Dave Clifford

My primary reason for turbo would be for full H.P. at high altitudes. So you see no reason an aftermarket automotive turbo would not work on a lycoming if the engine compression was set up for one??

MY VOTE GOES FOR THE LAST ONE!!! I LOVE IT!!!

I know that, but thats not the answer to my question.

Just got done talking to Mike on the phone. He promises to get some hard facts about the weight of this package. Up front it looks like this engine has possibilities. I am still open to anything, including a Mazda rotary like John is putting in his plane. Can't wait to hear what the performance of his plane actually is when he gets it flying!! I am also interested in the actual durability of the Mazda rotary and what the life span of it will be before a teardown/rebuild is needed. I would think it will be high due to having few moving parts.

Has any one heard of, or know of, anybody who has fitted an automotive turbo to a Lycoming or any other aircraft engine?? You can buy a new one from an automotive performance supply house for the price of the core value for aero turbo. They look about the same and you can even buy one maufactured by Garrett.

I am not impressed with the quality of Delta. My floor model drill press is one. My floor model bandsaw is one of those imports. I am happy with it both for price and quality.

We attempted to remove the bad glass with bad results. And I stand corrected, it was the shear web and not the leading edge we had trouble with on this situation. They WERE a mess!!!

Tim, The answer to your question is yes and no. NO. Do not substitute any fiberglass cloth specified in the plans with a different manufacture for any structural parts. The weights, weaves, strengths, and fiber orientation called out in the plans have been thoroughly tested for the Cozy. The glass specified was designed for Rutan's specifications. The fibers are treated with I believe is Volan, to allow thorough wetting of the fibers. You can see when a particular strand of fibers did not get treated, as it WILL NOT wet out, no matter how hard you try. We are frugal builders building #591 and #656 together at the same time, so when Mike found a distributor for Hexel RA7715 UNI at a couple dollars a yard cheaper than ACS or Wicks, we jumped at it and bought a full roll. It came in the same box as what we had gotten before from Wicks. When we were wrapping the glass over the leading edge of our gorgeous canards sitting side by side on the table, we could not get the glass to make the bend and stay down no matter what we did. It would pop up after a few minutes. Nothing in the archive about this problem and with a phone call to Nat, he suggested we try sewing pins. It was the end of a frustrating day, Mike and Thane left and after supper, I went up to Wal-Mart and bought a box of 500 pins, Came home and spent the next 2 hours pinning the cloth down using everyone!! The next day, the glass was cured and had popped up over the leading edge!! Both canards were junk and could not be salvaged!! The band saw got a work out chopping up both canards. Narrowing down the problem, we concluded that the glass was the problem, I ordered one yard of RA7715 from Wicks for comparison purposes. Both looked the same, weighed the same, felt the same, ect.. It was only when we compared the fabrics under magnification and picked the fibers apart with dental picks,(thanks Thane), and counted fibers did we learn the very slight difference in weave. We had probably bought a rejected run!! Lost two months rebuilding the canards along with the expense, and still have this cloth laying around. We will give you a REALLY good deal if you want it!! We have saved a good amount of money buying our MGS resin and hardener from the importer/distributor in Toronto Canada by picking it up there in person. If you want to save money, you can. Just be carefull. One suggestion is to wait until Oshkosh and place your order their at the Wicks booth. You get a show discount which adds up on a large order. The savings may even pay for your trip there!! Good luck. Dave:)

Too late Mike. The cats out of the bag and the canary is going to sing!! After I get some sleep first,,,,,,,,.

Mike, I am glad you actually worked on the jig today!! So we finish the wings the next two weeks, then start the turtle deck??? Awsome!! Better round up some more volunteers in short order. By the way, lamb chops WERE on your lunch menu that you missed Sunday!! You might get some next week. We will see. Dave

Whats in the Nissan Skyline No4??? First time I have heard mention of this as a possible power source.

Mike. Your offering the free room and board along with airport pick-up. Right???? I will provide lunch!!

You should talk directly with Nat about the questions you have. There is a lot of bad blood between the two with most people taking sides and defending their beliefs based on hearsay. I do know for fact that if you want to make any modifications to the plans built Cozy, Nat requests that you not register it as such, partly being to protect the Cozy's safety record. Nat can explain to you the problems you face when modifications are made. He is alway's available via phone and willing to spend the time needed to clear up any questions or concern's you may have. By the way, cutting out the wings with a hot wire saw was easy and simple. We have done 4 wings and 4 canards. VERY REWARDING to see the airfoil come to life as you remove the cut offs!! If you can't do this easy task, you probably should not be building.

Hank, We are looking forward to have you return whenever you can!!

Marc, Marbleturtle's signiture at the end of his posts speak for itself. I for one appreciate your posts, and all others as well. There is a lot of good info that can be passed around through this forum as well as your site.

I plan on attatching my baggage pods in a more permanant fashion than what I have seen at the fly-ins. At the front of each pod I will have a 1MCP landing light with hideaway strobes installed in the reflectors for recognition lights, or maybe lower wattage bulbs instead of the strobes. I am willing to give up a couple mph for the cool looks, added storage, and landinglight location and convienance. I will definatly need the extra storage as I will also be enlarging the fuel capacity by using up some of the strake storage space for fuel tank.

There was one at Oshkosh a few years back. WAY COOL!!!!

I remember seeing this set of CD's advertized in some of the plane magazines I read a few years ago. I was never sure if these were authorized by Rutan or not. The ads ran for quite some time. The ads ran for about a year so I am sure there are a number of these out there. If I remember right, I do not believe the actual plans were included.

I can't remember if it was sun-n-fun or oshkosh that I saw an RV fly with a rotary a couple years ago:confused: I DO remember though that it was the loudest prop plane I have ever heard!! I don,t know if it was for a lack of muffler system or what. Are these things as loud as I remember???

I don't know if you can find any plans out there but I do understand that Rutan's company still provides excellent builder support for the builders of licensed plans sold.

We have two smart levels, a 24" and a 48". The 48" is used the most when you are leveling the fuselage side to side and fore and aft. You need the length to cross over the longerons. You could get by using a staight board and setting the level on top of it. A small one like you are talking about would be handy also. Dave #656 & #591. Attatching vertical stabilizers to 4 wings.

Jack Kretmar, The plans have a built in learning curve. No previous experience is needed to start building. If you can read and follow directions, you can be well on your way to building your own Cozy. The plans are simple to follow and the construction method is E-Z. If you are ever in the Detroit Michigan area your welcome to stop by for a look see.

We are attatching vertical stabilizers now and are at the point of deciding on our navigation lights and strobes. Will it make any difference on whether or not the system is PMA'd or STC'd for the purpose of night or IFR flight certification?? Whelens are PMA'd and Aeroflash are not according to the catalogs description. There is a price difference and with the Aeroflash being lower cost, I am leaning towards them. Same question goes for the power units. I can get a really nice power unit from Alerte that is half the price of a Whelen from Aircraft Spruce. Thanks.