Kent Ashton

The plans engine mount angles in the firewall are a little undersized. The plans call for 1/8" thickness but they can develop cracks around the holes drilled for engine mount bolts. Lot of people have used 1/4" angle or steel angles or double up the 1/8". It involves exposing the mounting bolts for the angles inside the fuselage by uncovering the bolts above the strakes, driving the bolts through the longerons out and installing new angles. Then the main gear mounts are a weak point but might be OK. Hard landings & heavy weight loosen the bolts through the sides of the fuselage into the heavy mount angles. Cowls might need some rework. Not sure. I don't know where most O-235 installs position the battery but with heavier engines you will likely need it in the nose with a run of heavy cables. Maybe the new lithium batteries could be put in back. Personally I think an O-320 is the ideal power for an EZ.

Q-1: You might have to use a little more ballast when flying solo but others have moved the seat an inch or two. I am 5-11 and the only "fit" problem I had was my shoulder hitting the canopy frame. I scalloped-out a place for it, which helped. It depends also on the thickness of seat cushions. I imagine there are other 6-4 flyers--can't name any off hand, though. If you are broad-shouldered, that might be a problem. I have a 6-4 friend, rather stout and broad-shouldered, who just can't fit in my seats Q-2: I woudn't bother with a mockup but I'd find a Cozy owner in Oz and go sit in his airplane. Q-3: Many links at www.cozybuilders.org but here are a few I had bookmarked https://cozy1537.blogspot.com/search/label/Chapter 01 Description and Introduction https://ez.canardaircraft.com/www.ez.org/pages/waynehicks/index.html https://cozyserenity.weebly.com/ And a good Long-EZ builder site. Lots of overlap with a Cozy http://www.aryjglantz.com/p/blog-page.html

I have a welded Dynafocal Type 1 ring I am selling for $200. It came from Spruce. I have made my own engine mount for an EZ, see the early posts in my thread. I was just reading the other day about a chap who cut and positioned his engine mount tubes himself, held them in place with dabs of Bondo, and took the mount to a professional welder to finish. The welder tacked it, then wire-brushed away the Bondo. It is the bends in a DF ring that are a little problematic to DIY. The rest of the tubes are straight and pretty easy to cut and position.

If you do a google image search for Varieze, I see very few that appear to have lengthened noses. There is probably a good reason. 🙂 Usually the nose is lengthened to accommodate a battery but if you are concerned about total weight, a battery, copper cables solenoids and starters are going to add a significant weight. Maybe a modern lithium battery can be used, mounted on the centerspar. However, I hand-propped an O-320 for a while. It was doable and would probably be easier with an O-235. The guys using smaller engines can start them with a one-handed flip. Looks pretty easy. Here's how I lenthened the nose of a Long-EZ. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=69739 Below is a Long-EZ nose drawing with the pivot positioned lower and more forward. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=82196 I would look on the COBA website and ask questions on the Rutan Long-EZ and Varieze Public Group (Facebook). I wouldn't use a (heavy) electric noselift on a Vari. I would commit to hand-propping with an electronic ignition and manual primer mounted at the back of the engine.

Hard to say but maybe dropping the nose was enough to initiate a shimmy then hard braking aggravated it. I have felt it once or twice. I tightened the friction and that helped. Castoring nose gear systems do strange things. A story I might have told before: F-4s flew for years and blowing a tire would often result in running off the runway. We just assumed it was drag from the blown tire pulling the airplane. Then a smart young Captain investigating one in the New Orleans Guard determined that the real reason was that a blown tire lowered the wing enough on that side to cause the F-4's castoring nosewheel to steer the airplane to that side--like trying to push a shopping cart on it's side. Drag from a blown tire was not substantial. The flight manual said with a blown main tire to engage hydraulic nose gear steering but did not explain why. The New Orleans pilot had engaged the nosewheel steering but momentarily released it to lower the hook and pull the drag chute. Each time, the skid marks showed that the airplane had made a hard jink towards the blown tire.

