Monday Get hose & fittings for AC Order al bends for turbo Order silicone transitions for turbo Order hose clamps for turbo Order 2 feet 2.25 scat tube for turbo inlet

There are two manifold pressure feeds to the computer, but only one air temp sensor. As I understand it the computers are largely redundant and either one controls both rotors. The air temp sensor for Tracy's ECU is in the inlet manifold. As I said earlier, I think Tracy is working on adding turbo boost control. When he comes out with that it will probably involve additional sensors. Yes. I'd heard that. Also the stock (single stage '91 turbo) comes with oil lubrication and water cooling. It seems to be a fairly robust unit. If it's anything like the one on my Saab it'll go forever with zero attention. Hmmm. I didnt realize I was custom building the injection system I learned that I need 4 550 injectors, 2 in the stock primary location and 2 in bosses in the secondaries. These hook up to the ECU. That's about all I know. Not half as interested as I'll be.

Good question. Tracy supplies an air/fuel ratio sensor which goes in the exhaust. This gives me an LED bar readout of the fuel ratio of the exhaust gases. I wanted to control the boost to make sure the auto vacuum control system didnt take boost off when I needed at height, and put it on when I didnt want it (say on a go around). Greg Richter simply welded up his waste gate and used a pop off valve. I may do that later. I also have the pop off (currently set at 6 PSI) but wanted manual control of the wastegate as well. Once initial testing is over I dont expect to be adjusting the boost control very often, just experimenting with it to see how boost impacts various flight regimes. The EC2 has two computers, each with its own set of mixture parameters at various RPM. I may set up one for a full boost and the other for a zero or limited boost condition. This way I can switch between them and have the correct mixture for the different boost settings. This is very much an on-going experiment.

Damn. I've been saying it wrong for the past 5 years.

Another largely wasted day in terms of significant Cozy progress. I received my Brother 1500PC label printer (<$50 reconditioned on ebay) and spent a couple of hours learning what it could do. I am very pleased with the printer. I've read of people who have they're panels etched - that wouldnt work for me. I just know I'd want to change something the day after the pretty panel was delivered, and the following day too. Using the label printer I can print white on clear labels which look excellent on the dark walnut background. I can use any font and size I want and even include icons (auto style) for ease of recognition. I managed to visit the hangar for 1 1/2 hours. I made notes of all the labels I'm gong to need, then worked on the turbo plumbing. I have some 2.25 al intake parts which dont fit, but I found that I could cut the bends out and put the parts back together at different angles with duct tape. In 1/2 hour I had a suitable pipe for the intercooler to TB. In six pieces, perhaps, but Charlie can glue aluminum really well. I made notes of what bend parts I'll need from burns stainless for the turbo to intercooler pipe, then came home to place the order. Plan for tomorrow Finalize intercooler & condenser mounting Consider AC piping needed compressor > drier > condenser get push-fit barb for engine top air bleed work on panel labels

Well, not blueprints exactly. Scale drawings on large paper. Over in the Cozy list they've been discussing the accuracy and it's importance. Bottom line is that the drawings are accurate and detailed enough to allow you to do an excellent job. Along with the drawings you'll receive two large books of VERY detailed step-by-step instructions. It'll take a little while to get used to the writing style and nomanclature, but you won't be disappointed with the level of detail. Everything you need, including a lot of instruction, is there.

Male cow excrement! This puts a valuable perspective on the psychology of building. Ah - so I'm an old timer now, huh? I think MT has a handle on it. I remember asking what I thought were new questions and getting the old "follow the plans" and "shut up and build" comments, and I recall being annoyed by them the tenth time around. I now find myself saying the same thing. Why? Because I guess you have to do it to know its true. This isn't about computer etiquette, its about Cozy etiquette. The conflict lies in the fact that the typical builder is an intelligent inovative experimenter type who doesnt take this type of comment lying down (I know I didn't) - and often actually reacts the opposite way and does it anyway out of spite . I did that with the engine and the NACA cooling. Looking back, however, they were right, damn them. Sticking to plans would have saved me a bunch of time. Most of the stuff I've learned the hard way could have been avoided if I'd listened to those who'd been there already. I might not have had as much fun, though, or learned as much. Nothing to forgive, Joe. Were doing the best we can with a crappy medium.

Sure wasnt meant that way either. 54 I was referring to engine monitors that keep an electronic eye on 16 or more high and low settings and alert you if something gets out of bounds. This kind of diligence is hard to do manually, and takes time away from the visual outside scan. Once you've got everything calibrated and tested these EMs can help you keep your head outside. I was suggesting that, with one of these, you wouldn't need the engine dials at top center. My approach was to cut a 6.25 panel for the eventual GPS/Com and EM system, cut holes in it for analog engine gauges and put it back. Once I'm done flight testing, and the mission changes to high speed cross country, the analog engine gauges will be replaced with an EM system. He ain't heavy - he's my brother - now get him off my back

I believe Tracy is working on this, but right now it's manual - mixture control is a knob on the EC2 control panel.

