Kent Ashton

I bought one of these "Digital Thermocouple Thermometer" thingys on Ebay to do some HVAC measuring. They are cheap but seem pretty accurate. I tested it in boiling water and there is a way to test them with ice cubes. It occurs to me that if you want to do some CHT measurements you could clip the leads to various places on the cylinders and prop the device up in the back seat or extend the leads to to the front seat. Autoshutoff after 8 minutes. You can buy the thermocouple wire from Omega. Probably find it on Ebay too. There are all kinds of neat, cheap devices on Ebay these days. I use the little PWM devices for LED dimming.

This Long-ez today which appears to be N460LZ. The owner has built another cosmic EZ for scaled (N90EZ) so he probably knows what he's doing. I think I saw it in the A.F. Museum a few years ago. http://stargazer2006.online.fr/aircraft/pages/borealis.htm This one "As seen in Kitplanes" :-) No other pics I could find. https://newsline.kitplanes.com/2015/12/30/tim-binders-rebuilt-long-ez/ http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=460LZ

A couple of rants: #1 My airport has separate electric meters. I calculated that all 30 hangars use about $600 worth of electricity per year but we pay over $5040/year just to have meters. For example, it costs me $22/month to have a meter but I only use about 1 or 2 KWH per month to run a dehydrator or AM radio when I'm working at 10 cents/KWH, i.e., 20 cents/mo. Over about 13 years, I've paid about $3600 for maybe $20 worth of electricity. So I presented this situation to the county and proposed that they rewire each row of hangars to one meter and charge us about $40/year for electricity. It wouldn't matter that a few people use a few KWH more than others. Tenants would save thousands. Here are the answers I got - It would cost $5000-7000 to rewire the hangars. [Doubtful. might have pull one large cable down the spine of each hangar] - If rewired, they would have to be brought up to code. [They are pretty new. Probably meet code] - The power company would have to disconnect all the meters. [That's their job] - The county has some hangars on long-term leases and would have to renegotiate their contracts. - It wouldn't be fair; some people use more power than others [and we can't handle the math or make adjustments]. - It would increase the county's administrative cost - You have the choice now to have power or not. So I disconnected my power today and will get by with battery tools. If I have any big projects, I can get it reconnected for a $15 fee. ---------- #2 Nothwithstanding that here in N.C., nobody heats an airport hanger and such hangar would leak heat like an open door, the county installed natural gas plumbing to all the hangars. There is only 1 hangar out of 30 (a semi-business) that has a gas meter installed. ---------- #3 When they built these hangars, I asked them "Please use bifold hangar doors." No response. So if I am working in my hangar and my neighbor comes out to fly, we have to close my 2 sliding doors which are blocking his access, open his 2 doors (which blocks my access), close his doors, and re-open my doors. Rinse and repeat when he comes back from flying. ---------- #4 They built 30 T-hangars planning to sell them to tenants but the sale would've required that in 25-30 years, the hangars revert to county ownership. We'd pay $35-$40K but in 25 years we'd have nothing. As expected, nobody took this deal. Big surprise. A few older T-hangars are owned outright by tenants who pay a modest ground lease. Those are never empty and get sold and resold. ----------- #5 And yet, we have it better than some. At least we have hangars whereas at some of the nearby public airports, airplanes are sitting on the ramp in the rain and sun with acres of vacant ground available. (pic) I am sure you have your own stories.

I see that Craig has reduced his Cozy IV project discussed here http://www.canardzone.com/forum/topic/31643-cozy-iv-project-for-sale/?p=59701 to $12K. It was a pretty fair price at $17.5K. See ad on Barnstormers. $40K in materials and 1000+ hours of labor. Craig, I would post a photo every month on the Cozybuilders and Canard-Aviator's lists. I put one on a FB page today for you, pal. I think many people do not know anything but Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Newbies see an EZ or Cozy and are interested but do not know anything about Barnstorms, Trade-a-plane, or "Kent's Sales I've Seen". :-) Heck, I would put an ad on the Aviation section of Craigslist-Atlanta. That project should sell if you get more eyes on it. How about advertising "trade for a Harley". Geez, how depressing to think that project is going to sell for less than a stupid Harley. It just goes to show the state of aviation these days.

