Richard Riley

In theory, there's a clear advanatage for the dihedral canard. By raising the tips, the canard wingtip vortex passes over the strakes with more clearance. Now, in theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice - Marc's correct. Any difference in performance is not measurable.

The only thing I don't like about the Berkut trim system - and it's a *very* small point - is it doesn't give you the redundancy of the original Long EZ system. Suppose the worst happens, you leave the clevis safety out of the elevator pushrod, and it falls apart. In the long you still have some minimal control over the elevator, because the trim is still attached by cables. In Berkut, if the pushrod fails, there's no control to the elevators at all. The Strong system has the same thing. They're both fine as trim systems, you just don't get the bonus redundancy.

The stock Berkut pitch trim is electric, and works similarly to the strong. But buying a Strong instead of rolling your own isn't a bad trade off.

Good choice on the engine. At this point, do you know of any parts you're missing?

Did you get a copy of the written plans?

1: Soak some rags in ordinary gasoline B: Lay them on the silicone III) cover them with Saran wrap a' - let sit overnight. In the morning the silicone will have swelled and become kind of like Jello. At that point you can scrape it off, and lightly sand what remains. On the inside face of the aft sheer web you shouldn't sand too vigerously - doin't cut any fibers - but you wont have to bond anything to that face, so if a little silicone gets left behind that's all right.

If it's not "the outboard bulkhead doesn't meet the forward face of the spar" how about The thing that looks like a short piece of threaded rod is actually a stack of magnets. They're sticking to the conduit. Which means it's steel. Which means it's EMT from home depot, and weighs about 6 lbs. I'm reaching here.

Are you sure it's a doorbell? It looks like a transformer to me. Not that I can think of anyplace a transformer would go, either. It sure wasn't in the kit when we shipped it to Walt. Pic 5 - the shorter list is "What isn't wrong?" It's got fiberglass And epoxy. And I think I see some foam core in there.

Depends on how big his tanks are. If he took them out to the ends of the strakes, he's got about 60 gallons and he could do it easily, if he slows down to about 120 kts.

That's the color of the old SafeTPoxy/Epolite - Hexcel 2410/2183, that was the standard structural resin we shipped in those days. Today I'd used Gougeon Pro-Set. Get a Fein multi-master and a HSS vibrating blade. Also a broad wood chisel, and a ball peen hammer to tap it. A lot of those tapes will peel off if you get a chisel under them. But I agree - an awful lot needs to be stripped down and redone.

Acrylic. I don't know anyone who makes polycarbonate windshields/canopies for small airplanes. It's much, MUCH harder to work with, scratches easily.

Yes, I meant the spar. Also the holes in the canard for the hinges, but it sounds like the canard is too bad in other ways.

I did remove my posts from there. Once I had, I let John know that I had, and why. That's when he locked down the edit feature. My worry wasn't that they were "public domain" - that's exactly what I expect. I've been using email lists and usenet for a whole lot of years. My worry was that on that forum there was a moderator who was changing posts after the fact without telling anyone. I'll stand by my words. I don't want my name over someone elses words. I understand that technically speaking, a moderator on any forum could do a post-facto edit user's posts. The only thing that's keeping him from doing so is his choice, his desire to maintain his reputation. Buy John hasn't altered anyone's posts AFAIK. Mike has, even after people got mad about it. That's why I went to his new forum only long enough to post that any future posts there under my name were not actually from me.

Is the file name for the pictures an editorial comment? (resident evil movie premier) I understand you find the work (ahem) substandard, but it can all be corrected. Whether it was cheap enough is something only you can decide. The canard is a dead-stock Long EZ 1145MS airfoil. Anyone's hot-wired foamcore for that canard would work fine. I'm not sure what the hinge damage is, but it sounds repairable. The canard spar, maybe not. If you're going to do an new canard from scratch, see if Dave will sell you a molded one. You might get lucky. The drilled holes in the canard are absolutely fixable, you may have to strip off the outside carbon wrap plies Sorry for the dissapointment. If I can help, email me directly , richard at riley dot net. John, of course, will be a great help in figuring out what to do, his workmanship is flawless.

