Bruce

I didn't want to high jack another thread so I moved my question here. Lynn, in order to be able to see well enough to land, how much higher would the back seat person need to be? 6 to 8 inches? Doesn't the approach have some to do with that as well? Make it a little flatter. I would think the view would be similar to a tail dragger being flown from the back seat. Not having any back seat time at all in a Long I'll have to defer to the experts.

Did you put the 12" stretch between the canard and main wing or does that include adding to the nose? I was looking at adding 6" between the back seat of the pilot and rear passenger for more leg room and dual controls.

It would have made it in the Canard Book for sure! Thanks for posting.

Looking at the front view, what is the width of the fuselage?

That's a good idea, something in-between... I was trying to put a "quick start kit" together that had all the foam parts pre-cut (seat backs, bulkheads, etc) all the layers of glass pre-cut, sides already together and cut to shape, all wood pre-cut to size. Even have the forms that are needed for the Cozy sides and main spar pre-cut, for easy assembly. All a builder would need to do is mix epoxy and start laying glass. Sure, it would cost more than just the raw materials, but it would be a lot cheaper than buying a kit. Plus you're still learning the skills required to build a composite plane. I talked to a few "older heads" about the concept, they thought it would help sell a few, but it's a real difficult world selling small numbers to a limited market. Just look at all the mom and pop's in the home built industry, just trying to stay a float. This market has a few things making it a hard sell, it's a canard, it's plans built and it's made of composites. I think most people think of the smell, the sanding, the dust and they would rather deal with a "normal" looking plane made of metal that has almost all the holes pre-pinched for them. Van's has a really good business model as well, which really helps sell more planes. Just my thinking out loud thoughts...

Yes, Mr Barber, it was for you. It's smiling because it's Rotary Powered!

Hey Chris, I was shooting some pictures at the Home Coming Fly-In that's put on each year by the RV folks at Independence Airport in Oregon and this strange sounding airplane (compared to all the Lyc's around) came in. Thought you might enjoy a couple of shots, even though it's not a Canard.

It was quite a rush standing under him when he went over at that speed. By the time I panned the camera around and found him to get his pull up, he was basically gone. At the time he was doing 240 knots and adding power as you can hear.

And a high speed fly-by at RR before his mods. http://pursuitofflight.com/videoeracerfly-b.html

Talk about forgeting things, thanks . I forgot about the Bataleur and he's in my Canard DVD set (duh), and my conversation with the Revmaster guys. When I talked with them several years ago they had a couple of them, but not in flying condition at the time. You could order a kit for about $30,000. The IBIS stall speed is 95 km/h (52 kts) - 59 mph, not LSA, plus the fact they do not sells plans to folks in the US anymore. He and Nat had a lot in common with folks always wanting to make changes to their designs. The Terrafugia, I have to agree is not one of the better looking canard designs around. My hats off to them for actually going out and making it happen though. If it'll become a commercial success, we'll see.

Super-eze, It's always interesting to think outside the box from time to time, makes life a lot more fun and it helps to keep those creative juices flowing. Since you're still in the "concept" stage here's my thought. I think you have one foot in the box and one outside, step completely out of the box and make this a canard that meets the LSA rules. Looks like you have a good start with the frame anyway. There's already a couple of kit manufacturers that supply kits/parts for the fast planes (not saying this couldn't do that as well, possibly), the next step for those folks, myself included, (hopefully several years down the road) is LSA. I believe Nat followed that path. No reason a canard can't fit the LSA rules and be a good looking design. There's a lot of really nice looking LSA aircraft out there, but no canards. I'm not saying that a LongEZ or VariEze can be made to work as an LSA, however, you're going to need to do a lot of new engineering anyway, make it a really new and fresh design. We seem to keep remodeling the same old house, let's build a new beach house for the old folks.

Good thing he had the forward titling canopy. He also had a female passenger with him. Was it Jeanna Yeager?

So, the real question is, did you miss it?

You're welcome! Hope it's enough for the project.

