Kent Ashton

I don't have any exact numbers. Three wipes for me will fill or almost fill a 1/8" pit. If they are large pits they don't exhibit the same surface-tension pull-away as pinholes--they are just holes to be filled. Sometimes I go around putting dots of wet micro on them that I sand down later. Or I might put a dot of wet primer-surfacer on them when they show up during priming (argh!) and sand them down later. Here are some pics you might find interesting Pics 1,2: after several wipes. The result is not as flat as you might think although I squeegeed pretty thoroughly. I believe it's due to surface tension causing the epoxy to clump or maybe I just needed more squeegee. Pics 3,4: I marked off low places and pits after the first application of micro and sanding. I would probably not try to patch those and just lay down a new layer of filler but the red marks will be helpful because they will show through when sanding and tell me I am filling the low spot and not leaving the filler too thick. Patch-filling is problematic because the batch hardness changes and it's hard to get a patch flattened to match the surface around it without sanding the surrounding area low. Pic 5: I find it useful to pre-fill low places and high places before doing the whole wingl. It is hard to fill a low spot like a spar-cap trough while trying to get an even layer of filler over the entire wing. Same for high spots. Best to pre-fill them, sand them flat, then do the whole wing.

Seen on a FB page today. KTEL is http://www.airnav.com/airport/KTEL

Good. I see that Canardspeed.com has disappeared anyway. The work looks good. Interested in see more.

To close the loop on this, my friend said he sprayed a thin coat of primer on his "pinholes" and sanded to 500 grit and doesn't see them anymore, so maybe it was just the texture of his primer and 2000 grit sanding giving that effect. Normally you can spray gallons of paint over a pinhole and it will just laugh at you. However, with sandable primer I have occasionally swiped the wet primer with an old credit card when a swarm of pinholes appeared. It filled them and the primer could be sanded flat but it was more work. Best to kill them before priming.

My friend was showing me his pinholes but now that you mention it, maybe they are not pinholes. Below is what I usually see as pinholes (pic). They are larger and paint does not want to bridge them. My friend's look tiny; I don't think I've seen that. Maybe my friend just has some texture problem with the primer and just needs to sand more. I dunno.

Geez Andrew, some guys would love to have such a nice canopy joint.

Some words on filling: I have painted three canards and several cars and bikes and made about all the mistakes you can make so perhaps I've learned some things. My buddy who is repairing and painting his Cozy came up with this problem (pic). He says "I have sanded the primer to #2000 grit and I see pinholes [again]. What to do?" He has two problems: He did not kill the pinholes before priming and he is sanding the surface too smooth for further paint to get a bite. For me, there is a logical order to painting a canard, that if followed will result in fewer mistakes. Here is mine: 1. First, do your filling and sanding to get the surface perfect, and sanded down to about a 320 grit. Along the way, use a stiff aluminum bar marked up with a big Sharpie. Rub the bar perpendicular to the chord. The bar will leave oxide and Sharpie smudges on the high spots. Sand them down a little and repeat until the smudges are everywhere evenly. On curved surfaces like the nose, I use stiff, flexible things like welding electrodes or old bandsaw blades held over the surface to find high and low areas. View the surfaces from many angles with lights at different angles. The mistake here is usually thinking you are ready for the next step but you are not. Primer/surfacers will not fill pits and deep sanding scratches. Undetected defects are usually present. We have to fix those here before priming. To find them, I spray the whole surface will a thin mist of black sandable rattle-can primer and sand it all off. That will usually show many undetected defects. Fix all of them except pinholes. Sometimes a new layer of filler over the whole surface is the easiest path. Sand to about 320 grit. Repeat as necessary. It is a mistake to sand smoother than 320 grit. Now your surface is truly flat and smooth but there will be pinholes. 2. Fill the pinholes with the "Cory Bird epoxy wipes method"--three to five wipes with straight epoxy allowing it to tack up between wipes.* The wipes will fill the pinholes but they will leave hard ridges and runs that will need sanding flat. IMO, the reason you don't want to sand finer than 320 grit prior to the wipes is that straight epoxy wants to clump-up due to surface tension and a very slick surface will help it clump. Also, it's hard to leave any epoxy when wiping a very slick surface so you can't build up any thickness. My objective with the wipes is to get enough thickness of straight epoxy that I can wet sand it flat without going through it. Sanding through the hard wipes may expose more pinholes. Sand the hard wipes down to 320-400 grit. Now my surface is smooth, has a thin layer of epoxy and pinholes are filled. 3. Epoxy is a pretty good primer for a topcoat if it has the correct bite but I usually spray a sandable primer/surfacer and wet sand that to about 400 grit. Now I'm ready for a topcoat. *NOTE: Cory, who built a championship airplane, said a 36 grit finish was just fine in preparation for the epoxy wipes http://www.ez.org/t/cp77-p4 He used the wipes to fill big sanding scratches. I find it better to work those out to a finer surface. Cory suggests a 3-4' sanding spline. I usually get good results with an 18-20" board but I have not won any Oshkosh awards. ?

