Chris Byrne

This is mine. All works well and they all talk to each other. The compass is a tempory one. Not happy with the Falcon one I have which is hidden by the maps. The GRT's are the initial ones, I may upgrade to the high res ones at some stage but these are great as they are.

Jeff. Will be in Cowra on Sept 19th and 20th for Sports Aircraft fly in. And with some luck there should be some pictures attached.

Day Two. Sydney Harbour. Tuesday was another brilliant day. The kids were sent to Granma’s and my wife Sarah and I set off to use a bit off the fuel I had left over from the day before trip. The beaches of Sydney are well known around the world and we are lucky enough to have a special VFR corridor that allows us to follow the coast up past Sydney’s International airport along the beaches Bondi, Maroubra, Bronte and past the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Travelling further north you pass Manly and Pittwater. As you pass within about 4 nm of Kingsford Smith airport you are required to be at 500’ for most of the trip to stay out of CTA and away from the Jets, all the better for sightseeing. As I had never done this before and certainly not in a plane I had built in the back yard we decided to take advantage of the free time. I decided to file a flight plan as I was intending to do something rather special. Depending upon traffic, usually helicopters on commercial sightseeing trips, you may be lucky and get a clearance to enter Sydney Harbour. We departed Mittagong headed east for 17 nm and were soon flying over the water just off the coast at 500’. In about fifteen minutes we were just south of the airport and beginning to pass the first of Sydney’s beaches. Maroubra, Bronte and Bondi slid past and soon after we passed Sydney Heads northbound I climbed to 1500’called up ATC and requested a clearance for a scenic into the harbour. Well it was a bit congested and it was going to be up to thirty minutes before I could get in. I decided to hang around for 15 minutes OCTA and see what happened. Cruising around at 1500’off the coast and just north of Sydney is not all that hard to take. Right on fifteen minutes our patience paid off and we were on our way, cleared Manly-Harbour Bridge for two orbits. In short order the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House were under our wing tip as we circled just east of the Bridge. The usual ferries and pleasure boats scurried across the harbour. There was an unusually high number of people (thousands) gathered on the shore in one particular spot, the police helicopter was buzzing around as well. It dawned on us, the Pope was in town and the youth of the world were gathering for their official welcome to World Youth Day. In hindsight we were probably lucky to get into the harbour. As I am sure any of you that have been to Sydney know, Sydney Harbour is one of the great sights of the world and to spinning above it in a plane you have put together yourself is really something. As we were allotted two orbits only, it was soon time to track towards the Sydney Heads, descend to 500’ and rejoin Victor 1. The runway in use at Sydney had changed and as we headed south at 500’ a couple of 737’s passed overhead a 2000’ on final for RWY 25. In total 1 hour and 20 minutes of very pleasant flying. Another plus was Sarah decided to have a go at this flying thing and hopped out quite chuffed with her tracking and altitude holding abilities. There you have it, three days of Cozy cruising. If your still building, stick with it, these aircraft are not only fun to fly they actually come in pretty handy at times.

