fpullanojr

Hi Tony, Planning on arriving around 10 or 11. Before Lunch time frame. I'll keep you posted.

I'm flying the BerkEz down to Tamiami (TMB) on this coming Saturday December, 19th to meet a prospective buyer for the plane. Sadly, I probably won't have much of an opportunity to participate in Canard Fly-ins for a few years so I thought I'd mention it in case the Florida Canard pilots might want to have an impromptu flyin.

I ended up using Goof Off 2. It did the trick with very little effort.

I used some really old masking tape on my canopy while doing some sanding last night. Of course, when I removed the tape there was a good deal of adhesive residue left on the transparency. It’s ON THERE really well and so far all attempts at removing the goo have failed. I was reluctant to try anything too harsh for fear of ruining the “glass”. I did try some bug and tar remover which didn’t do a thing. Anybody have ideas as to what else I can use that won’t “fog” ,dull, or scratch the canopy. I’m unsure whether the transparent material is lexan or Plexiglas.

For the Skyview, I don't know where you're going to put two displays in the LongEz Cockpit. Well, if you meant you were going to put one up front and one in the back I could see that. If you were going to put two 7" displays up front though, I'd just go with the 10" (tight fit)

I rigged up a pin puller and was able to "mostly" remove the lower pivot pin. Pressed in is an understatement! Even with the pin puller, it required an awful lot of force to move the pin. I was able extract the pin until it was flush on the forward portion where it protrudes inside the side brace Mount's angle bracket. After seeing how tight and exacting that fit is, I can't imagine how Waiter's pin failed in the way it did AND if even if it had, I'm surprised it came out on its own considering how much force is required to pull that pin versus the type of retention hardware is installed on the aft end. It's nothing but a simple retaining ring and a washer. That method tells me that it's virtually all shear loads and almost no tension loads. I'm curious about elongation of the hole where Waiter's lower pivot pin was. Elongation and a shimmy.. yea... I can see the failure in that case.

A cruise prop vs a climb prop is going to be different for every engine. In other words, one man's cruise prop is another man's climb prop. A climb prop for a particular airframe/engine marriage will allow the engine to produce a higher RPM / closer to maximum horse power @ slower or no air speeds. It's a relatively finer pitched blade (or a combination of finer pitch/smaller diameter.) when compared to what you might consider a cruise prop. The cruise prop will be a more coarse or "fat" pitch and in many cases a larger diameter too. This will allow your engine to spin at a lower RPM while maintaining a given cruise speed. Think of it in this way even though it's not directly related to a car. A Climb Prop is like driving around in first gear. A Cruise prop is like doing it in 5th Gear. They will yield rather different performance given the same RPM. Example. I used to fly a 61 X 61 wood prop on my VariEze. At 2700 RPM, I would see an indicated airspeed of 150 Knots. Flying with a 61 X 70 cruise prop I could run at 2450 RPM to see the same speed but couldn't make much more RPM than that. I burned much less gas in this case, cruised at a much lower RPM but since I was stuck in 5th gear, you might imagine what my bid did when trying to go up a steep hill. It's different. It's the engine that is more or less effective because of the pitch and diameter for the prop. For shorter fields, a climb prop is a much more sensible way to go. You are going to want to be able to shorten your TO/Land distances as much as possible. Nothing saying you can't use a CS prop. I flew an Electric IVO prop on my varieze, even though it took three different versions to get it right, once it was dialed in, it was AWESOME! A CS prop will allow the best of both words for both climb/descent and cruise. The drawbacks of a CS prop on a canard has to do with increased weight, added mass on the end of a prop extension, potential issues with exhaust heat on the blades and of course complexity. I wouldn't consider the complexity increase a factor to your question since we're just talking about performance.