>How old are you? Is everything OK at home? I think you read my post wrong, Joe. Something got lost in the text medium. I was just trying to offer some positive encouragement. Sorry if it came across condesending or some other way. Was meant as a genuine offer. I thought it would help give you a goal to shoot for. Part of the fun of building is "personalizing" the plane. Do want you wanna do. Again, I was just trying to give some feedback. You did ask. Off to the hangar...

This aint no tractor, ol buddy. It's an "intelligent" machine moving at over 200mph. It wont be your job to watch engine guages, you'll be too busy watching for 110mph Cessnas. You'll have a computer doing the gauge watching for you, and ideally it'll say "Joe, you're oil pressure's low!" if that happens. Sure, it's nice to have a readout to look at when you need it, but you're scan will tend to be a 2 second glance. Think of it this way - there's a Lear on a reciprocal path. Closing speed is 600mph. Visibility is 3 miles in haze. How long have you got to spot him??? Answer - 18 seconds. Same logic applies to the small flight guages. You NEED to scan these quickly. Another way to consider this might be - how many airplanes do you see with small flight gauges? Are the majority of designers wrong? You seem set on the laptop. I'd suggest do some Xcountry flying with one before cutting holes in the panel for it. Scanning you're passenger's lap area isnt ideal for concentration. There are lots of pics of the Wilhelmson nose lift in my web site. It's in the center abouce the nose wheel (Duh). The only item on the panel is the switch (typically central and low) and the manual backup which is a small socket. If you get the double crank mechanism (recommended) this goes low on the center panel, otherwise it's in the middle of you're radio stack. As for the one year flight target. How about this - To get anywhere close to this you'll need to have the bare unfinished airframe complete in six months. i.e. by the end of August '04. Hit that target, send me a picture of the assembled airplane, and I hereby promise to fly out there cheering "Go Joe" and give you some Cozy flight time. Will that help you get you're ass in gear? What engine type did you say you were going to use?

Today was looking like a total bust, what with a bit of work and a lot of visiting with friends and family. At 7pm I finally managed to sneak off and get down to the hangar. I put the batteries on charge. The Panasonic (LC-RD1217P) came right back. The other two cheap ones wont take a charge. Ah well. As they say, "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys". I need to order another (panasonic) battery for my alternate. Once I had a charged battery the big Ferrari fan lept into life. No problem there. I'd been dreading the last major wiring job. Between the oil temp, oil press, CHT, EGT and tach I needed to run 11 new wires from the panel to the engine. I have some 5 core 22 gauge color coded teflon aircraft wire I picked up at a fly-in, so I ran two strands of this. Advice to others - get a bunch of this stuff, mark the ends and run about 5 (25 wires) early on, then use them up as you need them. Getting the wire in place at this stage meant removing the console (again) and fishing the wires through all the holes. It went better than I'd expected. Another thought here - I find that certain jobs somehow take on a "bad rep" in my mind. I'll go to extraordiarly lengths to delay them or get around them, but then when I finally face up to the job I usually find it wasn't anything like as hard as I'd made it out to be. This was one of those. With the wiring diagram at hand and my trusty crimpers at the ready I had it done in about an hour. I shrink wrapped the starter terminal and messed with the turbo pipes a bit trying to visualize what bends I needed. In all I had 4 hours at the hangar and got quite a lot done. This is starting to look like an almost finished jigsaw puzzel. You know, when you're down to the last dozen or so pieces its just a matter of picking them up and placing them. The only significant (building) tasks left are plumbing the turbo and plumbing the AC system in the engine compartment. After that its down to testing, debugging, engine start, tuning, weight & balance, taxi testing and inspection. I must be getting close. I can say whats still needed in two sentences. Plan for tomorrow Finalize intercooler & condenser mounting Consider AC piping needed compressor > drier > condenser Figure out what pipes & bends I need for the turbo piping get push-fit barb for engine top air bleed

