Kent Ashton

Is this the guy that's flying a Cozy and is in the process of building a Long-EZ? What did you do to that guy?

What if the Wright brothers were "realistic"

Well, there's a fine line between discouraging someone and trying to show them the difficulties of their task. If you think it will work, have a shot.

-Kent

I thought flow was either laminar or turbulent.

I suppose that's true but from what I understand, a nicely-finished EZ wing may well have laminar flow on the leading edge which will transition to attached, turbulent flow around the 25% chord position or sooner if the finish is rough or buggy. In any wing the flow goes turbulent past about the 25% chord.

-Kent

(how many galons in sump / gal per hour => few minutes... )

You are usually descending at a low power setting, leaned out, so the fuel flow on an O-320 is probably only a gallon or two per hour or less. If a sump holds a gallon you are good for a hour or so. In addition, there is sloshing into the sump even if the tank port is uncovered. Not something to worry much about.

-Kent

Do the facet type pumps allow for fuel flow in the event of failure? Would the pump need to be on all the time or just during critical phases of flight?

The Facet is usually fitted between the tank and the engine-driven pump. It will push fuel through the E.D. pump when the engine is not turning (that's how you develop fuel pressure for start) and fuel will flow through the facet when the facet is off. The facet is mostly used for a backup during T/O and landing but I knew an RV-6 guy who used a pair of them for fuel pressure (no E.D. pump on his engine). Always made me a little nervous to fly with him but they are very reliable little pumps.

-Kent

As to inflatable boots, you probably can do the same thing on the cheap by using bicycle or motorcycle inner tubes and cut until you end up with a long flat piece

Fun to dream but let's be realistic. there's no way you can fit a bike inner tube to our wing and have anything remotely close to the near-laminar airfoil we have now. It calls for a custom molded boot and a sophisticated inflator system. It would demand an entirely new wing designed for the deice system: expensive, complex, heavy, draggy.

Don't waste your time. Build to plans and go flying. Light IMC is possible. When there is ice, stay home or buy an airline ticket.

-Kent

which ever brand of EI I would not use the mag hole sensor. the crank trigger type have been proven to be more dependable and there are no after market parts turning inside your engine this way

I have both crank and mag-hole triggers with my two Lightspeed EIs. I figured the alternator belt might come off some time and wipe out the crank trigger. Not sure if it has ever happened but I didn't want to trust one trigger. If you have a mag backup, yeah, the crank trigger is the way to go.

-Kent

I think all the canard airplanes are like that. I have problems getting fuel pressure sometimes on start until I actuate the electric primer. Never been able to determine why but I would not fly without the electric pump.

Some guys have encountered fuel pressure problems after installing fuel flow sensors in the line. The sensor causes just enough restriction to give pressure problems.

-Kent

I really need to become intimately familiar with icing conditions in winter months and weather behavior at both locations from approximately 3-8PM local time.

Well, you certainly don't want to fly a Long-EZ in any ice, or heavy rain, if that's what you're hoping for. Light IMC conditions would probably be OK but I would not want to be breaking 100 ceilings and landing on wet runways with gusty crosswinds in one of these.

My airplane has IFR equipment but I never fly IFR. Still, the equipment has come in handy a couple of times (and I have an instrument ticket). Without an autopilot, these airplanes are not good instrument platforms.

-Kent

Pretty good article discussing high altitude misfire here

http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182843-1.html

Can this not be done in one? [Georgia to Texas]

Yeah probably, my mistake.

Say 50 gallons in a Cozy at 8 GPH and 165 KTAS, 5 gallon reserve. That would get you 928 miles no wind. With a 50 kt headwind, 646 miles. Sounds like you could make Texas from Georgia comfortably even on a winter day.

-Kent

I don't know if flying above FL100 will be useful but I understand that going up there usually requires a turbo to still go fast. I haven't seen any TO-235's and I can't confirm that TO-320's exist either.

Flying high is useful: lower fuel burn for about the same TAS as down low. A Long will easily fly at 15-17000 if you have oxygen and a little heat. It's probably one-hop to Georgia (two going westbound). Speed is overrated. Better to spend money on a good autopilot versus a turbo.

