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crashdog

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  1. Are u dissin russian aviation? Really?
  2. yah thats true, a big ole lycoming sounds a little like a couple of shovel heads in a harley. Could be that its an audio thing...
  3. crashdog

    Bored

    So I am at home nursing a couple of broken ribs and a somewhat less than operable left lung and I am bored, bored, bored. I know, I should be working anyway, gosh knows I have enough to do, but, instead I start noodling. So here is a bit of boredom for you. Will it fly? I dunno, can't see why not. I now need to spend a couple of hours in Plan-Maker and see how it does in X-Plane...
  4. OK enough about the shoes. Us guys with size 13 feet know all about shoes. What is it about this vehicle that needs to be reviewed more carefully than any other plane purchase. I get an undercurrent of concern. Could the group elaborate a bit more, please? Thanks in advance blue
  5. Yah, I was afraid of that. My experience with this whole thing is sort of like that first course in Calculus at university. When I was taking it, I wanted the most complete and thorough description available. A few years later, when I was teaching it, I had difficulty understanding why the students wanted such a thorough description, since it was so simple to me. Right now, I am that first year student, and I want a full and complete picture of the design. All you guys who have actually built and/or designed are like the PhDs, and find my quest for completeness just a little boring! Of course, my experience in physics and math was that because I was nerdy and worked hard to get a more complete understanding on my own, outside of the classroom, I ended up way ahead by the end of it. Maybe the same thing will happen here...
  6. RSB, Thanks for your work! I tried to do some drawings from the plans using Rhino, and discovered much the same problem, all over the airplane. I gave up and decided I would draw a shape I wanted, rather than spend a bunch of time drawing an accurate model from an imprecise set of plans, since I was interested in evolving the design somewhat anyway. I am developing an evolution of the design, and am doing a virtual build in CAD as a first step. By this, I mean that I am building 3d models of the fuselage and airfoil shapes, bulkheads, spars, engines, etc. This means separate models of the foam parts, the skins and spars based on the laminate schedules, the metalwork, the control systems, etc. Its a pretty big project and it may bog down. I am about 40% in. I am not sure if all plans-built aircraft plans are as loose as the long-ez and cozy derivatives, but if they are, it explains why more are not being built.
  7. From time to time, I feel I have the time to build, and then it goes away... At this point, however, I would like to start by doing a virtual build of an EZ type. The Open EZ project is perfect for this. The virtual build will be in 3d modelling software. This is an educational project. From what I can tell, the plans do not lay out a complete airframe plan, as one would expect, but rather, build up piece by piece until an airframe is complete. I have a great deal of difficulty building in this way. I need to see the complete picture before I start in on the details. Let's see what happens. Regards Philip
  8. Hmm, Pressure Bagging. OK, so I havn't started building aeroplanes yet, but I do have some experience in boats, model boats, bike frames, which may or may not come in handy... I developed a technique some time ago which I called "poor man's pressure bagging" to mimic vaccuum bagging. It was particularly applicable when doing a composite repair to a boat where bringing in vacuum apparatus was not practical. I have used it since in building a couple of marblehead model boats, an aerohydrofoil (!?!), and a carbon fibre bicycle frame. Seems to work. I use shrink wrap vinyl to provide the positive pressure in place of a vacuum bag. Essentially, I start with a wet pre-preg of laminate, either like John Slade has done (laid up on sacrificial .4 mm plastic and squeegied) or put through the nifty old-fashioned-laundry-roller-mangle-turned-into-pre-preg-roller-press. The laminate is then put onto the mould (or foam core, in the case of the aeroplane in question). A release fabric (peel ply) is layered on, then I use a bleeder/absorber (loosely spun polyester blanket), which is doubled up. On top of all of this, I put heat shrink vinyl, which I seal to the edges of the mold or wrap entirely around the part. Apply a little heat, to take up some of the vinyl's slack, then let the cure do the rest. Note that the polyester blanket's double layer tends to insulate the vinyl from a lot of the laminate's cure heat. When it is set, pull the vinyl off, and peel away the consumables, no worries at all. Works very much like a vacuum bag technique. A comment. If the parts were being manufactured in a female mould, this technique would be much more expensive of the course of an aeroplane build than would be the investment in vacuum bag technology. Vinyl heat shrink is not as cheap as all that. However, in the kind of construction which is employed in the Cozy, building up over foam cores, this technique has a lot going for it. The heat shrink allows for uniform pressures over compound curves, the bleeder/absorber tending to smooth out the application of pressure from the bag. The parts can be completely wrapped in the heat-shrink, and there is no need for an air-tight seal. This is a real pressure bag technique. In fact, so is vacuum bagging, since the weight of the ENTIRE ATMOSPHERE (!) is supplying the pressure, and all we are doing is getting rid of a little of that pesky air... cheers blue
  9. Looking, Thinking, Doing, the classics of the strategic process, and if you need more info than that, call me up. I have a small strategic advisory firm, with clients in financial institutions and government. On the side, I also dabble in motion pictures (producer) which was my first profession after graduate school (math), and before I studied finance and law, and became the animal I am now. Getting damn close to building, would like to find someone close by (toronto, ontario), and talk about it. cheers blue
  10. That last statement is sort of what people say when they see a rutan canard aircraft... Ceramic technology is remarkable, and is most definitely the way of the future in engine technology. Nay-saying it is easy but misdirected, in my opinion.
  11. I don't ski - no that's not true, I ski in a style most suitable for a yahoo like me (telemark!!!). I surf, and one of the big problems is putting your board on board a commercial flight when you go to Costa Rica, or some such exotic locale, looking for a little slam. My board is in two pieces (a custom job, by a particularly good stainles and composite fabricator) that pins together, and then locks in, using a quarter as the key. The board has all characteristics of a full board, although its about 3 percent slow (good for an old guy like me, sorta like parabolic skis). You need the same thing in your skis, so that you can focus on whether or not your aeroplane should fly forward or backward, not on whether it fits your skis. Besides, working up the SplitSki idea will make you millions and you will be flying your own starship or piaggio. Hey wait a minute, that's what I should be doing. Darn, why did I study the law instead of going to work in the custom shop. Honestly though, the SplitSki idea is pretty cool, donchathink? cheers crash
  12. Yeah, OK, whatever to the arguments... The starship is remarkable. What we really need to do is to encourage someone else to pick up the concept for an executive aircraft that is designed in the same way, composite construction, pusher turbo-prop, canard, speedy. I wonder what the intellectual property issues are with working up a similar design and going into production. It is always interesting that leading edge thinking takes so long to become mainstream, particularly in aviation. I think that most people in this forum are convinced about the qualities of the design over a conventional plane design. I wanted to point out that one of the advantages that the Piaggio p180 has in its configuration is that the cabin is unencumbered with the spars required for the main wing, and that this fact is the main motivation for designing the two lifting surfaces at either end of the cabin. The room in the Piaggio is substantially more than in a similarly sized Citation. cheers blue
  13. Hey MT, I have been wondering about those outboard engines for some time now. They are really worked up, and are available at good prices. By the way, I'v already worked out the amphibious aspects. ladder foils... yep, ladder foils. Floats are too ugly, man. cheers blue
  14. Audi? Audi!? Bentley, man, Bentley! Sheesh... Actually, its North v Quantum, and anyone who knows, knows its North... cheers, crashdog
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