That's ambitious. The fastest I've heard of was Mike Higgins in about 15 months. I think Norm Muzzy was also under 2 years. My airframe was done in 18 months, and I worked a LOT of hours. Not saying it can't be done - just a lot of work in a short time. As for you're panel design. Yes I played with that tool too. Excellent bit of software and very helpful. First thing that comes to mind is the switch panel. Its usually top center. I think the reason is that you can glance at gauges and take them in. Swiches need a more precise identification/action, and take more time away from you're outside scan, so they're usually closer to the screen = less eye movement. I wouldnt be happy with small flight gauges. I was taught to look at the panel in one "look", then get my head back outside while "processing" what I'd seen. I wouldnt want to give up a lot of space to laptop storage. If I do use a laptop it wont be the permanent solution. A dedicated computer on the panel with appropriate easy access buttons (like go to nearest) is where I want to be eventually. I had a lot of trouble squeezing everything into the panel as it is. Ideally the two CDI heads should be on the left side so you're not looking at them at an angle. The compass is less used in these days of GPS, so I dont think it deserves to be in your face as much. I used a panel mount. When you read Bob Nuckolls' stuff you may decide on a fuse box instead of breakers as I did. This gets you some space back. Nose lift The electric nose lift must be mounted in a specific spot, and it comes with a manual backup. Forget the manual crank. The electric lift replaces it. Leather typically stands up better than viynl. Yes I did, while waiting for the plans. I learned a lot from those archives.

>As you know, slade is the read ahead kind... I'm not sure where you got that, Dust. I'm more of the "bull at a gate" type. I'd prefer to think of my approach as closer to a "Mr. Spock" thing. If the information is relevant to the decision I'm making today, then I want it. If it cannot impact me for x months, then I will consider it in X months. There's a lot of stuff to do, and a lot of factors to consider. If you can break the problem down and focus (key word) on ALL of the factors affecting today's decision you'll make good decisions. Of course, the trick is knowing for sure what factors to include. That takes a lot of research. As for Joe's original question, the problem with a lot of auto gauges is that they dont make them to measure all the things we need. The turbo boost, for example, is always in PSI in a car. We need to see the boost in relation to ambient pressure, so an aircraft boost guage reading inches of mercury is better for us. We want CHT and EGT. If you mix aircraft and auto guages you wont have a consitant look across the panel. Also the quality / reliability of some of the pretty auto stuff is low. Flourecent is cool in a car, but you want an A/C panel to be non reflective and non intrusive on you're attention outside the cockpit. I used the Westach white on black stuff. By the time you're ready the electronic EFIS / Engine systems might be reasonable in cost. I've always flown with the basic 6 flight instruments, so I wanted that familiar look and ease of understanding in my Cozy. Later, once I have a good comfort level with the plane, I'll think about adding an EFIS. Speaking of instruments etc. I just ordered a Brother 1500PC printer with white on clear tape to redo all my panel labels. The Dyno tapes are starting to look a bit tacky.

Well - you did decide on a Lycoming to get in the air faster. Now you pay the piper....

Isn't it strange how things always look better in daylight? Work reared it's ugly head this morning, and then there was Harbor Freight. I challenge any airplane builder to go into that place and come out in less than an hour. The only 1.75 inch wrench came in a huge set of 5, so I bought a $6 pipe wrench and put three layers of duct tape over the jaws. Worked just fine. I eventually got down to the hangar at noon. It didn't take long for me to realize that I could extract the compressor without removing anything else. It's tight, but it can be done. With the compressor off I was able to hook up all the water and oil hoses with good routing to avoid the intercooler etc. I managed to take 11 inches off the big 2 inch steel braided hose that runs to the back of the rad. The oil hose worked ok without replacement. Everything was back together in three hours. I forgot the battery charger, so that's the only remaining item from my list of problems. Things must be really bad in Pittburgh. I say this because my brother-in-law said it would be a cold day in hell before he'd fly in an airplane. He's arriving on USAIR this afternoon. I mention this only because it's probably going to slow me down a bit over the next few days. Plan for tomorrow (or the next day) Charge batteries Test fan Wire oil temp, oil press, CHT EGT Finalize intercooler & condenser mounting Consider AC piping needed compressor > drier > condenser Figure out what pipes & bends I need for the turbo piping Shrink wrap starter terminal get push-fit barb for engine top air bleed Oh, by the way - I got a call from Falcon today. They think they'll be able to get an insurance quote for me next week.

If you're not using the recommended part number from Wicks or Spruce, I would have thought a test of the foam would be absolutely essential. This is what holds you in the air, after all.

