Kent Ashton

The canard lift tabs bolt to the F22 (in an EZ). IMO, if all your layups around the F22 and inside the fuselage that tie the F22 to the fuselage seem undamaged it is probably just a matter of repairing the filling on the outside and repainting. Yeah, you probably flexed the side of the fuselage inward with your straps but if it did not distort the fuselage it is probably OK. I have a crack in the leading edge of my Cozy strake where I bumped against a hangar support. Never fixed it. I think the filler is rather brittle and will crack before there is much other damage. When you tear the fiberglass, that's when it's a big repair.

Came across this good writeup on keeping the interior of the engine dry to prevent rust. http://www.longezpush.com/engine-dehydrator/ If you can keep the interior relative humidity below about 40%, the steel won't rust (pic). I have made these from an ammo can but almost any container will work. Circulate the air through the oil filler and the breather tube. I have also found the dessicant gets oily on an engine that has run. These days I blow the oily moisture out of the engine for 30 seconds with an air mattress pump, then hook up the dehydrator. Plug the exhausts. Not much you can do about open intake valves but I doubt that cylinder rust is as big a problem and cam/lifter rust.

I took Mr. Z's advice and cut and epoxied my landing brake to take the warp out of the forward edges discussed here https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=64376. Seems to work. Two layers of BID used. Looking forward to testing this annular slot antenna with my transponder. Brass (.012") came from McMaster, black support from a scrap modem case (ABS plastic), plan from Del Shier who scaled it for the transponder/ADSB range. He says it should give a 4-6db gain over a quarter-wave antenna

Chaps, I have miles of this 16 and 18 gauge wire I got from a surplus dealer. I will sell 100 foot length of each for 20 cents a foot and ship it in a flat-rate box for $8. This is less than 1/2 the price of Spruce. Total price $48.00. PM me if you want any. kjashtonATvnetDOTnet If you want to know what it is and if it is suitable for aircraft (it is) see my earlier post about wire. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=61303

This Vari on FB for $28K. N3762B in Missoula, MT. Old ad but a commenter says it is still for sale https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N3762B

Good 'ol Burt. You couldn't get a much lighter mechanism that that. Here are some Variezes being propped. Personally, I would put the primer back on the baffles. Electronic ignition also helps. I had an airplane that primed via an accelerator pump in the carb but it was problematic and can cause an engine fire if the engine backfires. A dedicated 2-cylinder primer is better. Have fun! https://youtu.be/okakTWbYPV4 https://youtu.be/r5mrYjWEVEA

Got a bit more info on the above EZ. N25ED deregistered. Built in 1985, but last inspected 1991. Appears to have had a fuel leak in the strake area repaired (pic 2). Nose extended but not quite finished. Gone through a couple of owners. Instrument panel cut out (pic 1). Lots of work needed to resurrect that one

That looks nice! I have never seen that pushrod gear mechanism--weird. The usual elevator trim springs on the EZs are a poor design IMO. It takes high friction to hold a trim setting which makes it hard to move the trim and one spring is pulling against the other . You might like the idea in this picture. It uses a "Davenport" fiberglass trim spring and the lever adjustment. https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=61752 Starter: When I see people start those Varis, it looks like all it takes is a casual flip or two and they're going. If you install a starter (heavy) you might need heavy cables from a battery in the nose to the starter and extra relay. One of the attractions of the Vari is the ease of hand-propping. I hand propped my O-320 Cozy for a while and finally installed a starter when all I really needed was a primer mounted on the baffles so I could give it a shot or two of prime and flip it (I had a pumper carb at that time--not a good priming method). Plus it looks cool. :-)

Ah yes, your fit is pretty good at the hinges. My idea probably wouldn't work. A number of EZs have an additional canopy lock in the right forward corner to pull the canopy down. What happens is that at altitude in cold weather the acrylic shrinks and lifts the forward edge of the canopy. In fact, your problem might go away in the summer. :-) You might just live with it for a while and see.