I bought from both for Berkuts. Both were well made. There's always a little shape variation in free-blown canopies, but there was only one that was far enough from our desired shape that we sent it back - and AP replaced it. Last time I bought them, Todd was half the price of AP. If I had to buy today, I'd buy from Todd.

I don't tour the forums for a few days, and look what I miss.

You could leave off the outer doors - Shirl did - but the outer doors actually function as a gear uplock. Without them, pulling G's the hydraulic actuators on the main gear would bend. Lots of leverage. You could use little electric actuators on the outer doors. If you're thinking of using electric actuators as direct replacements for the hyd cyls, I don't think you have a means of emergency extension.

Either wide or narrow deck will be fine. I know some mechanics who swear the narrow deck is stronger, my 540 is narrow. Yes, the cowls were build around the parallel valve engine - the heads on the angle valve are a little wider. If you used it you'd have to cut the buldges on the top cowl and spread them outward.

Just about any 180 hp 360 that isn't the H2AD. The O-360-A1A is fine, you replace the carb with an Airflow Performance fuel injection servo, replace the fuel pump with a high pressure unit. They're pretty common - the Superior XP engine will work just fine too. You just don't want an oddball engine. You don't want one that's left-turning, or that uses one of the 2-in-1 magnetos. You want one with a sump that puts the induction pointing down (and then you want an elbow from Airflow Performance). Try to get one without a starter or alternator, you'll use B&C for those anyway. One magneto and an ignition from Klaus, a 6" prop extension from Saber engineering. I think that's it.

Walt's kit was much later than James, the cross tube was corrected by then. Even if it it, it's very easily corrected. Stick with the 360, you'll be happier in the end. Mine's in Santa Ana, CA. John's phone is 310-390-1541 Rob's email is rcherney@comcast.net You can fix an amazing amount on a composite airplane. Misha's tumbled on the runway at Jackpot. All the gear was torn out, the nose crushed to the instrument panel, the canard broken, both wings broken, one strake and spar smashed halfway to the fuselage. It was fixed and is flying now.

I didn't know there was a kit in Florida for sale, the only one I remember selling in FL was Mackie Chapman's. The engine mount was a C kit item. It may be the hardest thing to duplicate, especially if you go with a 540. You'd also need the custom engine mount ears for a 540, but those are in the drawing set and would be easy to CNC. They were made by RANS aircraft, but I doubt they still have the jigs - and you'd need permission from Dave anyway. The quote I got for the main gear actuators was $250 each - but that was 10 years ago. We bought a few sets from Aro-Tek, but they had 9/16" shafts instead of 5/8". The leverage on them is so great that we were worried about shafts bending, though we never saw it happen. Mine is upside down on sawhorses right now, but it qualifies as a flying Berkut, I think. A Berkut 360 can do about 220 kts, a 540 about 250 kts if everything is dialed in well. You absolutely need to buy the drawing set from John Griffiths, and join the email list through Rob Cherney.

Congratulations, Tony. Who's kit was it originally? Don't worry too much about the actuators. They may end up being a custom job, but they're very doable. I actually got a quote for them from a company that does hydraulics for low riders. I have molds for the inner gear doors (the ones that close up the holes in the fuselage) and the belly scoop, if you need them. I know where there are molds for cowls. Do you have an engine mount?

Google A160. I agree, throwing open a valve is a thing of beauty. How about attaching the electric actuator to the gear via 3/16" Spectra cord? Emergency extension is pulling out your knife and cutting the cord. Gear falls down, goes over center. An idle thought, nothing more.

Rick, the vehicle I'm working on now for the day job is all-electric. All the things you'd normally see hydraulic cyls doing, there's an electric actuator for. Including the landing gear. The failure rate of the electric actuators is actually less than the failure rate of the hydraulic pumps I'm familiar with. Just something to consider.

You say that as if it's a good thing