Saw this video of some dramatic nose wheel shimmy. H/T Russ Meyerriecks & Scott McLean. Russ says his NW geometry is correct, i.e. the NW pivot shaft is tilted aft (top aft) when loaded, and other landings did not result in shimmy so it is puzzling. I presume his NW friction was good. It could be that heavy braking after the shimmy began made it worse. I think I would try to take weight off the NW to regain the geometry. Pic is for a tailwheel but the geometry is the same. BTW, I learned how to extract videos from FB using this site https://fdown.net/index.php 386946784_338748275363911_7748972533500186815_n.mp4

Consider that the takeoff roll for canards is longer than for tractor-engine airplanes and low HP is going to make it longer. Then about half the time you will be flying in a headwind so you want to fly somewhat faster but a low-HP engine will not allow that. Also, with a higher HP engine, you can always reduce power in cruise to extend your range. As I recall, had an O-320 in my Cozy III that usually used about 6.5 GPH but one time I really pulled it back with tailwind to get max range and I remember it was only about 4.5 GPH. Finally, there are times when you want to climb to get above some clouds or terrain and higher HP will help. If you're really interested in efficiency, work on drag reduction. Hertzler did a great job on that.

I know nothing but I see the A75 is rated at 75 hp and an O-200 is 100 hp--1/3 more hp. Gary Hertzler has done a lot with his (O-200?) engine. He'd be the one to copy if I was building a Vari

The landing run will be very short. 🙂 Depending on what is built into the nose, like an aluminum or phenolic plate, the damage could be light, ranging from just abraiding the plate to grinding off a 12" patch of the fuselage. A story: One day, preparing to land with my Dad in my former Cozy III (which is a heavy front-seat load compared to an EZ), we arrived at a strange airport between mountains, wind was blowing like heck. On downwind, I "lowered" the manual nose gear. On base at idle the gear warning horn came on. I had experienced problems with that warning system since it was also a canopy warning and sometimes activated if a microswitch was bent. Well, I heard the warning but I knew the canopy was locked and I knew I had just lowered the landing gear so I figured it was that pesky switch. However, surprise!, the nose gear was up! The grinding is unforgettable but it doesn't last long. I was able to extend the manual nose gear and taxi it off the runway. A friendly DAR/boatbulder had some materials in his hangar so I got a patch on it and flew home the next day. What happened was that a tower controller at the last airport had asked about the Cozy as I was taking off. We had a conversation and I forgot to retract the nosegear. It had a very thin strut so the extra drag was not noticeable and I was preoccupied with the weather enroute. Since then I use a very loud warning horn, green gear-down LEDs in front of me and my pax, and a viewing hole so I can see the nosewheel. I usually glance to see that the electric nose gear is beginning to extend. I don't have any manual backup for the electric gear but I have wired it as I suggested.

The motor is a Thomson electrak PPA-DC motor. You might get a part from a Thomson dealer. Frankly, I don’t think you would ever need the manual extension if you have any power to the unit. A straight wire off the battery through a resettable circuit breaker. With no power at all, just land with it up.

It would seem easy to wire your PTTs so that either button activates the function (pic) BTW, what is a LEMO?

Another interesting thing about this crashed airplane is that it was owned by the Kansas Aviation Museum before transfer to the deceased.

Just looking at this Cozy crash yesterday. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/346077 Pic shows the aircraft flat in a field(?), fuselage intact with the gear splayed. Looking at the ground track on Flightaware I will make a WAG that he was flying around at 6200 feet at normal speed and decided he needed to return to the airport but was only about 12 miles out (pic 1). He sees that he can't get down in that distance from that height and begins a circle to lose altitude (scroll the timeline in the diagram at Flightaware) but speed increases really fast. From time 0+26 to time 0+33 his speed goes from 150 mph to 193, altitude goes from 6000' to about 2000' and there is still one more 180 deg turn before the crash. There is a small airfield near the crash site (pic), according to https://www.cullmantribune.com/2023/09/29/vinemont-man-killed-in-cullman-county-plane-crash/ It appears to me he wanted to get on the ground very quickly. No fire mentioned. Fuselage intact. 54 y.o. pilot. Heart attack maybe

Looks clunky to me but might be worth the price. Wild guess that we are seeing the work of a second owner (who can't spell "AeroCanard"). Maybe a third owner can beautify it. The flat nose is pretty ugly and it would hinder adding & removing ballast in the nose which is necessary. Pretty hard to work on a nose-lift device through those small access hatches. Holes for the aileron torque tubes are drilled through the centerspar versus where they normally go (pic). Not deadly but not cool either. Torque tube seems to block the side of the fuselage where a storage area is normally cut-out and there is no cutout in the front-cockpit either. It could all be fixed if the original work is sound. Noses can be cutoff and rebuilt. He probably has $10K-$15K in material at this point.