Are you thinking of building a Cozy out of Kevlar?

This Varieze today. Seller Hanson has refurbed a lot of canards and does some nice work. I wonder if the $20K includes the new paint? VARI EZ PROJECT ALL MODS DONE • $20,000 • FOR SALE TO GOOD HOME • 0235 Vari ez. 340 hrs new cylinders. Mods include wheel pants , gear leg fairings, long nose , extended front hatch, strake extensions for more cockpit room, hidden oil door, custom cowls, adjustable brakes in the nose. Elec nose lift and speed brake. new glass panel Ifly 740, AVMAP, TRIO auto pilot. plane needs final sand and electrical and avionics connections. wireing is in the plane. I will finish the plane, choose your paint and interior colors. • Contact David J. Hanson located Warren , OH USA • Telephone: 724-614-9046 • Posted September 20, 2018

Long-ez on B-stormers today. N24PN, a 1984 Norman Messinger build. http://www.aviationdb.com/Aviation/Aircraft/2/N24PN.shtm Maybe priced a little high for the engine, GU canard, football wheel pants and basic avionics but looks nice. Some fancy paint additions would add 20 knots and $1000, I'm guessing. ? LONG EZ • $29,000 • LOOK AT THIS • Well built Long EZ for sale. First flight 1984. Proven 800 hours TTSN, Engine Lycoing O-235 L2C 360SMOH and 2 hours Since Top Overhaul. Condition Inspection due in November. Currently flying. Large rudders. B&T propeller. Odyssey 680 Battery. Electric nose lift. 500x5 tires. A plans built plane ready for your weekend projects to make it faster and even more efficient! 895 pounds empty. I am selling to finance another project. Based near Kansas City, KLWC. 913.575.2121 • Contact Nathan Peck, Owner - located Leavenworth , KS USA • Telephone: 9135752121 • Posted September 18, 2018

The seller posted some pics of this installation. I am guessing there is some way to blow a hole in the turtleback and the red tube is a mount for the straps. Any other comments, Marc? Se3 that bad interior paint? The builder probably did not use a primer on the fiberglass or a clearcoat over the top coat. I made the same mistake omitting the clearcoat. Use a matte clearcoat.

Been doing this thread so long that airplanes are coming up for the second time. This one on Facebook today N1361S, a 1997 build by Larry Sligar (plans #74) which I first talked about here http://forum.canardaviation.com/showpost.php?p=71237&postcount=70 It was nicely built but a hangar queen for a good many years. A couple of guys bought it from the widow and the engine threw a rod after they flew it a while--lesson there about engines that sit. I suppose all that is in the past now but it'd be interesting to inspect the engine logs. Ballistic parachute!

Seen on FB. Google the poster to get more info. It's in Wisconsin. No price yet.

Geez, after buying a $200 Vividia borescope to look at my valves (see Aug 24 in this thread), I was just reading about this one (pic) for $29. The previous problem with these cheapies was that they were not flexible enough to stick them in the plug hole and bend them back to look at valves. A Vans owner says this one can do it. It could probably be glued to a piece of bendable wire and inserted into the cylinder. Why do this? Regular Lycomings have notoriously-poor valve stem lubrication. https://web.archive.org/web/20050217090118/http://www.prime-mover.org:80/engines/Marvel/tbo3.html So the valve stems wear and the rocker arm pushes the valve head off center. Heat does not transfer evenly around the valve head to the valve seat, the valve head gets heat-stressed and a piece breaks off, or the head breaks off. What you don't want to see is a half-moon discoloration (pic). There is a really bad case in this video https://youtu.be/x6OyfoV1Z2I

Yep and if you switch to West's plastic filler it will be even easier. The only real data point I have for that opinion is that strakes filled with micro glass balloons seem to be more resistant to dents and dings from the car-keys-in-the-back-pocket. I use micro balloons there and also on the wing and canard leading edges.

