Kent Ashton

Considering that new engine mounts are running around $700, it's worth a try. I think your problem will be to secure the firewall mounts in the correct position while you pull the bent tube back into shape.

I think I'd get a welder to make a simple steel jig that duplicates your firewall mount spacing and clamp/bolt your engine mount to that jig. 4130 is tough so you need some way to hold the jig down while you work on the tube.

You might pack the tube with sand or Cerrobend to insure it stays round.

...Kent, i`m interested to smooth the surface with micro soo, is there posibility to make this job only with sanding and after that apply micro?

If the existing Zolatone is firmly attached, micro will probably stick to it just fine but I am not encouraging you to do the whole interior. That job fits my vision of hell.

Perhaps you only need to fill and sand around the ugliest spots and respray the interior. Zolatone needs a primer--try to find a primer similar in color. Lots of folks also recommend a clearcoat over the Zolatone to keep it looking good. Be sure to clean the surfaces well where your arms and body have rested before you start other work. Google "Zolatone paint" and you will find lots of discussion among the Airstream trailer crowd like this:

http://www.airstream.net/FAQ/FAQ_5.html

If you seriously want to remove all the Zolatone, you could sandblast or media-blast the fuselage but it's big job. I wouldn't use solvents. Many solvents will go through pinholes in the glass and eat away the foam.

Just rough up the surface and respray. Probably the easiest thing.

How can I check the engine, it s a lycoming, will find out later exactly which one

A couple of good books about aircraft engines: "Sky Ranch Engineering Manual" by John Schwaner and "Top End" from the editors of Light Plane Maintenance, available from aviation book dealers. They will teach you a lot.

I moved the arm on a pump but the ratios are different and that probably won't work for you

http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13050

However look at it this way: In order to pump a 100:33 ratio when your pump is designed for 100:45, you have to make the hardener piston move only 73% of the travel it has now (33/45 = .73), or alternatively make the resin piston travel 36% more than it has now (45/33 = 1.36 ) or some combination of reduced hardener + increased resin.

You might be able to do by relocating the arm's pivot point. I'd make scale drawing of the arm/piston geometry and see what geometry might work.

What are the "pitfalls" I need to look out for?

What are the must haves and look out for

Several good articles here:

http://v2.ez.org/articles.htm

BTW kent, is there a CP reference for steel extrusions?

 

Probably.

The yield strength of 2024-T3 alum is 50000 psi, mild steel 53700 and 4130 is 63000 psi.

http://www.onlinemetals.com/steelguide.cfm etc.

There is plenty of mild steel angle around. I have not encountered 4130 angle but a plasma cutter and a grinder will make some angle from 4130 square tube pretty quick. 4130 square tube is available many places.

OTOH, if you double the thickness of aluminum angle you're using now, you'd double the strength and it could turn out lighter.

Math! Ow, my head hurts!

There was a Cozy III that landed in a muddy field and flipped but it stopped pretty fast.

http://www.cozybuilders.org/newsletters/news_64.html#ROLL_OVER

In a relatively recent EZ accident the aircraft flipped and bent the heck out of his rollbar but it helped. I believe I saw pictures in the CSA newsletter.

It seems as if the pull of the cable is countered by the pull of the springs.

Rich, Tmann: You are looking at the mixture control; the spring you see is to pull the mixture to full rich if the mixture cable separates. However there are no springs in the throttle linkage/bellcrank. The shaft of the push-pull cable enters at the the upper left corner of the picture, actuates the bellcrank, which moves the Ellison throttle slide.

Pull only cables are lawnmower technology on a plane. It relies on the spring to get full throttle or mixture. if the spring breaks or the cable gets stiff and the spring cannot over come the stiffness you are done mowing the lawn on your new farm. if the mixture spring breaks or comes off the mixture will go to idle cut off as you try to lean during cruse. lean to far and it will quit with no way to get it back running. this has already resulted in several people owning farms.

Lynn: As you know, many carburated aircraft use pull-only cables for mixture control with a spring backup to the full rich position. I've owned three airplanes with that setup. On my aircraft, the cable would move the very light mixture lever even if the spring breaks. This lawnmower technology works fine if such things are taken into consideration, inspected and maintained.

My friend Mark--also building a LEZ--came up with a nice bellcrank arrangement to take his push-pull cable straight into the Ellison TBI. I think I'll try something similar. His Ellison is mounted on an elbow facing forward. He didn't have room in his cowl to let the cable turn the usual 90 deg angle.

In pic 1 you can see the push-pull cable coming from the firewall at the top left corner of the pic. It moves a bellcrank mounted on the aluminum piece which actuates the Ellison slide left and right. Although the bellcrank is moving in an arc, there is very little angular displacement so it works very well. His mixture control works nicely, too

In pic 2, you can see the bellcrank a little better. Thanks Mark.

I know it won't [work], . . . to get 500 psi you need to push on the cylinder with about 150 lbs. to get it stopped, thats way to much

Thank you again for your concerns.

NOTE: I don't see where you facilitate a horiontal axis pivot point on the fixed end of the master cylinder.

If you are planning on passing a single bolt through the side mount and M/C mount, it will not have enough freedom of movement

You forced me to go downstairs and check it. The M/C only moves maybe 2-3 degrees in the vertical. There is enough slop in the M/C bolt hole and I machined the mount point a little wider to account for it. Good eye, though.

I can tell you that Steve V's rudder pedals actuate the brakes just fine. The linkage system he is using is based off my design. Same girl, different dress.

Yeah Wayne, but Steve's dress was a purty wite an' yours wuz all green like and such. (Wayne's peddles pictured, decide for yourself)

why is the master cylinder link up so high on the pedal? it should be pushing from about 1/3 up from the bottom or there will not be enough leverage to get the required pressure. the one in the third picture is correct. yours with the link in the up position, where is starts to push on the master cylinder is way to high.