Saw this interesting video by Karl Walter about removing Varieze wing attach fittings. https://youtu.be/FEftp5OT1-A

If the gap is 1/4” on the hinge side, It might be preferable to inset the hinges deeper into the longeron. There are probably some layers of BID and UNI over the longeron you would have to hog out and replace to deepen the recess. The hinge part on the longeron could be removed and the canopy fit checked. Maybe the problem is not the hinge

Seller has lots of pics posted for his Iowa/S.Dakota Long-ez project. Price reduced to $2500 now and the main thing that seems to be missing is the wing/winglet foam--easily acquired. Workmanship looks very good so far. https://longezforsale.godaddysites.com I estimate he has at least $10K in it, just on materials, and probably 400-500 hrs of work at a Seattle minimum wage of $16/hour = $8000. A Picaso-on-the-curb. :-) ---------------- Also saw this EZ on Barnstormers (3 pics). Looks to be recovering from a nose ouwie but perhaps the engine alone is worth the price. These things are very repairable so don't let that put you off. RUTAN LONG EZ LYCOMING O-235 • $9,500 • DELIVERY AVAILABLE • Complete project airplane with airworthiness certificate. Flown about 400 hours. Needs paint since mods were performed. Includes engine, prop, instruments, build materials, multiple sets of plans, engine accessories, exhaust, cowls, brackets, hardware, memorabilia, airframe logs, seats, control surfaces.... Everything to make it airworthy. Wings are off for shipping. Can deliver. • Contact Kevin Provost, Owner - located Keene, NH United States • Telephone: 7602075101 • Posted December 13, 2019 Seller is in the FAA registry but no EZ listed. I imagine it was deregistered.

A chap was asking if he should put small NACA scoops on his wheel pants to cool the brakes. I would think that heat in the rotors, and pads from a heavy-weight, hard-braking landing is generated in seconds and blowing air over the brakes at taxi-speeds would seem to take minutes to lower their temperature. As an amateur welder, I don't find that blowing on a hot piece of steel has much effect; it generally cools by radiation or a dip in water. By the time air-cooling would work, the pads have absorbed the heat and faded or the heat has been conducted into the caliper and into old moisture-laden brake fluid which can boil and you've lost your brakes. Also there would not be much flow into a forward-facing NACA scoop during a taxi-back downwind after landing so my guess is that they are likely a waste. OTOH, the drag generated by NACA scoops is present all the time. Think of it this way: In flight, air is taken into the wheel pant, accelerated to almost the speed of the airplane inside the wheel pant, then returned to freestream, turbulent. That takes energy in the form of drag. I saw a Long-EZ at Sun-n-fun one year with the wing propped up on a 2X4. Pilot had landed (hot?) with his wife, baggage pods and fuel. Heat radiated off the brake rotor had softened the strut which had folded. He was trying to straighten it out while it was still hot. That has happened a lot. A buddy of mine was taxi-testing his newly-bought airplane--an airplane that had sat for some years with old brake fluid. After a few runs down the runway and taxiing, his brakes faded on one run and he ran off the end of the runway. Keep your brake fluid fresh. Which reminds me from my F-4 days that the fire department carried spike strips on their trucks. If a fighter landed so hot its brakes were glowing, the firemen might have the pilot taxi the airplane over the spike strip to deflate the tires, otherwise the heat conducted into the tire (which was already cold-inflated to some huge psi) could make the tires explode. Experience with the canard airplanes has shown that plans-recommended brakes are fairly marginal.

The spring is some sort of spring steel allow, painted. Pretty sure it used a stock die spring of some value. Your diagram says 1094 lbs for an EZ but I could not immediately correlate that with a spring manufacturer's part number. I would guess the original mechanism was made by Ken Brock Mfg (out of business). Used ones come up as people convert to electric nose lifts. You might ask David Orr if he has one or they would not be hard for a machinist to make. Search for David Orr Canardfinder.

Below is a conversation copied from a canard FB page. It is clear that 2/3rds of the respondents do not know what they are talking about or never heard of the Varieze wing-attach corrosion problem. Out of a dozen replies, Joe Person--an old guy--nails it. Tom Watkins gets close. The rest range from ignorance to bad guesses. No one offers a cogent discussion of the problem or supporting photos. Thank you Mr. Zuckerberg. So the OP says "Thank you" and goes away thinking what?

