Nathan Gifford

So how much are they going to charge for lunch on saturday?

Only the Lodge charges for food. I have not asked nor sought donations for the chili.

 

...However Girrrls, if you want to send over a few parts...

Without a scale it looks like a VHF receiver antenna. It is difficult to tell what band of frequencies it would be good for. Antennas of this type generally have a wider bandwidth but I would not put any expensive transmitter on it.

I heard a rumor that someone had built his pods with power and a fuel hookup. The idea was to have a fuel bladder in the pod. By using a bladder, he could switch between baggage or fuel depending on the mission required.

The only thing I remember about canard incidents over the last few years are builders wanting to change it for shorter takeoff runs.

 

I also remember some discussions about making the nose gear a little longer instead of changing the incident angle.

 

Maybe someone remembers the details...

Saw this at the Wings over Houston Airshow this weekend. They had a flying model (1/10 scale as well as a 1/4 scale) and a full size simulator using X-Plane with three projectors. It was fun.....Pretty darn ambitious though.

 

http://www.labicheaerospace.com/

Yep, no full-size flying models yet. Interesting how they are going to get one up and flying and get the kits out to the customers in 2007...

...Look at the pilots weight also. If the pilot is 10, 20, 30 lbs overweight, this has a significant impact on aircraft performance.

 

Watch those calories (fats, sugars, starches, etc).

 

It will not only improve the aircaft performance, but also the Pilots...

Well the aircraft's performance will also improve just as soon as the kids leave for college too...

...My question is if the canard could have a hinge attached to the trailing edge. When you take off or land you could raise the leading edge up a few degrees to creates more lift and equal the main wing. Slower speed take off and landings could then be done which would mean you could use shorter runways...

The advice about doing this on your second plane is sound advice. What you are trying to do is possible...HOWEVER...there is a considerable amount of work you would have to do plus investigate changes in roll authority at the slower takeoff and landing speeds you will be flying at. Additionally you will be adding weight to the aircraft and in places that will have a large impact on machine's CG.

 

To get up off the ground faster keep the aircraft on diet. Another option is a variable pitch propeller. The Cat's Meow (a Cozy MKIV) is flying with 200hp 360 with constant speed prop. Chrissi says it leaves the ground like a scalded cat.

BRS has its own problems. I think Marc, et al, have said that safety is a series of hopefully thoughtful tradeoffs. In the case of BRS you need to evaluate the cost of BRS vs something else you could do.

 

A BRS is minimally going to cost $12K. $12K buys a lot on an aircraft. That money could be used to make you powerplant system more reliable, better flight instruments, additional training; all of which may have a better payoff than BRS.

 

BRS has additional issues. Like Chrissi pointed out flying at night or over inhospitable terrain is where it shines. However, approach and departures are where a lot of the accidents happen. That means you have to make the decision to deploy very quickly and be reasonably sure that firing that beast off is the right thing to do.

 

Additionally, BRS is going to add weight, real estate, and CG issues, plus you will be the pioneeer. If the wife really wants BRS it may be a better idea to look at plane already equipped with one.

Todd does great work and its very reasonably priced. There is a lot of art involved in making a canopy and Todd sure seems to be one of them...

Really neat. Somehow I thought it would be more violent than that.

BTW, it looks like the Wiki is going to be its own separate entity. It has all the problems Wikis have, but that isn't different than any other Wiki.

It look very nice at RR and if they didn't have a client already for the one they built, it would have been sold off.

Tail number looks like N?VE. There are about 3 or 4 candidates in the FAA db. The video is grainy, but does it look like the engine is gone?

 

I added this after the fact, the airplane does appear to be a VariEZ. I did not want to give out a complete tail number because in the story they had not notified next of kin.

It was an old video, but the canard did not snap until it was past 13Gs. In case you missed it, that was a canard that had dry weave. Burt went on to say he hoped the guy whose canard they rejected wasn't in the audience...but...it was good the canard was rejected because with time the weave would move around and weaken.

It was something watching that guy put the throttle to firewall. It flew and appeared to fly quite well, though the sound of those 18 horses could not be heard far from the gas pumps...

Dave's right about allergies. Do all you can to minimize exposure and be careful about solvents that can carry epoxy through your skin.

Ah ha! Your science is off. I missed the year before as well -- the year with all the rain. Must be someone else doing it.

Well the other thought on that issue was the fact that Nick had secured that big tent kept the rain away.

 

If that theory holds we won't have any rain for the next few years...

 

The only other unusual thing was all the baseball talk. I don't know what the final score was but there were many discussions about pitching and catching...

...loose your resale value as compared to metal. I guess buyers shy away from glass...

People buy what they are familar with. The RV is popular because it looks like a plane and it use material people see on GA aircraft more regularly.

 

If you look at Velos or Cozys, no one is giving them away. A lot that goes into the sale price of an aircraft is not just the popularity of the design, but the condition of the project and what condition the engine is in. If the engine is about run out, it is going to go for a song since it won't be long that you will be paying for a rebuild.

 

If you go to Rough River, you will be amazed how much things have advanced on these aircraft. What you find on later aircraft is that the finishing techniques are much better today than on the older birds. Another thing that was interesting was look Zeitlin's Cozy that had a prop failure earlier this year take off parts of the trailing edge of his wing and part of his winglet. Its all fixed now. That would have been very hard to do with metal...

It was great. Weather was outstanding, we had a huge tent courtsey of RR (Nick got it delivered and reserved). About the same number of canards as last year (60-70) but about double the number of spam cans.

 

Nick arranged the forums wiring, diesels, Marc's prop failure and solution, Dust hands on hot wiring with a spring loaded saw, etc.

 

CG Products was there showing a special Long-EZ control system that is silky smooth and tight, etc.

 

I guess you not being there kept away the rain... ;-}

Todd has what is called a Texas canopy for the Cozy MKIV. It is pretty simple to widen the canopy. Wayne Hicks wrote some tips on how to do this and I have them around here. I think the file is 2.5MBs less if you already have PowerPoint. If you want them, send me a PM with your e-mail and I will send them to you.

 

I agree with the other posters here. Check with Todd...the man knos what he is doing and you are not going to find a better price either. He is not going to show you how he does his work, but you could not do it for what he will charge you.

A number of people may want to build their turtleback larger for the larger canopies available for the Cozy MKIV. Attached are two PowerPoint presentations by Wayne Hicks documenting the steps needed to enlarge the turtleback. I do have a zip file with the viewer but it is over 2MBs and I could not upload that to this website.

Canopy Raising and Widening Process.ppt

CANOPY~1.PPT

Among the questions I have are how does the hardware fail and how fast do the hinges fail in flutter? I would want to be sure that I could easily detect during the aircraft walkaround I could spot a problem long before a repair wpuld be required.

...COM wiring going through the hole in the foam core...lights go through the same hole. Seems like the coax cable for the antenna would pick up noise from the lights...

There are plenty of radio noise sources in the aircraft. Using quality coax, taking the time to get the splices correct, and using low noise lights will have a bigger impact. Most nav lights are just a light bulb hung on the end of a wire. As long as it has good connections it should not make much noise.

 

Strobes are a different animal. A good strobe, installed properly, should not generate much noise either.

...Although this would be way to complicated in terms of return...

Don't forget the weight too. Keeping the weight down might give you better performance than adding high lift devices.

The replacement for high density Clark Foam is Corecell S-foam or Divinycell H250.