Nobody like my spring trim idea! What's a girl gotta do to get a date? :-) The lever trim above could be used by welding on a tab at the bottom (pic 3) vs. the threaded piece. You DO own a welder, right? Tig preferably. Speaking of Tig, this fellow has an interesting bike-building channel with lots of discussion of Tig. He is very meticulous and does some nice work. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqQaFLkweCgviyj_E0VEy9Q Ain't the internet great! So many things to learn. I fixed my old air-conditioner with the stuff on Youtube. Really found this chap's discussion valuable. He talks like the good folk around me.

Seller relisting N87CZ. Was asking $59,900 in 2015! Special good deal for you G.I., $45K. There are some pics in an earlier post http://www.canardzone.com/forum/topic/21972-sales-ive-seen/?p=52604 Also saw the Davila EZ in post 165 relisted at $27K down from $28.5K http://www.canardzone.com/forum/topic/21972-sales-ive-seen/?p=61358

I see that David Hanson who built the one above advertises in Barnstormers for mods and repairs. Search for his name or "EZ MODS". There is also an SQ2000 google group but it seems to be inactive. A search in the FAA registry for SQ2000 brought up nine of them. With a little more sleuthing, you can probably figure out where they live. http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/acftref_inquiry.aspx Heck, just drop into Chino for the saturday gettogether and those guys probably know. :-)

Seller advertised this Cozy 4 tub and canard in 2016. The bidding went to $3000 last time. I imagine he'd be happy to get that today. Looks pretty good https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cozy-Mk-4-project-and-plans/253685940352

Good luck there. Ya know, building a cowl is a big job but you might find you can build one easier than ordering one from Feather Lite to Denmark. Maybe pics in the first page of this thread will inspire you http://forum.canardaviation.com/showthread.php?t=4923 and here http://www.canardzone.com/forum/topic/18661-kents-long-ez-project/?p=46674 First build the turtleback or at least get the firewall profile as you like it, then cover the engine with cardboard, plastic, paper, whatever. Glue 1" blocks of blue foam to high points around the engine, then cover the engine with pour-foam and start standing until you get a pleasing shape and the blue foam blocks are beginning to show. When you have the shape settled, cover the foam with fast-setting joint compound and sand smooth. When the surface is smooth, paint the joint compound with a cheap glossy paint. Wax it with many coats of wax and spray a bunch of very thin coats of PVA mold-release. Now lay up the glass. Use about three layers of BID and use extra layers at the edges where you will install camlocs or screws. Getting the canopy off the mold can be a hassle. It helps to drill small holes just through the glass and inject shop air.

SQ2000 today. We don't see these very often. Nice looking airplane. Former N440DH built by David Hanson, his 3rd build, apparently. http://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/NNum_results.aspx?NNumbertxt=440DH I wonder about the crash-worthiness of this kind of fuselage with big open doors. It does not seem to be as sturdy as a Rutan tub but what do I know. Easier to get in and out though. Good price. Seller could probably get a lot more if it was flying with registration and log books but those can be resolved. There are some pics of the build here http://www.n416.com/builderdh.html http://www.longezpilot.com/PG10%20SQ%202000.htm

Saw this idea from Bill Allen for pitch trim. I like it but I might change the geometry as drawn. The trim spring always has to pull forward to pull the elevator down and it requires good friction to hold the position which makes the trim handle hard to move. Changing the geometry would give better leverage for the trim handle and required less friction to hold the trim adjuster. You would just have to insure that you can get enough forward trim spring travel for a full frontseat load but it'd be easy to add an extra adjustment point on the rod. I might have to take out my clunky electric screwdriver and try this.

