argoldman

Dittos on the congrats. :) :) Welcome to the land of the actual builders Don't worry about the warped plywood, It all eventually does. You will be laminating that wood with glass and epoxy. When you do that, make sure that after your layup, you cover it with peel ply, if you desire and then plastic sheeting (I use 1mil, although in this application it does not make much difference except you may get a fold mark. On top of the plastic, put some stiff boards (I used counter top sink cutouts) and weigh them down. If you have a lot of epoxy experience you can glass one side, lay the plastic on it, flip it over, lay-up the other side, put the boards on, weight the whole thing down and let it set. Don't forget the engine mount aluminum hardpoints. Either way you do it, the warp will be gone. Kind of like making the bent longerons in reverse.

Marc, I thought that Andorra was just a mythical place in one of Pete Seeger's anti war songs. "I want to go to Andorra"

I have what amounts to bench seats in my aerocanard. I am seriously considering building up the central tunnel to near the height of the arm rests on either side of the fuselage. The reason??? Getting in and out of the damn thing. The problem I have (possibly due to miles on my feet) is that when attempting to get out of the aircraft, I can rest one hand on the side console, however without a central point at a similar height in the middle, I can't get out of the damn thing without reaching over to the opposite longeron, possibly the back of the seat, can't really grab the instrument panel unless I substantially reinforce it. Horribly awkward to say the least. I can imagine the broken noses and black eyes that my wife will suffer as I am flailing around trying to extricate myself, not to mention the contusions I will suffer at her comings and goings. I am now trying to design a central arm rest that will not only give me the ability to levitate, but will give me the thigh room I so deserve (and need) so as not to feel as if I am in tourist class on the silver tube and be strong enough to withstand the abuse that I will give it.

Appearantly the bending and possible breakage of these bearings caused the change to -4s. Probably some broke. These are not very important bearings, heck in a cozy, if one breaks you can always reach over to the other side for elevator control. If it Jambs, you won't need to reach at all. In Summary------------- CHANGE ALL TO -4S

Not having read the two place variety of the EZ plans, I can only go by comon sense. It makes absolutely no sense to have one master alarm for all of the "gotcha-s" that can happen on an aircraft. One common alarm is acceptable, if barely, if there are other indicators as to what is the major malfunction. Make your life easier, and safer by, as your question suggests using separate alarm lights for any thing that has to be alarmed. It's good also to use different types of audio alarms for each (not pitch but interrupted, solid, klaxon, voice) for each. Imagine your making a tough landing, after a long flight, perhaps at night, perhaps higher altitude, perhaps tired, perhaps pissed off at something. Imagine something in the pattern that distracts you from your normal routine. Here you are, almost about to touch down when you get an single "Gear Canopy, etc, etc" alarm. You then have to start searching for the reason for the alarm burning up precious seconds. Better to have one alarm for each--Gear- Bang get it down, Canopy, latch it or ignore it, Gib alarm, ignore it, etc. Think of what the FAA would say if a store bought company suggested to have the gear and stall warning mechanism the same with a single indicator GEAR/STALL Take your pick

Dede, the first thing that you have to determine is, Is the camera or screen getting power when you loose video. It's somewhat easy to go step by step and at locate where the problem lies. It will save you much time in many times unnecessary repairs. Logically, if a radio or any thing electronic quits, find out if it is getting power. If it is intermittent, and the intermittency is periodic and predictable, FIND OUT IF IT IS GETTING POWER when the intermittent failure happens. IF power is available, disconnect the camera feed. Are the symptoms the same as when the unit fails?? You can also aim the camera somewhere else and test under the fault conditions. There are many things that can cause your problems, but you must first locate the part of the system that is failing. Further testing goes step by step from camera ending up at monitor device. Temporarily replace the wiring, the screen, the switches, NEVER all at the same time-- Step by step. Best of luck

