Chairboy

I got mine 3 years ago, #1432.

Likewise, apologies if I flew off the handle a bit, I've been growing more frustrated with our culture of fear and I may have discharged some of that emotion into my response. My concern is for the families affected by the crash, and then for any lessons that it might provide for me and other builders to incorporate into our projects. No hard feelings, and best regards.

With respect, Sully, the name of the pilot was in the newspaper and the registration is a matter of public record. The situation you describe where someone somehow stumbles across this post and begins harassing the family simply isn't realistic. I believe the 'scoundrel' you describe is a figment of imagination and a symptom of our society's increasingly overanxious 'what if' mentality that sees threats in everything. An 83 year old woman was told not to take photos of an empty swimming pool in the UK last week because of 'concerns of pedophilia', for example. The theoretical threat idea can really go too far. If you're very set on this, then your efforts might be better focused on the newspapers and FAA registration database, but I think that would be misguided. Has anyone heard anything more about the wreck? It doesn't seem to be in the NTSB search results for Texas or the tail number yet.

I received the following e-mail: A very sad day indeed.

Anyone know anything about this? IDENTIFICATION Regis#: 500K Make/Model: COZY Description: COZY, CLASSIC Date: 07/24/2008 Time: 2135 Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Fatal Mid Air: N Missing: N Damage: Destroyed LOCATION City: MIDLOTHIAN State: TX Country: US DESCRIPTION AIRCRAFT CRASHED UNDER UNKNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES, MIDLOTHIAN, TX INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 1 # Crew: 1 Fat: 1 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk: # Pass: 0 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk: # Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 Unk: WEATHER: KJWY 241405Z AUTO 14008KT 10SM BKN012 25/21 A3003 RMK A02 OTHER DATA Activity: Pleasure Phase: Maneuver Operation: OTHER FAA FSDO: DALLAS, TX (SW05) Entry date: 07/25/2008 Registered to James Marshall, unknown powerplant. My hopes and best wishes to the involved families.

Wow, and _I'M_ the paranoid one? I have nothing against the OpenEZ, I think it's a fascinating project, and I wish all the builders well. I'm building a Cozy, but I'm looking to buy a LongEZ in the meantime. I'm insulted by your insinuation that I'm somehow trying to hurt the project. I volunteered because I wanted to beef up the moral authority of the effort so that the naysayers wouldn't have traction. What would be more effective than endorsement by Burt? He can't say anything in its current form because of the legal issues, my hope was that getting the LongEZ released under the GFDL would protect him appropriately and help reinvigorate the community. Whether or not you believe it or not, there _IS_ an odd taste about aspects of the project, and the "don't ask in case the answer is no" isn't a really solid way to reassure people before they start a 2000+ hour project. Why did I, a Cozy builder, care about this? Because I like volunteering for projects, especially when it comes to getting stuff released under open licenses. I'm an administrator on Wikipedia, I write software, I got suckered into being the vice prez of my local EAA chapter, it's just something I like doing. I saw a problem and I proposed a way to fix it. Somehow, the mere suggestion has threatened you enough to disregard basic civility and make weird insinuations about some conspiracy to stop the project. I can't imagine how you get from point A to point B, but I hope you reconsider your motivations and be honest with yourself.

Reading some of the replies including Hatswitch's one above, I perceive a sort of weird vehemence like I'm some kind of enemy. What's up with that? The LongEZ seems like an ideal candidate for being formally released under an open license, and that's all the letter doc on the wiki is suggesting. Also, if the current legal situation surrounding the use of the plans is so snow pure, then why is this conversation controversial?

E-Mail Perry, the guy who runs that site. His mount is for a LongEZ, and he may be able to provide some measurements, but you won't know for sure until you ask.

A gentleman named Perry has a rotary engine on his LongEZ and has posted some information that may be what you're looking for: http://www.bridgingworlds.com/LEZ13B/LEZ13B.htm

Also, an important distinction is that the current copyright owner is the ONLY person who can release something to an 'open source' license. This is not two wolves and a sheep voting what to have for dinner, this is just asking Burt if he would be interested in releasing it so that development can continue under the name without any possible legal repercussions to him (with clear indication that building these planes will not be spitting in his face). Socialism sucks, and GPL ain't socialism.

Lengthening the nose does not, on its own, change the CG. But it DOES create the opportunity to use less weight to get the aircraft back into the box. One pound of that's 5 feet forward has a bigger effect than the same weight 4 feet forward. So the lengthened nose as a C/G modifier has to come with a plan for making use the the increased movement/arm.

Perhaps I wasn't clear before, I'm not building an OpenEZ. I'm a bit surprised at the vehemence of your response, Jon, and don't quite understand it. If it's not a good idea, I'm confident it'll wither on the vine. If it is, then I expect folks will contribute and we'll resolve the legal status of the LongEZ appropriately so that the plane can continue being built without having to play internet lawyer. I read part of your message as saying essentially "Don't ask, or he might say it's not kosher". This sounds kinda different from "It's OK, and he knows and is fine with all these LongEZ copies". Just trying to help, and not trying to step on any toes here.

Oh, I'm not building an OpenEZ myself, I'm building a Cozy and considering purchasing a Long. I just think the OpenEZ is a laudable idea, and I'm trying to help solve some of the problems that the project has encountered. If we can resolve the "shady looking operation" perception that many folks have, it should dramatically increase the amount of useful brainpower that can be applied towards making it work. The best way to do that, it seems, is to go straight to the big guy himself. Since the 'missed connections' method of getting his blessing has been firing blanks, this seems like a smart way to leverage the smarts in this community towards getting it done.

Hi Jon, The reason I suggest this is that the continuing issue in any discussion here about the OpenEZ project seems to be the legal and moral aspects of it. There have been a few posts where people talked about trying to ask Burt at various airshows where they just haven't quite made contact, how do those differ from this effort? If it's worded right (which is possible with community involvement), then we can fix not only the issues above, but it will also ease the tensions the "CAI folks" have about it too. Seems like the more of the Canardian community that's involved, the better. The CAI wiki is hosted on the same server as the CAI forums, but the two _are_ seperate entities. I know there's some feud between the two forums, but I also know that there's a lot of crossover by members who think the planes are more important than the personalities. IMHO.

Hi guys! I had an idea on how to firm up the status of this project. One continuing barb has been the question of 'What does Burt think?' and there have been suggestions to ask him to bless the project as well as consider releasing the LongEZ under some license that protects him legally and allows anyone to build one. My idea: Let's write a letter together using a Wiki. I put a couple of bullet points to cover up in a first revision, if there are any more that should be touched on, please add them. If anyone here wants to start at taking a stab at the letter itself there, go for it. Doing it this way, we can make sure all of the relevant points are covered and send it off when we come to consensus on its form. Here's a link: http://canardaviationwiki.dmt.net/wiki/index.php/LongEZ_licensing_request_letter No login required. We can chat about any things here and implement them in the letter too, if that's easier. Thoughts?