You might post this on the Yahoo Canard Aviator's list. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/canard-aviators/info There are a fair number of members and you would likely find a canard-CFI there. Trouble is, most Vari's do not have full dual controls. A couple of rides a Cozy would be about as good. In that case, post on the Cozybuilders Google group.

Cozy max weight is 2050 but I just used a two-person load I had on a spreadsheet. At 2050 the nose load would be about 247

"Maximum" in what condition? Loaded? Below is a little sketch of the weight distribution of my airplane (Cozy Mk-IV) when loaded. My airplane sees about 205# on the nose wheel and 1494# on the mains. It would appear your Velocity is about 90# heavier on the nosewheel. The distance between the hole in the bracket on the cozy strut and the upper pivot bolt is 6.71". The plans say to use [wet] flox when attaching the upper and lower castings to the strut and a wet BID layup between the bracket and the strut. The idea is to fill any voids and prevent any wiggling or looseness between the strut and the castings/bracket. My crosswind technique is to crab down final. Just before touchdown kick the airplane straight with rudder and anticipate a little aileron into the upwind wing. Once I kick it straight I try to let it touchdown without delay so a drift doesn't develop.

Saw these Varieze plans and parts on a FB site. Seller's email is in the pic. The Vari appeals to me as a very thrifty, long-range airplane that sips gas but I sat in one once and it was a little small for me.

Couple of EZs today: First one with no pics: N88LE an '86 vintage. http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=88LE Second one is N757T a 2006 mfg. Owned by Lance Hooley who is now flying his new jet EZ http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=757T Here's one that is more affordable. Sort of a practice build before the real thing :-)

The cozy IV nose gear is very similar the the Long-ez and the EZ plans are here in the Open-ez thread but neither shows the electric gear. They are drawn for a manual gear. I don’t know much about Velocity but my impression is they carry a lot more weight on the nose gear than the Rutan airplanes. You broke the strut? I would guess you need to make a bigger stronger strut than the Featherlite strut.

I finally go around to making limit switches for my pitch trim. The problem is to make something that doesn't overly complicate removing the canard. It might have been better to attach a rod (purple line) to the traveling nut and mount the switches to the back of the instrument panel; the movement of the rod would actuate the switches. However, I didn't have a good mount point behind the panel. This should work OK and the canard can be removed by loosening the trim motor hose-clamp, loosing the two screw-and-nuts clamping the springs in the traveling nut and pull the nut off the spring wires.

This Long-EZ project today. No pics. WTH is so hard about posting some pics!?

Never seen that myself but here are a couple of articles http://www.epi-eng.com/propeller_technology/propeller_vibration_issues.htm http://grahamshevlin.com/b2evo////index.php/2005/08/11/vibration_issue_is_now_resolved?blog=3 This one had a good idea for watching the hub at the problem RPM http://www.flight-mechanic.com/propeller-vibration/

I have an Ellison. They are said to be less affected by carb ice but it's hard to quantify. Only twice in 600+ hours have I ever thought I _had_ any carb ice. I really never use the carb heat except or rare occasions but I would be afraid to fly it in the winter without carb heat. Maybe you just need to improve your heat muff or make a way to duct a little exhaust gas into the carb. BTW, I have a friend in Vienna with a Cozy. His Cozy is in France now undergoing repairs; it'll probably be another year before he gets it home. -Kent

Nice work.

This Varieze today. I see that the seller David Hanson has restored several EZ types. http://www.ez.org/feature/F0503-1/F0503-1.htm and http://www.longezpilot.com/PG10%20Nose%20Extension.htm Not sure which one this is but the N-number, N440EZ was orginally a 2003 build by Ronald Gray according to the FAA registry. Very fast-looking! He certainly does a nice job with the paint although I am not crazy about the heat rejection of dark red paint.

Ideas for exhaust and alternator seals. See the note on my flywheel? That has saved me a lot of cussing!

Duh!