Kent Ashton

You may recall (but you probably won't) a Varieze we saw on ebay back in January https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/21972-sales-ive-seen/?do=findComment&comment=81579 N67EZ It looked squirrely. Sold as is, seller represented it had flown but he had no airworthiness certificate. To satisfy my curiosity I ordered the records from the FAA which came after 6 months. Yes, it is squirrely! What the records showed: First registered by builder T. J. Hazelrigg as Ver-eze, or Very-eze or Varieze N67EZ in 1975 and awarded an AWC. Additional AWCs in '75, '78. Ops limits given in '80. FAA bill of sale by Hazelrigg to a couple named Snodgrass in '95. Bill of sale from Snodgrass to Jeffrey Cundiff in Jan 2004. Bill of sale from Cundiff to John K. Collings in Oct 2004. Bill of sale from Collings to Tony Warnock Dec 2014. Acquired by Richard Kaczmarek from Warnock in a trade for some Quickie stuff. Letter from the FAA to Kaczmarek July 2020 & March/2021 saying Kaczmarek must produce bill of sale from Warnock. [RED FLAG]. Aug '21 email from Swaid Rahn to buyer Gary Moser saying airplane sold by Rahn to Moser as is with no paperwork. Moser attempts to register aircraft in Sep '21. Sale to Moser seems to have fallen through because ebay ad for the airplane posted by Rahn in Jan 2022. Bill of sale from Kaczmarek to John Henry Perez Feb/2022 (but Kaczmarek did not have a B.ofS. from Warnock and Rahn was selling the airplane. I'm guessing the Kaczmarek signature was faked). Aug 2022 letter from the FAA telling Perez he must show bill of sale from Warnock to Kaczmarek to register the airplane. Plaintive letter from Perez(?) to the FAA showing pics of the airplane saying it is the same one as owned by Kaczmarek. Nothing further. Current status in the Registry: Registration expired, sale reported. Edit: Now the only way I see to do this legally is to track down Mr. Tony J. Warnock of Mobile, AL who is in the FAA records and still kicking around and ask or pay him a small sum to sign a bill of sale to Kaczmarek. Kaczmarek's bill of sale to Perez is in the FAA record--actual signature or not, so that completes the chain of title to Perez. Interesting, yes?

It turns out I am many years behind on wood prices. Even Home Depot is selling two 6" maple boards for $97 (takes 6 boards to make my prop). There is a dying Ash tree on my property, being killed by the emerald ash borer. I wonder if chain-sawing a 6' length and carting it to a sawmill would be worthwhile? Maybe I could just cut-out a prop-sized chunk. Only one surface needs to be nice and clean, i.e., the surface that mounts against the prop flange. 'Course I would have to dry it for a year or more before I could use it. No, I guess will just bite the bullet and buy some kiln-dried boards. I like the multi-laminate Performance Props and have thought about buying a sheet of aviation-grade birch plywood and gluing-up pieces for a prop blank. A 1/4"-thick sheet of the aviation-grade stuff has 12 plies. The stuff at Home Depot, also birch, has three plies. A 4" prop hub thickness would take 16 pieces of 1/4" plywood. That is quite a lot of layers to apply glue to and clamp up. I suppose a slow epoxy hardener would tolerate the time to wet-out and clamp but a 3-blade prop likely needs a 3-arm clamp. I will stick to 2-blades for now.

Don Black's EZ reported sold on B-stormers. Originally listed at $40K, reduced to 36K. Sale price not stated. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/21972-sales-ive-seen/?do=findComment&comment=89695

I could not salvage my botched prop where the router bit cut too deeply after the bit got loose in the router. It cut into the other side of the prop. Dang! I was also unhappy with the Cascamite urea formaldehyde glue I used. I found it did not glue the boards together securely and pieces would separate at the glue line while cutting the blades. As I said, Weldwood Plastic Resin glue which I used successfully before is no longer sold. I might use Resorcinol the next time or epoxy. $319 worth of firewood. 😞

I can't swear to it but I don't think it matters much. I would guess an 1" should be fine. I think my Cozy is about an inch to 1.5". Here are a few http://www.briansplane.com/2016/07/ https://www.longezpilot.com/N6PC page4.htm http://www.freeflightcomposites.com/the-krossfire It is helpful to go to Google Images for this kind of question or even better Google Verbatim then Images to see what others have done. https://www.google.com/webhp?tbs=li:1 That's where I found these

4 lbs seems very light ballast for your weight and engine. Post a wt & balance if you have one. Regarding the bar: maybe you could attach the the rear shoulder straps to the mounts for the bar and use a center-strap behind the neck that pulls the shoulder straps in closer. You have not provided enough details or pics to help much. I doubt it the prop and extension change would make much difference but if you had the weights and stations it would be easy to make a spreadsheet. I imagine carbon cowls would help. My Cozy cowls are heavy as heck. Of course you are correct Marc but AFAIK, Rutan did not test the strength to destruction and the canard test I recall showed the canard design was much stronger than anticipated. So the true strength is unknown. As you know many people fly them heavy. If the basic structure had weak points, I think we'd have seen more in-flight breakups or reports of failures. Maybe it is just the way people fly them. They don't generally use a lot of G at high gross weights.

