macleodm3

As far as a basement goes... well its only around 3 ft high down there with dirt floors. But plenty of square footage. I wonder if anyone has ever built in a 36" crawl space? I'm sure I could set some records with that one! The original owners of our house opted for living space instead of a basement. The soil isn't too deep here on the side of our mountain and many homes have a slab or crawlspace. Our attic could be a 10' by 40' space but its full of rafters and braces. I thought about removing the braces, but then one big snow could get me into some serious trouble. No easy soutions, and I HATE excuses... but it ain't worth moving to a new house either. Or is IT? There is a turnaround up in the woods about 80 ft from the house and the neighbor would let me use the land and its LEVEL too! We'll work it out. Roanoke ain't too far, we'll be by sooner or later. Andy

Mike, I was hoping you would say build now... it assures me that the sun will probably rise tomorrow. Everything is normal. John, good ideas to include the family... I may try to look up Jim Sower for a family visit. My parents live in Morristown, TN, (kinda close to Jim's) and I'm 2 hrs from them. MT...I know you have the abilities to "work out the kinks" Jon... Thanks for taking over the forum. I hope everyone has equal access.... good luck Its tough to get a building space here the Steep mountains of far southwest Virginia. I MEAN STEEP. We have a 30x25 level portion of yard and the rest is a slope. The flat area is for Andrea (1.5 yrs old) and her swingset/toys (more important than a shop/tent). My plans are to build a "deck" next to the driveway... one side @ ground level and 24' away will be 12' off the ground. This will be the base for the tent/cheap carport with walls/or stick built walls with roof. I will do the visiting, rough river, and a couple small building things, but I have agreed to not build in the house. If I build the "deck" correctly, it will hold more than enough weight. And when we're done I'll work on cars in it (yes, a wooden elevated garage with no concrete... Just good engineering (I hope). Will the new plans come with actual newsletters or do we need to use the electronic versions on Marc Zeitlin's webpage? (Which I appreciate by the way)

Wow! I was checking out the new postings on this forum last night, and my wife came in and starting asking where to buy Cozy plans. My pulse doubled. I brought her to the ACS web page. She then went on to say that since I'm so interested in the Cozy that she would like to order me a set for my birthday (Feb 25)! Talk about a great surprise! I've been talking about it for about 1.5 years now, and checking emails/forums almost daily. After we have talked to respected family and friends about the plane, she believes it would be fun to build the plane. One problem... no building in our house. Another stipulation: she gets to help build but doesn't have to fly in it unless she gets more used to (enjoys) flying. It would definately be great if we both worked on it. And flew in it! So.. should I go ahead and get the plans while the window of opportunity is here, and then build the shop? No attic, extra bedroom, or basement is available and I don't think we should build away from home (at least not the startup build chapters). My vote is now, but what are the drawbacks of having the plans sit around while I build the shop. Could be next year before starting on the plane. Budget is the biggest bottleneck for now. I have read the posts on reading the plans completely before building. Any thoughts or experiences are appreciated.

Unfortunately we do not have Skyline's here in the US. That engine could be imported somehow but we would still need to come up with all the systems (intake, exhaust, computer...). The engine and car are not imported to the US through Nissan dealers.

It must be that the diesels are fuel injected. Engine management system takes care of the ratios.

Mike, How does the smart level stay attached to the cheap level if something like velcro is not used? I found them on the web for around $90 for the 7" module. Also saw this posting the other day(the rest has been copied and pasted)..... Frank Armbruster out of Colorado has the original Wedge Innovations levels cheaper than current market. SmartLevel modules - $40 2 ft. extension - $20 4 ft. extensions are available but I didn't need one. Shipping is quoted as $5 even to the East Coast. Nice guy to deal with. Oh, these are still in the box, unused, needs a new 9 volt battery, complete with the instruction booklets. Seems he used to be a dealer before Wedge got bought out. His cell phone is 720-363-0303. And , yes, he does like airplane builders. Only asks that you let him know when the first flight occurs. Richard Crapse Textron LCM Team

Thanks for the info... I had thought about the possibility of using the smart level with the I beam levels I 've already got... Like you have done Paul. I could just use velcro to hold the smart level in place "inside" a standard I beam level. It appears that the smart level is routinely zeroed anyway. Thanks!

Is there any reason to get the smart level 24" or 48" extension? It appears that a level module is about 6.5" in length..... Any Opinions?