You might be right, I'll have to see how it feels in use. Here's a picture of Steve Velovsek's setup. I haven't asked Steve about it but I suppose he's happy with it.

Can you provide a few of the criticle measurements for the pedal to break hardware?

My airplane is upside down; try to add a drawing later.

it appears that you have not reinforced the rudder cable attachement tab as called for in CP #30.

Good point but I think the tab is OK unless the rudder cable pulls on it at angle that makes it flex left & right. Maybe a bit more weld filler would help though.

One other thing: Depending on how you setup the master cylinder, you might need to add a retainer to limit the opening of the little arm on the pedal so that if the rudder pedal is pulled aft (like with a shoelace [bTDT]), the arm cannot drop down and jam the whole thing.

I am stretched 13" (firewall to canard) and will undoubtedly have some fun when it comes to weight/balance stage.

No aerodynamicist here but just thinking . . .

To illustrate the effects of stretch, just imagine how a 50'-long canard airplane would fly fitted with the current wing and canard.

- stretching the fuselage requires less ballast but the longer lever arm means any weight up front has greater effect. You load the canard more heavily, especially when carrying two people (Cozy) , which could mean you run out of canard authority in the landing phase, and takeoff roll might get longer.

- at higher speeds though, the canard's longer level arm might be able to drive the wing into stall.

- if you lower the canard incidence or shorten the canard to compensate for the second problem, you accentuate the first problem, or vice versa.

It sounds tricky to me.

Very nice work Kent. Where does the air for cooling the cylinder heads come from?

I'm using downdraft cooling but having second thoughs. With DD, you have to have two intakes for the cylinders, an intake for carb air and some sort of intake for the oil cooler; four intakes when you could pretty much do it with one large NACA intake on the bottom. The one Klaus sells would not be very hard to make:

http://www.lightspeedengineering.com/Services/NACAduct.htm

I'm not sure DD is the best way to go but I'm committed for now.

Seen this idea?

http://www.vortexgenerator.net/EngineMount.html

Nice but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. However, if I were replacing aluminum extrusions, I would certainly go to steel angles. Worth the piece of mind, I think.

I saw all this vacant space behind the sump and thought I could fit a square paper filter there. Came up with the first iteration (pic. 1) which might have worked but was clunky and would've required a deep cowl.

Then I thought "Maybe I can fit the filter between the firewall and engine" and was well along on the second idea (pic.2 ). After discussing with friend Mark, became clear it was just too tight and going to be hard to incorporate carb heat.

So I ended up making a filter box based on the box Vans vends and put the oil cooler in the space behind the sump. Had to extend the firewall to hide it all but I think it will look good and be fairly slick--hope the oil cooler cools. Hat tip: W. Blackler for the oil cooler door idea (pic 4).

That is some ugly-looking workmanship but I would repair it something like Waiter has suggested.

I'd use a right-angle die grinder with a coarse abrasive disk and clean up the whole area. Go slowly and you can sand away most of the BID reinforcements that lap from F22 to the sides, until you are just seeing the base layers on F22. Fill the hole with flox and replace the reinforcements per the plans plus maybe a couple more for momma. It'll be fine

Would a VariEze be a good canidate for a 13b rotary engine?

The rotary idea sounds so great but when you start trying to figure out radiators, exhausts (the engine demands a heavy, well-built exhaust), custom intakes that will fit in your cowl, etc . . . well, do you want to fly or fabricate?

And it ain't like you've got a forgiving land-anywhere-in-500-feet airframe to put it in.

Nope, bit too "experimental" for my taste.

I wouldn't be reluctant to rotate the engine. The engine camshaft is probably covered with assembly lube which is not going to be wiped away easily.

AFAIK, you can only tell when the shaft is up (cam at the low point) by feeling it with your finger.

As I recall from having changed my fuel pump some time ago, the pump arm is actuated by a shaft inside the accessory case that moves up and down. When you remove the pump, the shaft can slide down a little. If you jam the pump arm in to the left or right of the shaft and you'll know it because the pump base will not tighten down evenly and the pump will be cocked.

All you have to do it insert the pump arm angled down initially so that it contacts the end of the shaft, and pushes it up against the cam. Then tighten the mounting bolts evenly without letting the pump get cocked. If the pump base mates to the mount base evenly, you've done it right.

Re-install MLG (need to find info on the laminate schedule for that)

Check out the Terf CD. I think it has the plans for all the Rutan designs.

http://www.dragonaero.com/RAFCDROM.htm

Can't help with a Vari but there have been a number of Long-EZ gear-repair articles in the Central States Newsletters that might help. Join the Central States Assn an you'll also get a national roster. Might find a Vari owner in Florida with all the back issues. Good luck - Kent

http://www.ez.org/csa/csa_info.php

A Cozy III is essentially a side-by-side LEZ. I flew my C-III with around 400 pounds in the front seats and once with around 450. Less than 400 was not too bad but it still makes the takeoffs longer and crashes less survivable due to higher glide speeds. The forward CG limit is more of a guide than an absolute number.

My Cozy IV has been flying since 2002 with Ez-poxy strakes, no formal post-cure. I do not recall ever using the very slow hardener so I probably used what is equivalent to the 84 hardener. Today, I'm using 84 hardener on my LEZ project. I figure that if you stick to avgas, you'll be fine. If gas formulations change radically and my tanks start to deteriorate, I'd rebuild the strakes with a suitable epoxy and/or liner.

The Harris's (EZ Hangar) rebuilt a lot of bad parts, like leaking or crooked strakes. They would saw away the old strake, gently sand off the overlaps, rebuild and refinish. It probably takes them no more than a couple of weeks to get an EZ back in the air.