I tried to remove my pins (Lower side brace) for inspection.. After a frustrating few hours I finally found a way to remove the roll pins but once they (retaining roll pins) were out and the side brace was removed, I found the main pin to be fit into the hole with no tolerance whatsoever. In other words, the pin seems to be pressed into place or perhaps even assisted in retention by an adhesive. Is anyone smart on how the pin is held in place? My don't want to do damage to the area just because I am trying to inspect the parts for damage. It reminds me of pulling the wing mounting pins on my old varieze. Those pins had threads in them so creating a pin puller was possible. In this case, the only thing I can think of is to force the pin out of the hole from the forward point where it protrudes through the angular mount which is attached to the gear leg. Waiter, were you able to get the pin out of the hole yet?

Please, if possible, I humbly ask that we keep the posts in this particular thread pointed in the direction of solving the technical problem and NOT allow it to degrade into a conversation debating customer service at Infinity or whether or not retractable main landing gear is a good idea or not. Let's try to use this thread as a way to share important information with guys that have already gone down the Infinity Gear path. Considering the recent collapse of Waiter's gear in mind... http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38241 I am seriously concerned about the failure mode. I have been flying this gear an awful lot over the past year. I have made HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of landings in all kinds of conditions. I don't know for sure if I have more landings than most on this gear but I have to be pretty high on that list. To recap: 1) The airplane was recently returned to flight status after a 4 year rebuild. 2) The airplane had flown roughly 20 hours on this gear system prior to the incident 3) Waiter (in his posts) mentioned the first few landings as hard ("carrier") landings. 4) Following a test flight, after a normal landing, during taxi back to parking, the right side lower drag brace pin (The only mechanical device in place to secure the gear leg down and locked) failed allowing the right main landing gear leg to fold under the weight of the airplane. 5) The lower drag brace pin failed at the location of the drilled vertical hole which is intended to accept the insertion of a roll pin for the purpose of main pin retention. 6) As already stated by Waiter, the time of failure occurred while engine was at idle and the airplane was moving at taxi speed and not (Thank God!) during takeoff or landing. It can be assumed that failure of this pin during high speed ground handling and subsequent collapse of a gear leg has the potential of causing a catastrophic situation where the potential loss of the airplane and loss of the crew are greatly increased. Questions I would like to answer: 1) When is the pin loaded with stress and how much stress. a) loads during retraction? b) loads during extension? I am assuming these loads are based on the weight of the landing gear only plus the resistance of the airflow. Aircraft weight not a factor. c) What are the potential loads during ground handling? I am assuming these shear loads are much greater considering the load on the pin must now support the weight of the airplane especially during cross wind operations. 2) What direction is the stress applied in relation to the direction of the roll pin. My concern here is based on the fact that (I'm guessing a little) the main pin is drilled 90 degrees to the shear forces being applied at the point of greatest stress (high speed ground transition - cross wind landing) In my mind, the retaining hole in the main pin is oriented in the worst possible direction or would this matter? 3) I'm not familiar with the math. How can I calculate the potential load on the main pin based on the weight of the airplane vs the arm location of that pin. In other words.. A fully loaded airplane at 1500 LBS would create X lbs of force on that pin during a side load. 4) Would the removal (for inspection) of that pin be an issue if I re installed it with a cotter pin and not the current style roll pin? Would the cotter pin cause any more or less stress on that retaining hole? I would like to assume that the failure of the main pin was detectable and not without warning if the pin could have been inspected for stress cracks.