An O-320 with an Ellison TBI will get you close to IO-320 performance. Many 320s were made. Parts are cheap (relatively). Simple, reliable. I'm installing an O-320-H2AD if I can figure out the engine mount and oil filter. Oh yeah, and "Electronic Ignition".

-Kent

"Ready to be installed and flown" for how long?

Do little research here:

http://www.trade-a-plane.com/classified/engines

-Kent

My thinking is that with all the smaller batches that it may end up with a hodgepodge of harder & softer micro with lots of joints. That may cause some troubling during finishing..

This is true, but in my experience it takes at least three applications of filler to get the surface true. You might as well use leftover epoxy for the first application. Have you heard of the "aluminum oxide rub"--at least, that's what I call it? Use an aluminum bar to rub over the surface as if you were sanding. It will leave smug marks (oxide) on the high points. Sand those smug marks and you will eventually get a pretty smooth wing.

-Kent

Yeah, the Vari is getting more press these days. Did you know that Gary Hertzler can get down to something like 3.5 gallons per hour with his Vari. Very efficient design.

Nice that your grandfather kept it in the family.

-Kent

You can find a lot of project websites here. Good luck.

http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/main

-Kent

Next, I'm 6'7" tall (230 lbs). Has any one tried to shoe horn someone of my size in say, a long-ez?

Weight is no problem and Todd Silver sells tall canopies. Rudder pedals can be extended fairly easily. Even an unfinished project can be modified to fit. Download the OpenEZ plans on this site and start building. There's a sticky about it.

-Kent

I don't recall starting in the middle of the strut and can't see any reason to do it that way versus just starting at one end, however, if there is excess UNI, cut it off and use it to start or finish another layer. Keep the fibers parallel and butt two pieces together.

Helps to draw a centerline down the dry strips, too.

=Kent

kent, what is the yellow stuff inside the bow?is it foam?

I'm not sure what you are looking at. It's just a false color in the photo. The Cozy bow is solid glass with glass cloth wrapped over it. There are better pictures on Yair's website, Chapter 9

http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/yairgil/index.html

-Kent

This is a Cozy IV landing gear bow. Picture from Yair Gil's pages.

http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/yairgil/ch9.htm

Tom,

The bow is beautiful. Are you going to load-test it?

It might need to be thicker and stronger where the load is greatest. Our landing gear bows (made by Featherlite) are thinner down near the axle, they become thicker and heavier up near the mounting point, and they are somewhat thinner at the top of the bow between the mounting points (Cozy IV).

If your bow is one thickness and strong all over, it might be heavier than it needs to be.

Good effort. Are you an engineer? Did you get engineering help?

-Kent

Well, I've painted two fiberglass airplanes. I don't think anyone uses anything special for UV protection these days. A good primer and topcoat will be fine. The black Dupont primer you mentioned did not stick very well anyway. I have always used an epoxy primer but Dupont has some easier-sanding primers I might try next time.

-Kent

You don't have to rebuild the table. When you set the wing or canard jigs on the table, clamp them in place temporarily and stretch several tight nylon strings or fishing line across the jigs and shim the jigs to the same height.

Build aircraft components, not tables! :-)

-Kent

The first thing to suspect is the sender, especially the electrical ground to the sender. And senders themselves are fragile--there is a little arm in there rubbing on a coil of copper wire.

I think an O-290 is like an O-320. The oil pressure system is so simple in these engines that there is almost no way you can have real zero oil pressure without some sort of massive leak/catestrophic failure.

I had high oil pressure readings once. After days of fretting over it, it was the sender.

-Kent

Could be the builder was just a lousy painter. Are the surfaces flat? If there are waves, high and low spots in the finish that'd be a lot of work to fix. You'd probably need to sand off the old paint/primer and redo the filler (West System). That's as much work as filling and sanding new construction.

If the surfaces are smooth and flat, then you might get away with wet sanding the current paint and applying a new topcoat. Still a fairly big job, though. Airplane paint jobs are not cheap. Selling price should reflect that.

-Kent

Another one that is frequently used

http://www.powerdrives.com/electrak/S12-17A8-04.htm