Kent Ashton

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.

Nice Marc, but there might be more to repair there after a tipback. I have had two of them in different airplanes. It broke the pant-fairing around the strut and did other damage but I was able to patch them up. Come to think of, if you use a bracket like mine, it might be good to make it the arms out of horizontal pieces that will bend. In my case, the aft end of the pant was forced up and the pant rotated around the outside axle nut. My bracket did not bend very much which damaged the pant a little more. If the bracket had bent, maybe my damage might have been limited to the fairing I have seen guys that made a very strong rigid arm on the strut that stuck out in the rear of the pant to catch the airplane in a tipback but it does not seem very practical. Yeah, wheel pants are a pain.

Bruce, a good way to search the web is with Google Verbatim. https://www.google.com/webhp?tbs=li:1 Then select IMAGES and your search words. It will search only for the words you enter. Search for COZY WHEEL PANT BRACKET or COZY or LONG-EZ WHEEL PANT BRACKET will bring up many photos and expositions on how to mount wheel pants. Google does not seem to catch all the photos on the other canard forums and groups so you will have to search them separately. Many ways to do it but for the inside mount, I use a steel bracket--maybe .040 4130--with two nutplates (pic 2, bracket is reversed from the first pic) which gives a three-point mount (nut, bracket, bracket). The bracket is drilled for the axle bolt pattern. For this bracket, you would would have to remove your axles and sandwich the bracket between the strut and your brake lines. Below is a photo from outside the wheel showing the bracket. The bracket can be bent to match the inner contour of the pant. One of the best Ideas I read for drilling the pant to the bracket was to position a laser pointer to point at the nutplate hole, then mount the pant and it will show where to drill for the bolt. Or at strong light inside the pant will show the nutplate hole. It is a very fiddly process.

Today's Barnstormers: E-RACER PROJECT • $15,000 • AVAILABLE FOR SALE • E-Racer project for sale. Canard complete, wings need winglets attached (included) I have most of the gear pieces as well. Fuselage has bulkheads installed and nose gear. Spar had not been drilled for wings or installed. Factory strakes and cowlings included. Lots here. no engine Text if interested. • Contact Martin Skiby, Owner - located Bakersfield, CA United States • Telephone: 661-340-0575 • 661-393-5418 • Posted November 22, 2019 The glass work looks pretty good. More pics in the ad

Discussing misfiring with my friend with a new-to-him Cozy said "I thought the left mag was on the left side of a pusher". Well I suppose it could be but it is dangerous to get this confused. The "left mag" on a tractor airplane is usually the impulse mag on the left side of a tractor airplane but it is on the right (starboard) side of a pusher. This is important because starting on the non-impulse mag or in "both" can result in a kickback that breaks the starter. Also, the mags must be wired correctly to the ignition switch so that when you intend to disable the "right" mag (on the left side of a pusher) in order to start the engine, you are disabling the non-impulse mag. Also #2, as even newbies know, mags are hot unless they are grounded-out. Turning a magneto ignition switch "On" is actually opening the ground wire to that mag and un-grounding it. Incorrect wiring might mean you are making the wrong mag hot. This has occurred with incorrectly wired or defective key ignition switches. IMO, it is better to use toggle switches for mags, then use a key switch for starting. A broken "P-lead" wire also makes the mag hot so be careful with those, too.

Just reading this 2017 Varieze accident. Water and debris in the fuel. Engine found to be corroded by the NTSB. http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/11/fuel-contamination-rutan-varieze-n830s_19.html The 35 year-old, 691 hour airplane only "flew" 2.1 hours from 2015-2017. It was inspected 4/2017 and registered to the non-builder pilot in 6/2017. Pilot said he had flown a dozen trips in it before the 9/2017 accident. Take a look at the water and gunk in his fuel in the pic below (annotations mine) or here https://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/document.cfm?docID=477708&docketID=62975&mkey=96064 Here is my suggested scenario: An older Varieze becomes inactive, sit outdoors with mogas in the tanks for some years and also got rain and dew in the tanks past 35 year-old o-rings. Non-builder seller gets a light condition inspection from a shop not used to dealing with Varis and sells it to new owner. New owner takes the inspection at face value. After a few trips the gunked-up fuel finally catches up with him. I don't think I have ever seen more than two drops of water in my tanks or gascolator but my airplane is hangared. Frankly I get a little careless about sumping the tanks for every flight but I do faithfully check the gascolator screen and Earls inline filter for debris every year. Rare to find anything. I suppose this much water and dew could leak past 35 year old fuel cap o-rings. The report does not discuss mogas that I could find. That gunk in the tanks--that was there for a while.

This Varieze in N.C. No pics. Seems to be N45790. https://charlotte.craigslist.org/avo/d/garner-varieze/7023158501.html https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=45790

This EZ project today: LONGEZ • $5,000 • PROJECT FOR SALE • 60% finished. Wings, gear, cannard, elevator, canopy, engine mount done. No engine or instruments. • Contact Dennis Cote, Owner - located West Richland, WA United States • Telephone: 209-484-5043 • Posted November 17, 2019