As for operating an EZ on grass OR out of a short field ( < 3,000 FT ) I used to base my varieze out of Bader Field (KAIY) in Atlantic City NJ. The "longer" of the two runways was 2900 feet while the other was only 2400 feet in length. There was NO ROOM for error at that airport. Granted, I was flying a VariEze with a 90 HP engine so the takeoff roll was long. Landing was ok as long as I was on speed and also touched right on the numbers. It was a VERY interesting airport to fly into. There were lots of obstacles and surrounded by water on three sides. There were bulkheads at the end of the water side thresholds so carrying a little extra speed and a steeper glide slope were both required. It made me a much better EZ pilot but it was very touchy to say the least. Sea Guls used the runway to crack open shell fish so there were tons of birds and tons of FOD too. If you are flying a LongEz/Cozy with sufficient power however you'll be able to operate consistantly from shorter fields than a varieze can. As for a grass strip? I wouldn't do it unless the strip was like a golf course fairway, at least 4,000 feet long (@ sea level) , cool temps, and my nose gear was beefed up - a lot. When flying into Oshkosh, I wasn't even able to taxi my varieze on the grass. I had to get out and either push the plane or walk her with the engine running. I couldn't imagine operating normally out of grass with a stock varieze although some may have or may be doing that. I could see a velocity (or similar) doing it with little trouble becasue of the gear configuration. Just some thoughts, but as always YMMV

Looks like this thread already got a little off topic but I'll answer the same qustion that everyone who calls about the plane asks.... Question: "WHY ARE YOU SELLING?" Answer: It has nothing to do with aviation in any way. In other words, I'm not selling because I don't love the airplane, don't love the way it flies etc. I'm not selling because I'm going to buy another airplane (not right now anyway) The short version is like this. I live in Florida, my young children live in NJ with my Ex Wife. I see them once a month if my work schedule allows it therefore work will simply have to go. In order for my current job to be placed aside, I need some capital to build a business or support me while I look for work back home. It sucks the big one but it's reality none the less. As for the Infinity Landing Gear. Yes, it requires the pilot/owner to pay close attention but once she's dialed in (as my gear currently is) it's simply awesome. I drive the throttle forward, suck the gear up, I feel a jolt in the seat of my pants when they retract, I pull back on the stick, I point the nose where ever I want it to go - it goes there! Nothing quite like calling for a VFR clearance with an unrestricted climb to 10,000 (I'm at sea level) and being told to contact approach before I even start my roll. Three minutes later I'm at my cruise altitude and blasting along on my way to where ever. Seeing true airspeeds of 197 KTAS while sucking between 8.5 and 9.5 gallons, being able to climb at 4K FPM if needs be, being able to descend at that same rate with power on to avoid shock cooling is worth all of the pain and suffering I've gone thorugh prior to the rebuild. Complexity - Yup... Increased Performance - Without question! While I'm at it, I saw that someone else mentioned Waiter's controller being "another option" I have to disagree with my whole heart. It's the ONLY option. The original controller card simply isn't up to the drill. It's far to prone to failure and there is no way to troubleshoot an error or detect an error should one occur. The Waiter Controller is smart and efficient and I would never recommend flying this landing gear without that control system being part of the design. So.. that's that...

Without getting technical I can add a few points from experience. I had a VariEze with 90 HP, have a bunch of flights in a sweet 320 Long EZ and now own and fly a 360 BerkEz. The Varieze was fun.. The LongEz was more fun.. The BerkEz blows both of them away... My plane is NOT the most efficient, isn't going to win a CAFE contest and certainly isn't going to win a craftsman award at Oshkosh but if you want pure performance the extra horses under the cowl make a huge difference. Again, not technical info, just seat of the pants hangar flying.

Last Call! I have posted an auction on ebay where I'm dumping the last run of the Race Two Zero Inbound DVD. There are only 44 copies left to be sold and then they're gone. The ebay auction is a buy it now auction for $10 and about a $3 S&H. This version of the DVD is DISK ONLY and does not come with the standard DVD case. That full packaged version is still available on the www.GlassOverCast.com web site but the total quantity is still 44 left in exsistance. The link to the ebay auction is. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=6450334475 Thanks.