I used to do some club racing with my 1980 RX-7 (12A Rotary) and one of the aftermarket components I bought was an undersize main pulley. This aluminum pulley was advertised to reduce water pump and alternator rpm, thereby reducing water pump cavitation which can occur during high engine rpm (I guess the stock water pump was designed to pump water at relatively low street use rpm's). I noticed that Al Wick's Subaru powered Cozy was having some initial trouble with entrapping air in the cooling system, and he runs in the 4000 to 4500 rpm range. My subaru Impreza never has any entrapped air but I don't sustain rpm's any higher thant 3500. I wonder if Al's water pump is cavitating. I may ask him. When I am ready for my water cooled engine, I'm going to look into reducing water pump and alternator rpm's so they match their respective stock rpm's at 60 to 70 mph (on the street) in top gear. Not many engines actually sustain rpm's of 4000 to 7000 rpm while in their original car body, even if it won't hurt them at all. Has anyone here done this or planned for this? We use pumps ALOT at work, and the efficient rpm range for centifugal pumps is relatively small. Its been bugging me for awhile.

Did you offer to buy his rotary while you were there?

Here is some info from a rotary enthusiast page, but I can't say its reliable: "The exhaust sytem requirements of a rotary engine are notably different from those of a four stroke engine. With rotary engines the exhaust gas temperature is very high - aproximatly 1,700-2,000 Degree's F at full throttle and high rpm,as compared to 1,100-1,400 Degree's F for a four stroke reciprocating engine. Also the unmuffled exhaust noise of a rotary is very loud" Another good reason to slap on a 2nd gen turbo unit. I don't know what temps Mazda is talking about with their new engine, but big companies always try to make a "problem" like high exhaust temps appear to be a solution "more effecient cat. conv." Their explanation does make sense though. I always thought it was funny how car companies said that the reason that the rear windows did not roll all the way down was to make the car "safer", although it is definately much cheaper too. Sorry about getting off the subject.

My biggest concern would be the exhaust temperatures... I remember watching the racing RX-7's catching on fire at every pit stop because the exhaust was so hot. The rotary exhaust pulses don't get cooled before exiting the engine as in piston engines. My neighbor has a new Harley and all the exhaust pipes have pretty covers so the blued chrome pipes are never seen. The weight savings of the rotary could allow for heat shielding from the exhaust... but who wants to put heat shields all around the back of a pusher airplane? I've been a long time fan of Mazda'a rotary performance cars and engines. One thing I've learned about Mazda is to not buy anything that they put out until its been out for two to three years. The last rotary they brought to the US was the twin turbo 13B which looked attractive with over 250 HP... until the turbos quit at 20k miles... consistently. Lets hope the new renesis has been tested more thoroughly and that the exhaust doesn't melt our planes... this engine may get popular with the execs at Ford and Mazda. I hope they sell tons of them so that they are easy to find! Lets see... 6 years from now when I might be ready for an engine... subaru WRX 227 hp, mazda renesis rotary, lycoming, continental, diesel... choices choices.

So a bandsaw isn't to big a requirement?

Some of the early Mazda rotaries(but not my '80 RX-7) ) had an oil cooler that used the engine coolant to cool the engine oil... a liquid/liquid heat exchanger(my 87 VW had one too). One of these units could be used with either engine coolant used to heat wing anti freeze (H20 cooled engine)or the engine oil used to heat the wing anti freeze (air cooled engines). Come to think of it... you could use one of these heat exchangers to supply a warm (or even hot) liquid to the front of the fuselage to provide cabin heat/defog. If one of the long lines of plumbing to the front of the aircraft broke... you might get burned at worst, but the water or oil cooling system would remain completely intact at the rear of the plane. I know that it adds another system but at least its not an engine critical system. It could be created with a thermostat control to keep the HOT liquids out of the passenger area. The liquid could be circulated with one of the small electric water pumps that has recently been discussed. If I go modern water cooled route one of my concerns will be to keep hot antifreeze in the back, with the engine. The exchanger from the Mazda was small, slightly bigger than the oil filter. The VW unit is about 2 inches thick, 3 inches square. Both were coolant/oil heat exchange. On the negative side... the exchanger could always spring a leak and there goes your coolant or oil.

Its good to see a view from both ends of the spectrum... one from a builder like me who hasn't yet started the build and one from a builder well into the project. I don't need any extra room over the Cozy, I'm 5'8" and my wife is 5'4" and we're both average size. I didn't notice the notation of "no full size drawings". Shouldn't be a problem cause we have cad and plotters available at work, but that will take some more research.

I am currently in the stage of modifying my attic to accomodate my future airplane build. At this stage in my research I've learned alot about the Cozy design and its comprehenssive plans.... today I learned that Aero Cad is selling plans for a "Plans Built Cozy" for approximately the same price as Nat. Does anyone have any insight on which source of plans has better support and also potential for future support? It can obviously take well over a "few" years to get one of these birds flying. I am also trying to determine the differences in the two sets of plans.. if any. The canopy design jumps out as a change... but what else is there?

I have been keeping an eye out for used tools to help with the composite construction process and have found a used 9 inch band saw with stand for $50.... would this saw be helpful in constructing the Mark IV? I realize a 14" saw might be better but is a 9" saw sufficient for the majority of the work? Its a Black and Decker and I'm not sure of the quality yet.