COZY CRUISING. Just thought I would let you know my how I have made use of my Cozy IV last week. Sat the 12th was a short hop down to Goulbourn airport for a SAAA Chapter visit. A rather hastily organised visit due to changeable weather saw about 10 aircraft arrive. One of the members John Ten’Have has two rather very hangars there, one is three floors high and he has a rather elaborate living area on a mezzanine level. John has a Vari Eze that he purchased and a very nice Long Eze that he has built. The Long has been a month’s work away from flying for the past year or so, hangar building has gotten in the way. Anyway it just on 50nm from Mittagong, the airport where I keep my Cozy, and just over 15 mins saw me there. These two towns are joined by the main freeway to Melbourne and as such it’s a favourite VFR route for aircraft leaving the main airports in Sydney as it helps them avoid the higher ground and cloud. All this means it’s pretty busy, especially on the weekends and I passed two opposite direction aircraft with not much more than 500’ and a mile between us. Still have to get TCAS. I had a son down in Melbourne on holidays and he had to come home on Monday. I had two options. Drive 1.5 hours to Sydney, wait 40 mins to board a Jet spend 1.5 hours on the jet getting to Melbourne (gate to gate) and hour on the ground and do it all in reverse on the way home. That’s just on 8 hours assuming no delays and no traffic on the way home. Or I could go by Cozy. Seven hours after leaving the house I was landing back at Mittagong and that included having to refuel before I left and spending and hour and ¾ on the ground in MEL chatting with my brother. No contest. I filed IFR even though it was blue sky all the way to MEL and return. I find it much easier this way, ATC gives you all the frequency changes, comes up with clearances for CTA when required and keeps an eye on traffic for you, even calls up and offers the ATIS. I departed with full tanks for the flight of 346 nm, climbed to 6000’, plugged in the autopilot and watched the scenery go by. I planned just to the north of Canberra down to Albury and Eildon Weir and into Essendon ( MEL’s secondary airport). Essendon is within a stone’s throw of the main Tullamarine airport. I went north of Canberra to avoid some of the more inhospitable terrain which was a good idea, but I didn’t think enough about the terrain around Eildon Weir, it’s pretty rugged below and next time I will find another way to plan into Essendon. I just like to have the option of descending if I encounter ice or the unthinkable happens and the engine cough’s. Anyway after watching the snow capped peaks of the Snowy Mountains (not really mountains, the highest terrain we have in OZ is 8000’) pass by on the left I was on approach in MEL. Requested and was granted an approach and landing on the non operational runway so I could carry out a practice ILS. The TT Digitrak and GRT EFIS did a very good job of that. I set up a HDG, armed the LOC and watched as the LOC was captured. All I had to do was wind in the appropriate descent rate on the TT Altrak/VS and down we went. Taxiing in, ground advised me to expect amended tracking on departure, apparently I had filed outbound on and inbound only route. 2 hrs and 13 minutes. After nearly two hours on the ground I strapped Harrison in the front, threw his bags in the back, set up Dora the Explore on a portable DVD, pressed the isolation button on the intercom and set off. Taking off on RWY 35 required an early turn to the east to avoid bumping into a 767 on approach to Tullamarine, a few more vectors saw me clear of the Jets, heading north and on climb to 9000’. At about 8000’ I heard a pop or a crack; I looked around a bit and decided the cover over the control torque tubes had moved due to the change in temperature. A few minutes later I detected the unmistakable smell off chicken chips, Harrison’s bag of chips had decided to give it in. I had been warned! Except for the initial 1/3 of the trip I pretty much went home the way I departed. On the way back I decided to keep the RPMs up a bit more and cruised home with a TAS of 167kts and as I got closer to home with a bit of a tail wind I had a GS of 195kts. An interesting thing happened on the way home. I called ATC about 80 miles in advance and gave them an amended route. The response was that they would get back to me with an amended clearance as I was still in controlled airspace. I was a bit perplexed as I had just looked at the chart and it showed up as “E” airspace. Then it dawned on me, as I was IFR, I was controlled in Class E, funny thing is that if I was VFR in Class E I wouldn’t have been controlled and would not have needed a clearance to be there, strange. Anyway I think I’ve got that bit basically right, it just seems a bit strange but I guess it’s a good thing, it’s better than blasting along in G airspace, at least I have ATC keeping an eye on me and they know about most of the other traffic around me. Descent was started 35 miles out to lose the 6000’ and get me down to the circuit height of 2800’ at Mittagong. Dodged a couple of other aircraft that were following the freeway again. Touchdown was 2 hours and 6 minutes after liftoff for an average groundspeed of almost 170kts. Dora finished and Harrison had to be woken by his mother on arrival. A few figures for the flight! 9400DA 2610RPM 21MAP IAS148 TAS171 Real TAS 166 32.5L/HR 8.5G/HR 50LOP CYL TEMP’s 302 298 323 308 OIL Temp 160F 9400DA 2550RPM 19.8MAP IAS144 TAS166 Real TAS 161 29.5L/HR 7.8G/HR 50LOP CYL TEMP’s 287 290 309 297 OIL Temp 160F All speeds KTS and the IAS reads 5 kts fast at these speeds hence the Real TAS figure. Total fuel used was 145 litres or 38 US gallons for those of you who refuse to change with the times. Day two to follow

Dave. You are right, nothing structural in the bottom winglet. I would use some 5 minute epoxy (or the real deal) and get the tear to stick back in place and just use some tape to cover the exposed foam till you get home. If you can, get some of the foil "100MPH" tape. The use it on Boeings so it will stay put on our machines. Good hardware stores will have it. It is used on heater flues etc so may be in that dept. A plumbing supply shop will have it as well. You can probably just get away with the tape. The main thing is you dont want that bit of torn glass flapping in the breeze. As for the wheel pants, if its just in the filler I would stick some epoxy in the cracks and leave it at that. Main thing is to make sure the pant is still very secure and that its not going to move in flight. If its more that just a crack in the filler you should probably sand the area back a bit an put a couple of BID tapes over it. From the pics it dosnt look like you can just take the whole pant off that easy. Must have been bloody windy, I guess I will get it in a couple of days. Chris Byrne.