Yes sports fans, that's right. We are having a bit of a fly in right here in what should be the frozen North East. Of course, the temps have been holding in the mid 50s and are forecasted to stay in that range. Most of this message is old news but if you're not doing anything the weekend after this one coming, and you like flying in formation with other airplanes - read on! This is a semi semi last call for registrations for our formation school which will be held in (brrrrr) Millville NJ on the 15th of January. I say "semi semi last call" since we are cutting off registration at 100 people and I already put out the "semi last call". We now have 81 people signed up but at the moment but only 8 canard drivers total. I could go into heavy details here but all the important information can be found at www.VultureFormation.com I know that some of you have already registered, and some have emailed me directly saying "count me in" etc. But please if you are interested, please do go to the web site and register there as it helps us plan all the logistics according to the data we collect. Oh, by the way.. this fly in is FREE FREE FREE and we have DOOR PRIZES! MARC! KEN! Where are you guys? -Frank Pullano Jr VariEze N500EZ Atlantic City NJ

Whoof, it's been quite some time since this thread was going on but since I just happened across it today, I figured I should post the final deal on what happened a few years back. We ended up trying the least destructive thing we could think of and also what would seem the most simple. Having heard for years of people using MMOL in Contenental engines, we figured we'd just removed the valves and clean the hell out of the guides with a simple low lint cloth soaked with good old marvel. So, we just scrubbed away and let the rag do the work and well... it friggen worked like a champ! As soon as we put the motor back together and (ever since by the way) the engine has not had that repeat problem. Of course I do use MMOL on EVERY fueling to avoid what ever crud gums up my valves and guides. LOL, two years later... -Frank

I suppose I'll go ahead and post what I've come across today. (with respects to the original post of course.) We pulled all four rocker box covers off the jugs, pulled all the valve springs and allowed the valves to float freely in the guides. What was found so far really isn't what I expected. First, I was leaning toward the #2 or #4 jugs since #2 was running rather cooler with respects to the other three (cowl off - ground). The #4 however showed some sooting on the plugs again with respects to the other three jugs. So, after pulling everything apart around the baffles (sigh) both the #2 and #4 intake valves were sticking! I would have expected the exhaust valves based on the many replies that I've received. Ok, the "sticking" was not severe but rather very slight as the valve came off the seat. Once clear of the seat it guided cleanly on it's motion into the jug. I'd have to imagine that as the jug heats up, the clearance of the intake valve would become - well - less clear. Since the engine would run rough as it warmed up, I was thinking exhaust valves if it were the valves at all. Hell, I'm learning. So, the plan (at the moment) is to clean the valve guides with some wood dowel wrapped with 600wet paper. Dave, a local EZ guy has used this method in the past on his O200 c150 and showed positive results. That's were we are at the moment.....

If you are talking about an electric pitch trim you might try the Strong Electric Pitch trim. Many folks are using this unit (new AD out) and the service and support is top knotch. http://www.canard.com/~trim/

For those joining the thread, I've spoken to Dale about what he said above. The thing is, you can never really be sure how a person is speaking when you're reading the text. Well, that's true most of the time anyway. The point is, and I told this to the forum admin and Dale - my intention was not to offend anyone with my public comments on the CA list serv. If you don't know what I'm talking about - so much the better.