An EZ with an O-320 can tolerate being heavier than one with an O-235. The one I built (O-320-h2ad) was 993 then the next owner added electric nosegear and autopilot so it is probably about the weight of the one above. It flew just fine with him (about 190) and me (225) in the back seat. I used stouter main gear mounts, though. Those are a weak point.

Yeah, some good ideas there. The linear bearings on a shaft he uses are probably a lot easier to build and just a rigid as the Russian's idea.

Following up on the $60K EZ I just listed in my "Sales" thread (which seemed expensive), I see that a gallon of MGS epoxy and hardener today at Spruce is $358 plus shipping. https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/mgsresin.php What? $380 for a gallon of freaking epoxy! Yikes. This brings me to philosophize: That EZ seller should probably be asking $100K. With official inflation announced at 8.2% yesterday and the unofficial rate tracked by John Williams of ShadowStats--calculate the way they used to do it--at 18-24%, how can you protect you against inflation? Well, may I suggest gold miners. They should be going through the roof but instead they are Picassos-on-the-curb. Utter giveaways. Take a look at NFGC, ODV, and BTG. These are 30-40% BELOW where I bought them a year ago, sitting on visible gold with great drill results. Or just buy the junior miners fund, GDXJ. The precious metals and commodity metals, cobalt, nickel, copper are dirt cheap--pun intended.

This EZ today. N412DM. Couple more pics in the B-stormers ad. Sometimes I think the price might be a little dear for a 37-year airplane, even a past award winner, but at least it is a frequent flyer and to build a comparable today would likely be as much and not include your time and labor. I see that an EZ-Poxy kit--gallon of resin with hardener is $298 (plus shipping) at Spruce--and listed "no stock". Yeah I guess $60K doesn't look so bad now, huh, pallies?

Pretty good deal considering the retail price is $3470 + tax. Add another $150 for two coils. You can get them from Nology. Pic in the ad

Prop set up for routing (pic1). Notice anything amiss? Yeah, the blank is not mounted on the cutter side. 😞 I am using a wimpy 1/4" shaft router. It works but I think I will buy a larger 1/2"-shaft router. It is too tedious to rout off all the excess wood with the small router bit. Other than that, the prop-carver works well enough. Mistake #2: as I was routing the stations on one side of a blade, I noticed that the router bit had slipped lower on the shaft and was cutting the stations too deep! Dang! I think it can be salvaged but more checking required. My homemade carver works pretty well but I ran across this Russian chap with a stouter design that could be easily adapted for props. The video will not let me embed it but search for youtube video iOidSuCZG_I or cut&paste "Заменит ЧПУ ? Копировальный станок" I took a few screen shots (pics 2-4)

Many years ago Rutan recommended a black UV primer. Could be that. If so you would not want it on the airplane. Pic 1: Is the canopy cracked? A crack might be repaired though. The fit of the canopy looks good. Pic2: What is that foam(?) between the strake-skin and the centerspar? It looks like maybe Task (molded) strakes were glued to the centerspar with pour foam. Why paint places black like the aft face of the center spar? Pic 3: Some sort of separation of an aileron near the hinge? Aileron workmanship rough. Also, the skin was primed but not filled first. Might give problems later getting a micro/epoxy filler to stick. Also, rolls of fiberglass sitting on the hangar floor are not too reassuring

Today on FB: The nose could be rebuilt pretty easily but there are other pics that look rather unsettling. You would want to have a hard look with someone who knows EZs

for a low tech builder, prop with a straight trailing edge, that is, a trailing edge that would be flush with a table surface, is easier to build than a fully tapered prop. Then Paul Lippse, Gary Herzler, Jack Norris, et al, and my own experience convinced me that thin, tapered tips are very important. That empties my clue bag. I don’t know if thin blades like Performance Propeller builds have an advantage over wider blades but I don’t have the capability to make those stiff multi-laminate blades like PP. yep, watched the Culver vids

Welcome to the age-old confusion over the "major portion" rule and the Repairman's certificate rule. The "major portion' (51%) rule is that the major portion of the aircraft must have been built by amateurs for their education and recreation. Any amateurs, anywhere. With a plans built EZ, it is pretty easy to convince an inspector/DAR the major portion was built by amateurs. Just document your work from now on and you should have no problem. The Repairman's Certificate issue is different. Only one R.C. can be issued for each airplane and you need to show the inspector you know how to repair the aircraft. Usually that is not a high hurdle.