What an interesting day! I got so much done it's all bluring together. Let me see if I can sort it out... First I made another new bracket for the throttle cable. I had something of an inspiration. Well, to me it was an inspiration, to a trained engineer it would probably be a "well, Duh!". The throttle cable was working, but it had a few minor problems. It was a bit short and the angle wasnt quite right. Also the travel on the quadrant was too short. I made a replacement for the flange on the throttle body with it's pivot hole at a better angle and slightly father out. This corrected the cable routing AND the travel problems. Brilliant. Once I had it right in AL I remade it in steel, then bolted it to the original flange with safety wire ties. I may be being a bit anal on the throttle, but it something I really dont want to break or come loose. Anyway, I'm really pleased with the result. While making the al flange I discovered something interesting. Dan (my hangar mate) keeps a small bowl of water by the belt sander. I thought it was for dipping hot metal in to cool it down - nope - it's primary purpose is to put you're fingers in to quelch the burn when you test how hot a piece of metal actually IS. Anyway, back to the progress report. I did the final install of the throttle body with ultra-grey gasket sealer and safety wire everywhere. This is it. The compressor is on, the throttle body is installed. Just a few wires to get out of the way and its time for the lower cowl, pipe connectings - wow - almost engine start time. I'd run out of space in the existing wire holes in the firewall so I drilled a new one and threaded all the sensor wires into the cabin. This morning I sent an email to the tech gut at Westach for help on the wiring diagram, so I can't do this wiring till I get a reply [note: he replied this evening, in less than 24hrs, with a PDF wiring diagram. Excellent service. I'll do this wiring in the morning.] With the wires out of the way I installed the lower cowling. That sucker is HEAVY. It has the oil coolers, rad, fan, cowl flap, and ducting all built in. I manhandled it onto the table and wedged it in place. After a bit of jiggling I got it screwed up tight. I didnt mind the work because this cowling aint coming off again.... With the lower cowl installed I tried the upper cowl fit. Pretty good. I think this is going to work. I took off the upper cowl and proceeded to hook up the nasty front water hose. I say nasty because its only about 14 inches long and it has to bend a bit. I've had it on before and its a bear. I got it on ok after a struggle, but I can't tighten it because I dont have a big enough wrench = trip to Harbor Freight in the morning. Around this point a couple of Finnish guys, Ray and Jon showed up to admire the plane. Jon was thinking of building a Defiant. I think I talked him into a Cozy. Ray's building a sort of extended Tripacer with a V6. We had a good chat and I promised both guys rides when the plane's flying. After 6 hours at the hangar I came home, very pleased with the day. Tomorrow I'll hook up the oil and water hoses and will almost be ready to start thinking about firing the engine. I should have stopped while I was ahead. This evening I went back down to get a head start on the oil pipes, and everything went backwards. First job was to shorten one of the oil hoses by 3 inches to get a cleaner run. I did this and the hoses looked great, all nicely tucked out of the way. OK, now to install the hose on the engine oil outlet... With the compressor, TB and cowl in place there's no way to see and touch the fitting at the same time. One or the other. After a half hour of struggling and contortionism I concluded that the fit is sufficiently tight that the hose has to go on BEFORE the compressor. This means that the nasty hose, the cowl, TB (with all it's safety wire) and compressor have to come off again. Geeez. It gets worse. I moved on to try the rad hoses and found that the main hose to the back can go through a nice gap below the compressor - if it's fitted first. OK. I'll do both at once. Let's try the intercooler for size. I've had this on before. It fits nicely... with the outlet directly in line with my neatly tucked away hoses. The oil hose I shortened may now need to be lengthened to get it out of the way of the intercooler. Anyone know how you do that? Answer - you buy another 4 foot length of VERY EXPENSIVE hose. Agghhh. I didn't need another trip to the hose shop. At this point at was 11pm and I was looking for something - anything - good to end the day. I'd hooked up the bigassed fan in the lower cowl, so I flipped the switch to hear the nice "turbine" effect. Nothing. I checked the wiring. Power's there. As I reconnect it (from under the plane half way up the NACA scoop) I see the fan jig a bit. Don't tell me my brand new Ferrari fan has burned out. I checked the amperage draw with my spare battery. 0.8 amps. That ain't right. I think I have it figured out... all three of my batteries are either severly discharged or scrap, or my trickle charger is killing them. They'll run the LEDs and radios, but nothing with any draw. I'll take a REAL battery charger down tomorrow. I came home fairly depressed. Char could see by my face that things didn't go well. She asked, so I told her the list of problems. "That's WONDERFUL", she says. Huh? "Well," she says, "you've found a whole bunch of things that were wrong. Now you'll be able to fix them. I think that's great progress." Plan for tomorrow kiss the wife take battery charger get wrench from Harbor Freight go back to where I was 2 days ago fit engine out oil hose start working forward again....

Thats the best reason in the world to BUILD NOW. You won't have time when you're working!

Its nice to be acknowledged, Dust, but I have no idea what you're talking about.

Yes, I think it's a new site he's had put together. I found the link in Tracy's site. He is based in NC. I don't think Bruce is much of an on-line man, but you will tend to get him on the phone fairly easily and he's a great guy to deal with. There's another link you might like to check - http://www.yawpower.com/ Paul Yaw is quite an authority.

I think you got the answer twice already, Joe. The only criteria for the temporary firewall is that it's flat, stays firm and holds the longerons in place correctly. This is about the ONLY part that's temporary and material doesn't matter. Everything else - use the specified materials - just in case you wern't joking about the foam.