Most of this novel is a cross post from the CA list. (Glad I found this board.) Original Post OCT 18th 2002 Ok, here's my story and I have no clue. I have a limited knowledge about piston engines and the nuances that make them go... Friday was a great day, the Condition Inspection was completed, the A&P give the bird a clean bill of health and it was time to test fly prior to the SBY Flyin. I took it very slow and ran through every system twice and then ran through them again. A few hours later, it was time to take her for a test flight. All went well and after a few minor tweaks here and there, I flew again. Ok, the good news is everything was ready for Saturday morning which brings me to the point. Saturday morning I was to fly from AIY (Atlantic City Bader) to Millville in order to link up with my wing man Jay Blum and his Long Ez. That flight also went perfectly. Nothing out of the ordinary. The plan was for me to take on fuel, and for us to take on coffee and a light breakfast. So, I gassed up with 13.5G 100LL at MIV. So far that's the only thing that has changed since the past two flights. After taking fuel, (just me, not Jay) we started up and taxied over to the restaurant on the field, had breakfast... about 45 minutes later, and after our formation safety briefing, a walk around, a fuel sump, and oil check etc... We started up, and made a standard departure to SBY. We took the long way over Cape May then across the Delaware Bay by Cap Henlopen. We had a head wind and we were powered back so we took about 45 minutes to get down there. We made a two ship arrival into the overhead break for separation. So, again all was normal in the flight. Nothing out of the ordinary. Now I'm really getting to the point - I swear... After the great experience that was the SBY Flyin I started up to head for home. I felt a very slight vibration but it wasn't anything so as to worry me. I made a normal departure and climbed out like a BANSHEE! In fact the performance was fantastic all the way home. I was seeing 220 MPH over the ground and was climbing at 2k per minute. (A good day for a stock Varieze with a C90 and Superior Cylinders) As I crossed the Delaware bay @5500 MSL I felt the vibrations intensify a little. Starting to get annoyed and concerned. I thought I might be picking up some carb ice over the bay but it wasn't that. Amazingly enough, Jay had a similar experience recently where he we feeling some heavy vibrations which turned out to be his electronic ignition. Thinking about his problem, I shut down the Electronic Ignition. (Rose ElectoAir) - No change. Ok, let's try it the other way around. I enabled the ElectroAir and shut down the mag - No Change. Ok, more carb heat - No Change. Note that the vibration was quite noticeable, and it felt more like when your prop is out of track. I retrack the prop every 15 hours and it has cooled down a lot since even the preceding week so I thought it could surely be that. The vibrations are directly related to the RPM. Ok, so I landed safely despite the gusty 25 knot winds but now that I was on the ground, I could REALLY FEEL IT... The vibration is obvious. This afternoon, I went back to the hangar, pulled out the plane, grabbed Jim (the A&P) and we started working on figuring this out. First, I pulled the prop to look for some kind of wood crush, cracks, fat bugs etc. Nothing there. Next, installed the prop, torqued the bolts, checked the track. Standard pre starting stuff, cranked the engine - felt pretty good. No real vibration (but I was looking for anything). After the engine warmed up, the vibration became more and more noticeable. Played around with the same things that I did on the prior flight home. After a few minutes we shut down and decided to see if any of the plugs were fouled. Pulled the cowlings, check the plugs... all look fine. Started up again to see if it was the plugs (even though they looked fine) and pretty much the same problem. (slight vibration but increasing with engine warmth) Added some Marvel Mystery Oil for some top end lube - No change. Now, the #4 CHT reads between 50 and as much as 70 degrees cooler than the other three. This is with the cowlings off so it is not standard. I didn't see this departure during any recent runs with the cowlings on or in the previous flights. No CHT sep warnings (Grand Rapids EIS 4000) We tried a few more runs at different power settings to see if we could make it better/worse, tried leaning the mag, man, we tried every imaginable combination we could think of. The #4 CHT was consistently cooler. The next "quick" step is to switch out some of the CHT probes to see if in fact that cylinder is running cooler. Following that, I will drain the gas and try a different batch (since the fuel was the only thing that changed) After that, I don't have a clue! So, any thoughts and I would prefer the "You must need an overhaul" camp keep out of this one. For more background info - engine has about 220 SMOH and all the compressions were in the high 70s. Well, thanks for reading this long post, and thank you for your help! ------------------------------------------------- SINCE THAT POST 28 Oct 2002 Well, it was a shot in the dark but it wasn't the fuel. I pulled the fuel screens again just to be sure. They were clean. We have since re checked the compression and all is well in the high 70s. All the plugs are burning clean but the trouble seems to come up as the engine gets warmer. We are 'certain' that neither the Electronic Ignition nor the Mag are causing the problem since we can and have isolated one or the other to see if we could clear it up. We are leaning towards an exaust valve since the trouble is accute once the engine gets warm. Been a hell of a learning experience for me and depending on what we find, I'll be happy for the learning experience. -Frank Pullano Jr Mondary Varieze N500EZ Atlantic City, NJ (AIY)