Lessee, Hans, You will be running fluid at 200 degrees or greater, trough foam, under glass. Lets separate the two locations. The liquid flowing through the tubing that you will be using (I assume it is metal) will heat it to slightly less temperature than the fluid, itself. The main problem here is that the foam that we are using tends to liquefy at around the working temperature of of those tubes.---- Not a great idea. Now the other part is that you are putting this heat also on the fiberglass/epoxy combination. there are two problems with this: 1--- Fiberglass/epoxy is somewhat of a thermal resistor so your efficiency will plummet. The second and more important thing is that unless you use high temperature epoxy, your layups will degrade. So now you have degraded leading edge skins with no foam in back of them to support the shape and contribute torsional resistance to the wing. Again bad Idea. Even if it weren't a situation of destroying the integrity of the structure, the weight of those long tubes, filled with coolant would probably be greater than the dreaded radiator. (don't forget that they have to go out and back.The bigger diameter of the tube, the less efficient it will be because the surface are/volume decreases.)

VT, The Q2, Q200 and Dragonfly are 2 place variants of the quickie as is the Cozy a variant of the Long. In 1979 or so, at OSH, when the quickie first arrived, he quickie company sensing the need for a 2 place quickie, contracted with a builder (I believe Gary LeGarre) in Canada to produce their 2 place craft. A Furloughed pilot, ex top-Gun and I believe with an AE backround also, completely separately, had the same idea (probably armed with the Quickie plans.) His name, Bob Walters, completed the prototype dragonfly in time for the next year's OSH and showed it there-- won some sort of prize. The company was later sold to HAPI, (rex taylor), passed to his son Patric and has since had a couple of other owners. I don't know if it is still in existance. The Q2 was not ready and the Quickie company was caught with its pants down around it's canard. The Q2 was a kit, much like the velocity in that the fuselage was premolded and the wings done moldlessly (they used Orange flotation billets). The dragonfly was originally a plans-built, however they did pull some molds off of the prototype and called it (unofficially) the snap dragonfly. Wanting more speed, some Q2 owners, originally with a VW engine changed to an O-200 Cont (thus the new moniker Q-200) and changed the canard to include, among the change in shape, I believe a tubular carbon spar. Some kept the canard tip wheels and some went to inboard and tricycle. As a side note, Scott Swing (of velocity fame) originally had a Q2. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.(unless someone knows some contradictory factoids)

Close, but no cigar. That looks like a Craftsman flapper wheel. the flaps will just go over the high spots and miss the low. The one that I am talking about has nylon bristles, not flaps. I will try to get the name and publish it. However looking more closely, that one might suffice. If they indeed are a collection of filaments, I would like to see the filaments longer so they are more flexible. Memory says that the filaments on the device to which I refer are about 1"long and are held to the hub by a plastic center piece that has 6-8 fiber holders so that between each group of abrasive fibers there is a space which allows the oncoming fibers not to be bent by the previous as it rotates.

No, those are the 3-m deals. The ones to which I refer look like wire brushes but instead of wire they are nylon with impregnated abrasive. They are one piece.

At RR this year, I thought I saw a combination fuel and baggage pod. What about drop tanks????

Andrew, I hope you don't take this to be too abrasive! There is a product, that I think you can get at Home depot, which is a abrasive impregnated plastic brush type affair. This is chucked in a hand drill. It comes in three different grades of abrasive (I think orange, blue and gray) Get the heaviest abrasive , orange or gray. It comes in at least 2 shapes, conical and wheel shape. I think it is of French manufacture. Use it somewhat slowly, don't build up heat and it should do your job. Rich

That figure can be brought down somewhat by using Tracy's gearbox @ around 3K and an electric prop from MT. Additionally Jan Eggenfellner has a Quinti hub (electric) with Sensenich blades. I don't know if this is usable in a pusher, however.

