Steve Brooks

I don't know if I have enough experience in the Cozy to give real good feedback, but as a novice in the plane, with a whopping 4 hours total in 2 different planes, I feel pretty comfortable with the plane now, and the side stick is very intuitive. I have not seen any issues with roll rate, though I’ve made all of my approaches at 80 knots so far. I’m not sure what my touchdown speeds have been, but probably pretty slow, because the plane really like to fly in ground effect if you’re fast. I have had no issues with elevator authority. I have found the pitch sensitivity to be longer learning curve. I can’t say that it’s more difficult; it just takes getting used to. When turning, you actually move the stick a little. While in level flight, you just apply a little pressure to climb or descend. I’ve flown several different planes, including multiengine. I really can’t think of one that flies like the Cozy Probably the closest was a 2 place Lancair. In cruise it is very similar, but the one I flew got squirrelly at low speed as in landing. The nose just wanders around. The Cozy has been stable at all speeds, so far. Steve Brooks Cozy MKIV N75CZ Turbo Rotary

Today I made my fifth flight with Cozy N75CZ. Today was also my longest flight to date with .7 hours. I have a Mazda Turbo charged rotary engine, and I’ve had some high temperature issues that I’ve been working on. I mad excellent progress, and today’s flight with the OAT at only 71 degrees was much better. My coolant was running a steady 190 degrees, but the oil temperature was still a little high at 217-220. I think though that I may have not had the temperature probe into the oil stream, and may have been measuring the temperature of the metal housing, instead of oil temperature directly. I re-tapped the 1/8 NPT hole running the tap all the way down, and the probe is now about 3/16” further down. I ran a ground test, and the oil was tracking below the coolant, but I’ll have to fly it again to be sure that it made a difference. Upon landing my oil was 175 and the coolant was down to 160. That lower RPM glide certainly cools things down. If my oil temperature still runs high, I think that I will make a curved deflector, and glass it in to the shroud to divert more airflow to the oil cooler. If that doesn’t do the trick, or raises the coolant, I will add a front end to my air scoop, which would attach to the landing gear cover. I’ll taper it outward to increase height and width to increase the air pressure in the intake. I’ll attach this scoop with six screws into nutplates in the gear cover, so that I can remove it during cooler weather. I think that if I do need it at all, it will only be during the summer months. The only squawk on this flight was with the front landing gear. I had to hit the override on the auto extension unit (AEX) to get it to retract, and then it kept extending the gear again, even though I was flying more than fast enough at 120 knots. I continued flying, but had to keep hitting the override about every 20 seconds to keep it retracted. I found that it was also pretty easy to tell when I hadn’t hit the button, because the nose pitches down some when the gear comes down. Once on the ground, I found that the tube running from pitot air to the AEX unit had come off. I put it back on, but if I pulled on it very hard at all, it just came off again. The hose passes through a hole in the plastic case and slides onto a nipple inside the box. I finally decided to put a little RTV on the hose where it passed through the plastic case to hold it in place. It was either that, or remove the AEX so I could open it up and see if I could clamp it somehow. Given the short length of pitot hose, and the location of the AEX, I decided that would be a major issue requiring removal of the canard and I/P cover. The good news is that the plane flies great, and the rotary engine is running extremely well. The power is smooth, instant, and plentiful. I worked on making some turns, especially since I’d been flying around the pattern on previous flights, I decided that some right turns would be nice. It was also very smooth at 9:00 AM this morning, so I could trim the plane for hands off flying. That really makes a big difference. At this point, I would like to see my oil temperature a little lower, but all-in-all, I couldn’t be happier with the plane, or the engine. Both are perfuming well beyond my expectations. My take off and landings have also greatly improved as I get a better feel for the aircraft. Attched is a photo that a freind (and ground crew) took today on takeoff. 2.2 hours TT 37.8 to go. Steve Brooks Cozy MKIV N75CZ Turbo Rotary

Today was the 2nd flight of Cozy N75CZ. This one was longer than the first, but still only about 30 minutes. I removed the thermostat, and took some pitch out of the prop, which both helped the temperatures quite a bit. I still need to get used to the pitch sensitivity of the Cozy. I'm probably gripping the stick too tight also. I'm sure that there are imprints of my hand in the grips from a couple of hours ago. The fastest I went was about 120 knots, and mostly I just cruised around the airport at 100-100 knots. I stayed a little outside of the normal traffic pattern, but not by very far. The winds were favoring runway 27, which was not my first choice because there are lots of trees off that end, and no good landing spots if needed. By the time that I decided to make the flight the density altitude was getting up there, and it was almost 90 degrees. Also the visibility was only 5 miles, which isn't good either. I did check out a few more things on this flight handling wise, with some turns, and some flight at 80 knots. My first landing yesterday was really good. Today's' landing made up for it. Well, actually, the actual landing was pretty smooth, but getting there was very ugly. I hit a high sink rate while on short final (maybe got a little slow), so I pushed the nose, and gave it power, resulting also in a increase in speed. I crossed the threshold at about 90 knots and flared at about 80. You can probably guess how far I floated. Every time I tried to set the canard on the horizon to land, it would start climbing, and I would have to work it back down. This repeated 2 or 3 times. Good thing that the airport has a 5000' runway. I was also amazed at how long, and slow it flew in ground effect. I'm not sure of the exact speed, but it was pretty slow. The last I saw was 70 knots, and it flew quite a while after that. I think that I need to add an anchor. No real squawks with the plane this flight. I didn't pull the cowling today, because it was so hot outside by the time I took it back to the hanger. I'll do another check before the next flight. I also want to recalculate my single pilot weight and balance. I think that I showed the ballast that I'm using ahead of the rudders pedals too far back. On the spreadsheet I have it listed as 7", but they are only about 4" centered from F0, so I need to see how that changes the number. With 50 lbs there, I'm sure that the CG is a little forward of what I initially calculated. I had it right at 100, which is center of the range, so I'm sure that it's still within specs, but probably a little further forward than would be ideal.