Everytime I rush things, it is a mistake. Get the surface filled, leveled with the aluminum bar and all the sanding scratches sanded out and defects filled or removed. Then spray the thin rattle-can primer and sand it all off; it will reveal additional scratches and defects. When those are fixed you are ready to fill pinholes (yes, they are still lurking there) with the "Cory Bird" method of straight epoxy wipes. Wet-sand that smooth and you're about ready for a primer-surfacer.

Yes, sanding is no fun. Getting the mixture right is a factor. An epoxy-rich mixture spreads easy but is harder to sand. A micro- (or West filler)-rich mixture is hard to spread but easier to sand. When I have prominent low spots and defects on a glassed wing, will spot-fill and sand those first. I buy a big box of West filler from boat supply dealers--an airplane will use most of it. For the first full coat I usually start with a straight epoxy wipe followed by a stiff mixture and not-so-stiff for the next coats. I try to get the mixture on the surface pretty quickly with the squeegee, then use a 6" dry-wall mud spreader that I heat up with a couple of passes with a propane torch. The warm metal helps to move and level the mixture. When the sanding has got things pretty flat, I use a stiff aluminum bar about 18-20" long, mark it up with a wide Sharpie and rub it perpendicular to the chord. The bar will leave Sharpie and oxide smudges on the high spots which you can lightly sand. When it looks good to prime, spray a light rattle-can guidecoat of sandable primer and sand it all off to see the defects you missed. They are lurking there! ?

I think an older, flying O-235 EZ can be had for $25-$28K so you are being generous. ? Just the non-flying condition alone knocks thousands off the price. Did you discuss his project? http://www.n44tj.me Edit: Just read on FB that he is asking $25K for the airplane, $15K for the project "due to age, health". Wait for the estate sale.

What was his price? Did it have an Airworthiness Certificate? If it didn't have an AC yet, then it really doesn't mean anything to deregister it. A new owner could apply for an AC with your own N-number and get it flying. The only hurdle would be to show that the major portion was built by amateurs--not a high hurdle with an EZ. Even if it had an AC, if the new owner can establish the former N-number, he can ask for the AC to be reissued under a new N-number. It might require a short FSDO inspection but that shouldn't be a problem. Oh yeah, and rebuild the engine.

Bob Nuckolls (Aeroelectric.com) says PVC is not particularly unsafe-- lot of airplanes have used PVC--but Tefzel (Teflon) and/or PTFE is better. The latter uses tinned strands, the cover has a higher melting point, is thinner and more resistant to cuts and tie-wrap pinching, and can be had in a lot of color combinations. Do you have his book? A must-have for builders. http://www.aeroelectric.com/Catalog/pub/pub.html See also: https://www.canardzone.com/forums/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?do=findComment&comment=61303

Yeah, that might work well. Here is a URL. http://lantor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/20160196_LANT_DATASHEET_COREMAT_XI_web.pdf I see that it comes in some pretty thin sheets (1.4mm +)

This EZ today. N97WP, William Prince build. Nice looking. I think I would have sprung for an O-320 before repainting it but IIWII. "Many other extras". ?

A buddy of mine is rebuilding a Cozy and came up with a good idea for mounting avionics trays using sheets of BID. I think I would rather use thin BID-foam-BID sandwiches versus the single layers but I like the idea. It's quick to make and install. If you ever want to change avionics, they'd be quick to cut away and build new supports. I have generally used aluminum angles to make tray supports but it's fiddly. Yes, we have discussed the PVC wiring.

There were not many kits and they don't come up very often, There was a flying one advertised recently for over $150,000.

All Very interesting, Keith. So it looks like you could have a two-seater if you removed the tank. What is your ultimate goal for this aircraft? To just build a one-off? Sell plans? Fly around the world?