Greetings Later, I believe that Cont and Lyc both have what they call dynamic balancers, movable weights on the crank shafts which change the harmonics of the engine so that propellers stay in one piece. This type of balancing is seen in some of the 360 (lyc) line and, I believe, although can possibly be wrong, in all of the larger engines. It is the presence of these weights and the possibility of their banging into their stops and causing damage, that creates the necessity of being very gentle with the throttle when accelerating and decelerating. (not, in my opinion, a bad practice with any aircraft engine). Rich

Actually, Craig It is, to quote a once cabinet member (who himself, stole that quote), It's not knowing that you don't know, which then you find out that you don't know!!! Experimenting and changing is what this field is all about, however it comes at a tremendous cost of time $ and frustration:confused:

They are only heavy if you don't have to use them. (much the same as the second ignition system, and the myriad of duplications that we use in the name of safety). I can personally attest to the fact that shoulder harnesses are life savers. In my off airport "arrival" they prevented me from stopping the forward motion of my body and head into the instrument panel. (I have hookers) We just, sadly enough, lost a Very-ez pilot. The newspaper story indicated that he was thrown outside the plane at the crash . It will be interesting to find out, if we can, where the belt/harness failure happened, if indeed he was wearing one. I lost a friend in a Cirrus accident. He had loosened his harness to get something (engine check list or whatever) The other three passengers in the plane suffered only(?) broken backs but are alive and relatively well today. My friend suffered massive thoracic trauma when he apparently hit the panel unrestrained by the harness. Them belts is your friends!!!! Put up with the inconvenience.

Checked the community forum today. Got a response, "unavailable... Will be back later":confused:

I believe, also, that somewhere there was a statement that if the rods were dropped on the bearing, even though there was no apparent damage that the bearing should not be used.

Ya, but he was just reaching for space!!!

His website is still up. He may be moving the operation? Try e-mail. I haven't heard anything Rich

Another couple of data points for your consideration. The most popular high performance plane sold today is the Cirrus: Glass/foam others of its ilk are those sold by Lancair, diamond, virtually all gliders, and of course Boeing with their new baby. The military uses extensive composites in their aircraft. Don't overlook the boating industry, which is almost all composite. Oh, and did I mention, Cessna, a metal aircraft industry leader wants to acquire Colombia (the certified lancair) another glass aircraft. "If you really want Class, you build with GLASS ."

epoxy does not bond to cured epoxy. As a matter of fact, cured unsanded, unpeel-plyed epoxy is a reasonably good separating medium. If you peel ply directly after the origina uncured layup, you will save time, weight and the heartbreak of paint job psoriasis ()that may result if you use the post cure epoxy/peel ply technique. Rich

These renderings look great. I do have a question about the concept. Do you intend to use just one of these in the middle of the canopy??? If so, you might want to think again. The canopy-- na-- the whole plane is flexible and it is a good idea to separate your hinges as much as possible and relegate them to the most outside position possible, on each side, to prevent flexion and rotation both with the canopy open and closed. Remember that in the closed position, the hinges act as the forward most hold downs. Additionally, affixing it to the middle of f28 is going to require a huge amount of reenforcement of that very thin bulkhead. When attached as far outside of the bulkhead as possible, reenforcement is a snap since you can tie the reenforcement to the fuselage sides. If you are going to use two of these, one on each side.....never mind:rolleyes:

I Donno. Yes the molton aluminum will vaporize the foam, but the vaporized foam, now a gas will interfere with the casting process. If it becomes incorporated into the casting, you will get a porous casting which will be weak. your foundry will probably make a refractory mold of your parts (plaster-type material able to withstand high temperatures) and put the affair in an oven to burn out the styrene yielding a clean hot mold. Your styrene parts will be modified by putting sprues and vents, a way of getting the aluminum into the mold and releasing the air which occupies it before the metal is poured (or better yet centrifuged or pressure cast) into it. Since this will be done by a foundry, I am not too worried about the above. What I am worried about is the tensile strength of the cast aluminum parts, Using 2024 or 6061 hardened to some T- factor gives you an understanding of the strength of the material. Cast material of questionable material (unless you specify it) and no hardening (unless the foundry will do it for you) puts you in a situation of possible hurt. Cutting these things out of aluminum sheet stock (3/4 - 1 1/4") is quite easy with a band saw, and smoothing easily done with a belt sander and a drum sander. Doing it this way, you will know what you have.

Somewhere, in my dim and dimming memory, I seem to remember the dragonfly using a canopy hinge called the "Lazy Tong" The dragonfly also has a fuselage that tapers toward the front, and I don't remember seeing any of them with an external hinge. Mine was front hinged.