Saw this one on a FB page today: N229CM Out of registration https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/NNum_results.aspx?NNumbertxt=229CM No price, description, or contact information and the seller's own FB page is pretty much empty but he appears to be in Oregon. At least he didn't say "serious buyers only" :-)

Ha! Yes, further research shows it was a little different than I recalled--the sawhorses were more under the spar, and it was a Cozy--but I have a source document. https://groups.google.com/d/msg/cozy_builders/gElusCfnsyo/LfDLlcQ8IcsJ Then there is this method (also Cozy) from a Mr. M. Zeitlin. :-) https://groups.google.com/d/msg/cozy_builders/47t7NIdves0/RLUpVEfWBQAJ No idea if this will work on a Vari. Heck, you can just pick them up and have a buddy shove a sawhorse under the spar, right? And one more idea for a support (pic)

1. I haven't used this method but I have seen it work on EZs: put a couple of sawhorses under the leading edge of the strake (with wide support so the horses don't dent the strake skin), then lower the nose. It will lever the main wheels off the ground. 2. A 2x4 lever (pic 1) under the strut. But many axles are angled down at the outboard end so it has to lift high enough (a couple of inches) that you can pull a wheel off. 3. Similar idea (pic 2) which I think is from Vance Atkinson

I saw a picture of it when it was white so I would bet some of the weight is paint-on-paint. Even possibly paint on primer on polyester filler on original paint on primer on filler. It's such a huge job to strip off an old finish, refill and respray . . .

This Vari today N76LN https://flightaware.com/resources/registration/N76LN High-time engine (1436 hrs) even though the seller seems to say it could go to 2400. The airplane has been through several owners. Check those wing attach plates! 1982 RUTAN VARIEZE • $23,000 • NEW TO MARKET • Nice Vari Eze loaded with great avionics. IFR capable. Great aircraft to build canard time for Velocity, Raptor, Cozy, or Long Ez. TTAF: 733, O-235-C1B, SMOH: 1436, TBO: 2400, elect starter, spinon oil filt, oil cooler. MGL Xtreme EFIS, RDAC XF EIS, MGL Velocity B/U att, hdg, turn/ball, PS PMA9000EX audio w/ Bluetooth and music storage, Garmin SL-30 Nav/Comm/ILS/LOC/VOR/DME, Garmin 106A Nav CDI, Garmin 696 power & antenna cable, KT76C mode C transponder, non ADSB, LED Nav/Strobe/Landing lights, Cleveland brakes, new paint, new seat belts, complete logbooks, 457.5 useful load. $23,000 OBO • Contact Jeff Hullinger, Owner - located Lancaster, OH United States • Telephone: 7037746013 • Posted December 7, 2019

Your profile says you are building a Long-ez. You can lengthen the nose and build-in space for a 25AH battery, use an electric nose lift, keep the oil cooler forward in the cowls and as Bruce suggests, use EI in place of rather heavy mags. Even so, I am 225-230 and I still had to use about 15 lbs of shot just ahead of the rudder pedals to get a satisfactory stall response although I probably could have operated without it. You might also build-in some space for weight closer to the battery. My smallish friends without the long nose need even more weight--25-30 lbs to balance with an O-320.

Saw this Long-ez project on Craigslist linked to here https://longezforsale.godaddysites.com Lots of stuff. He says his canopy is creased(?) but the workmanship looks very good. Well worth the $3K asking price, IMO. In the Iowa/South Dakota area.

Saw this static prop balancing device in a Van's thread (pic 1). What a piece of kit! It puts my homemade balancer to shame

This Vari on Barnstormers: 1981 VARIEZE PROJECT • $4,850 • OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING!! DON'T MISS OUT • OBO TTAF 38Hrs No Engine or Prop VHF New Inst Panel AW Cert NoTime to Complete • Contact Max Reece - RED RIVER AIR, Owner - located Wichita Falls, TX United States • Telephone: 9406961571 • Posted November 27, 2019 Then the Cozy project below on Facebook. Well worth the $4500 asking price, IMO. In Seattle.