Here's a link to some pictures of the Arlington fly-in. The weather was perfect for Fri and Sun. Several of the Canardians flew out Sat morning to beat the forecast of thunderstorms (which fortunately didn't happen), head home, etc., so much for video. I did get some stills of the Fri cook out and of those planes that were there. They did have one problem with Joe Hull's Cozy. On Fri, he went to take someone for a ride and the starter wouldn't engage so they pushed it back with the rest of the canards and Joe ordered a new starter which should be in on Tue. On Sat, they towed his Cozy using a rope that Joe held onto while sitting in the pilots seat. A couple of guys helped to get it rolling by pushing on the prop. I put in a couple of other shots you might enjoy as well, not canards put nice looking planes. http://picasaweb.google.com/bwsturgill Bruce

Is it on all or a particular one? Does the video load the whole way? Bruce

Thanks TMann, I did have only one video on that page, now I have a few more up, this will be the link to the videos page from now on and I'll be adding more videos in the future. I have a lot shot, I just need to encode it for the web. I'm going to Arlington for a couple of days (Friday and Sat) and I'll get some video of the canard folks and post it on my web site when I get back. http://pursuitofflight.com/videoselectionpg.html The correct link for just the Jet T/O is... http://pursuitofflight.com/videojettopg.html Best regards, Bruce Sturgill www.pursuitofflight.com

And that's not all... it also takes up the back cover and two full pages in the book. Sorry about cutting out the RV(?) wing on the back cover shot. The formation shot (inside the book) had to stay since you (a canard aircraft) were leading the pack (not counting the photo plane). The photographer took some really great photo's of a really good looking airplane. It's those kinds of shots that make the book what it is, thanks for sharing those with the rest of us. Bruce

Now here's some power... http://pursuitofflight.com/video.html Bruce

The Big Book of Canards has a web site you can order from, using Pay Pal or Visa/MC. www.pursuitofflight.com Bruce

Thanks Marc, I also found some info from the EAA, here's a partial quote about the proper ratio, and this is from 1988. Sport Aviation - 5/88 By Ben Owen If you will check some of the advanced articles on fiberglass components, you will see that many of the early articles and textbooks on fiberglass show . . . "a good ratio by weight of epoxy to fiberglass cloth to be about 50/50." However, with today's material the best for strength is approximately 40% epoxy and 60% cloth. This is very hard to do with a hand lay-up procedure without vacuum bagging. I'll have to try a piece at the 50/50 weight ratio and see how close I am with my usual approach of applying epoxy. My guess is, I'm above that ratio, sometimes the application of epoxy does not always go as planned. At least we have a way of ball parking where our weight should be on any given part, if we take the time to weigh the glass and epoxy, and since I use a scale to measure my epoxy, I'm half way there. Bruce

Very good point Phil, proper weights of the components would be extremely helpful for the new guys(actually all of us). Doing the small test in the plans is helpful as a starting point, however, when you step up to the much larger parts, it'd be really nice to see if you're transferring your beginning skills along correctly. Many years ago I helped a guy build a Vision aircraft and he would weigh his fiberglass and mix up an amount (by weight) of epoxy for that glass. I don't remember what that ratio was, or where he obtained it. Does anyone know what the ratio by weight of glass to epoxy is or should be for that perfect combination? This is obviously for hand lay-ups. Weigh the foam and fiberglass, add the epoxy and you'll know if the part is to heavy or light. I think this would be a good way for the beginner to keep track and see if he's at least getting the right amount of epoxy on the part. I'll send an email to Pro Composites (they sell the Vision kits) next week and see if they have any information on that. Bruce

OK, I found another good home for it, Mr Parkins said he could put it to good use.

Hey Martin, If you really would like to do all that work again, I have some extra blue foam(wing foam), if you'd like I could bring enough with me for that nose job when I come to Arlington. It's just taking up extra space in my shed, it's yours if you want it. I can toss it in the back of my truck, I'll charge you a Pepsi for the handling and shipping. Bruce

You'll notice several pictures of 2 VariEze's and a Long doing some aerobatics in the book. Patrick Lefevre from France sent those for the book. He also sent several more that were a little late to make it into the book. Here's one of him flying his VariEze, thought you might enjoy this great shot as well. Notice he has some very interesting additions to his plane. Bruce