Here is the wiring for the A210. It might help you determine what's what. You will see that power wires and PTT wires are not shielded but audio wires use shields. Headphone and mic jacks use the shields as a return path but perhaps the last guyused a two-wire connection to mic & headphone jacks with shields over them. https://www.ameradio.com/doc/Icom_IC-A210_installation_guide.pdf

No flat paint. It would get dirty and be hell to clean. Use epoxy-based primers and 2-component urethane topcoats--PPG, Axalta, etc. There is lots written here about filling and getting a smooth paintable finish. Use the search function. The weight of filler is not substantial. I don't recall anyone measuring before/after weight because it's useful to fill-as-you-go and use leftover epoxy to fill. It is probably the epoxy used in the mix that contributes to the weight, though. I use West Microlight filler--easier to sand--but microballoons on the leading edges. Micro is harder and resists bugs.

Yes, you could remove both F-22 and IP if you want to and it would probably be best. I was just trying to give you alternatives. Cut them close to the fuselage with your oscillating tool or Sawzall and grind off the leftover flanges and overlaps to the fuselage with an abrasive disk and a shop vac. I removed and replaced a winglet once--that had 13 or so layups. It is pretty easy to tell where the fuselage sides are if your go gradually. If you remove a bit of the fuselage sides or less, it won't hurt. I wouldn't try glue a new bulkhead on top of an existing bulkhead. Most everything on these airplane can be fixed. Just remove bad structure back to good structure and rebuild.

It looks like you started to cut out the instrument panel with the round instrument holes. I would rebuild that IP to the size shown in the plans, but trimming it so as to attach it to the leftover flanges on the sides with several (4?) layers of BID on each side of the flanges. I would extend it down to the stub center behind the wheel well and reattach it there with BID overlapping onto the stub. Fill the wheel-viewing hole for now and recut it later. You might get away without the center section but why? It all adds strength and rigidity to the fuselage. Remember that a 200 # pilot at 4.4G is loading that centersection with part of 880 pounds. This would be a good time to cut off the top of the fuselage off of the longerons and make a removable cover over the instruments. It is not hard to do with some hinge hardware on cover and the longerons to make it removable. You will thank me when you start wiring the airplane and working on instruments. The Cozy plans show how to do it. However what bothers me is the structure and UNI layups shown on p. 4-2 of the plans (pic) which have been cut away or left off the sides of F-22. They were likely designed there to transfer the canard load to the fuselage. At the very least, I think I would replace the missing F-22 pieces there, replace the 9 UNI layups on each side of F-22 and replace the BID attaching F-22 to the fuselage. You could overlay the existing layups with new all over the F-22. It would make the F-22 a bit thicker but it won't matter. OTOH, you could sand away most of the existing layups with a die-grinder and abrasive disc, attach new foam at the sides, and rebuild according to plans. It sounds like a mess but it goes pretty fast.

Today's Barnstormers: N35PC. No pics of interior in the ad

Yep, DAP shows it but I called and they said it’s discontinued.

I started a 2nd prop. Weldwood Plastic Resin glue is no longer sold so I used Cascamite. Tried to apply it per directions and it did not hold. Boards could separate at the glueline with a little twisting. Fortunately I had to scrap the prop for other reasons.

This today, N64HL in Michigan. Seen on FB. This site is restricting pic size.

This today. At KEDE in eastern N.C. Seller doesn't want to reveal the price. Gotta beg for it. 😞 N88VE I have seen this airplane. The builder lived not far away. It really was a nice job.

Post some of them

The poster of the ad, Don Morris, appears to be selling the shabby Dwight Yoakem Long-EZ we saw here a while back. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/21972-sales-ive-seen/?do=findComment&comment=91774 N84DY is still registered to Michael Vendl. Vendl and Morris both live in Murphysboro, IL near Carbondale. Whole story is below