Tony. I see no response to your quirie. If you are after a stronger one try Jack Wilhelmson of electric retrac fame. He has a stronger stainless NG3, you still have to get the inner bracket from Brock or make one. NG3 is $30.00 US listed on his Web page. Not sure of the sizes of the strut, can measure mine if you like. Im not far up the road from you. Message in your box about a couple of other issues.

Oh, forgot They dont have email or Credit card facilities.

Brocks fax is 714 8940811. The prices on the Web are not current.

Wicks Cat quotes Joules. Robbie Grove says they are ft/lbs. From comparing pad sizes the Grove pads appear to be at least the same dimensions as the highest energy Clevelands. Not sure if they are made of the same material or if their discs are as thick( therefore as capable of energy absorbtion). There have been numerous discussions on energy absorbtion and the need to have at least brakes capable of the high 200's. From what I can determine and someone may correct me but C210's and the like have brakes capable of less than 200000ft/lb(this of course dosnt make them acceptable or correct) Here's a different way of looking at the energy requirement. Someone (an experienced Cozy owner)said that the 192000lb Clevelands are capable of locking the brakes on a Cozy. So I deduct that if I stand on the brakes hard enough to lock the brakes (and as yet the Cozy dosnt have anti skid)the tire absorbs all the energy and as long as the brakes are capable of locking you dont have to have brakes capable of absorbing 318000ft/lbs. Of course the tire might not handle the energy requirements either. Theres many issues in this stopping thing, locked brakes is but one. For what its worth. I purchased the Grove 57-1, havnt seen them yet. Wicks have them listed for less than buying direct.

Butt your skin against the fuselage in the correct position with reference to the spar. The stake will be touching the fuselage side but will have around a 3 inch gap at either the forward or aft end of the fuse(Cant remember and there may even be a gap at both ends) Anyway find were the largest gap is ( This is the ammont that will have to be removed from the area where the stake touches) Get a piece of thin wood (or cardboard) and drill a hole in it for your marker pen at the distance of the gap. With your pen in the hole run this piece of wood along the side of the fuselage marking the strake as you go. You then cut along this line (be conservative and dont cut to the line in one go) Before you cut have a look at the mark, you will see that in the area of the largest gap you will not be cutting into the strake at all. In the area where the stake touches the fuse side you will be removing the most (this will be the 3 inches IE you will be cutting of as much as the gap is wide)

Have been looking at for one for a Subaru. It needs around 1.82:1. Tracy Crooks are the wrong ratio and as of last week the only different ratio he was looking at was 2.85:1 for the RV8 engine. (250hp at 9000rpm). Subaruaircraft (Engenfellner) have the right ratio and some of their drives have hundreds of hours on them but they sell the complete package and wont sell a drive. SUB4, a New Zealand company have one (search SUB4)its around 2.4:1 and around $2500 US. It is capable of 300HP, not sure how many are in service. They have a smaller one that is used on Gyros and there appears to be quite a few of these in service. Using a anything above a 2:1 ratio on a Subaru means the prop has to be of large diameter (not poss on a Cozy) or highly pitched, not desirable. Someone may have more info on this side of things it but the two that have putSubarus in Cozys have used 1.82:1 Marcotte is 2.2:1. From a bit of research I would think that a planetary drive has more chances of surviving for the greatest time. Only planetary drives that I see are the Crook one and the Ross one. Is Ross still in production?

Would agree entirely with Wayne. Simple works real well, and the hole for the screwdriver is the way to go. The most important thing you can do is have a a good power supply. I started with the two battery chargers hooked together to give 24 volts and then a simple rehostat to reduce the voltage to 18 for the large saw and 9 for the small. It didnt work for me. Battery charges kept o'heating and tripping off even after bypassing the safety switch. Seems you need to be able to get to at least 6 to 8 amps at 18 Volts to heat the wire. If you have battery chargers with this capability then they would prob work well. The battery chargers wouldnt work at 5 to 6 amps and the present set up is using less than 10 amps, so somewhere in between is required. I now use a 240V to 32 Volt transformer to give me the 18 volts I require. Voltage is controled by a hosehold dimmer switch placed between the mains and the transformer. (ie:reduce the voltage before it gets to the transformer) Dont ask me how this works but I think it has something to do with the dimmer not being able to handle the large amperage downstream of the transformer. Just cut all the wing cores with this setup last week.

Jack This sounds like a good idea to me. Just finished cutting the cores for the wings today so almost perfect timing. I for one am interested in further details.