The way I do it is rather low tech but it's still quite a bit of work. I had the vertical mill and the bandsaw already. Made the prop-copier. Made the jigs to precisely drill the prop holes. Made the clamps to glue up the boards. For a fresh design I made two jigs for flat and curved sides that guide the prop-copier along the airfoil stations, then there was a lot of surplus wood removal. It is somewhat easier with a blade to use as a template. I enjoy the exercise but it is probably not worth doing unless you have a favorite prop blade to copy. The prop-copier is pretty low tech but his guy seems to have a good idea for a homemade CAD machine. Man what I could do with one of those! 🙂 https://youtu.be/0G3tEE7HEDA

The Montana EZ reported purchased. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/21972-sales-ive-seen/?do=findComment&comment=90277

Starting on another prop, a replacement for the last one I did not carve precisely. It is a 2-blade 67 X 80P (26.87 deg chord angle) which seemed to be about the right pitch for 180 hp but the last one was a nightmare to balance due to dumb mistakes so I will use one blade as a template. Wow, the price of maple is outasight--$319 for six 7-foot boards. Weldwood Plastic Resin glue is no longer made so I am using Cascamite, a similar british urea formaldehyde glue. I ordered 1.5 kg but half that seemed to be enough with a bit left over. Instructions say to apply to one board. Check out youtubes for some tips on the glue. [EDIT: I was not happy with this Cascamite glue. Maybe it is how I mixed it or applied it to one side of a board as instructed but at the ends of the prop-blank where I left a hold-down stack that would be cut off later, a couple of the laminates in the stack came away with a small bump. A chap on HBA said there are various formulations of urea-formaldehyde glue and some of them have been modified to make them "greeener". If you want to use it, do some tests yourself to check the strength of the lamination] I have shown my clamping setup in previous posts. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/33481-kents-propeller-thread/ Here is the rough-cut blank, partially cut out. Next step is to mount it in the prop-carver.

OT but I was just talking to a chap about generals exceeding their brief: (1) When I was flying Tweets, the general in charge of Training Command, George Simler, was a real a-hole. One mistake got you hammered. He was promoted to head of Military Airlift Command and took off in a T-38 with an IP in the back seat (his aide) on a final flight headed for MAC headquarters. Word was that he tried to do an aileron roll right after takeoff, got about halfway through the roll and tried to reverse it or the IP took control but the crash killed them both. The Accident board demurred. (2) From the book "Red Eagles": General Bobby Bonds was the head of A.F. Systems Command and wanted to fly one of the Mig-23s maintained at Area 51 (which he controlled). The Flogger would do Mach 2.35 but it had a throttle interlock that engaged above about 1.8 mach because throttle reduction at that speed would destroy the engine. You could only raise the nose a little and wait for the airplane to slow down. Bonds got an over-the-shoulder cockpit briefing from a pilot, took off and left his T-38 chase behind. It appears he tried to maneuver to slow down but the Flogger was unstable passing through the Mach. He bailed out, shredding his parachute. Lots of good stories in that book about the USAF Migs, including deadsticking a Mig-21 back into Tonapah. I watched a video by a test pilot with 1000 hours in the F-22. He said a Flogger would easily out-run the F-22

Today: Worth $1K if the wing attachments look decent. Might be worth that much even if they don't but some rebuilding would be required. A cracked canopy can be repaired with the proper glue so as to be almost invisible.

Today: Was listed at $45K about a year ago. I guess he has done more to it. Still a lot to go though. pics are from https://www.facebook.com/groups/CozyMkIV

My upper baffles near the head were smaller than I intended but the temps were pretty even with the other cylinders. I am satisfied with the wraps around the lower barrels. But yeah, I think you want to force all the air to go through the fins. I suppose it is a balance between shrouding the cylinders too much and restricting flow-thru, or small baffles that let the air spill out of the top without passing through the top fins.

90 years old and selling out. What a wimp! 🙂 No pics

Cylinders are re-ringed and installed. I used part of a break-in schedule from engine-man Mahlon_R on the Van's list (1) run at 800 rpm for 3 mins, cool until you can hold your hand on the cylinder 3-5 seconds, (2) run at 1000 rpm for 3 minutes, cool, (3) run at 1200 rpm for 3 mins, cool. Then I just went out and flew for an hour. Surprisingly, the cylinders did not get that hot--about 375F--but it is a nice fall day here. We'll see how they do in another 20-25 hours. Always looking for a better way to do baffles. Pic 1 is what I had before but it is fiddly to make and install. Pics 2 is a new idea, pretty easy to make and install. The outside wraps pull the center wraps tight and the small white piece made from soft aluminum flashing seals the irregularity on the case . Seal remaining cracks with silicone sealant. Below is a drawing (pic 3) and one of the halves shown on a cylinder. (pic 5) I have made these exhaust seals before out of round stove-door fiberglass cord liberally slathered with RTV and formed around scrap exhaust pipe. They last a long time. I cut this one to fit over the installed exhausts and looped .025 safety wire through it to hold it in shape. A few more pics here https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=61694