Chairboy

Silly me, I was looking in the wrong place. http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1633

What about the OpenEZ project? I can't find the thread over at canardaviation forums right now, but there's a group of folks making an open source LongEZ that protects Burt from litigation. Might be interesting....

Sounds like they're trying to bully via proxy. Unfortunate. In their dreams, I imagine the perfect result is that the EAA and the homebuilder community as a whole rise up against this builder they're having trouble with in Oklahoma.

Tonyslongez: I think the whole opposition here can be summed up thusly: You're obviously a Witch, and should be burned! I kid, I kid. I think we're all interested in the idea of a simple steerable nosegear, it's just that some people have some concerns about some of the implications behind it. For example, having a nosewheel that's linked to your rudder control, you land in a crosswind. You still have a little rudder input in because of the xwind when the nose gear touches down at 120mph (a boundary case, but people who only plan for normalcy never have any wiggle room when a problem happens). The LongEZ and Cozy are half as long as a Piper or Cessna, so their directional stability in this case will be lower, right? What are the implications to touching down with a wheel off-center? I'd like to see this work, I just want more info.

Sweet, free GPS/COM!

The description sounds great, but there's a real vaporware problem here. They've been "shipping next month" for years now.

(waves hands) Three moving parts! Three moving parts!

I made my $1300 order with AS a few minutes ago. Enroute to me are Cozy Mk IV plans, the Chapter 4 kit, a gallon of MGS 285, a quart of the slow hardener, and a sticky-stuff pump. Woo hoo! I've got a few busy years ahead of me!

Wankel rotaries in autos have had a rough go at it. One of the mods for aviation rotaries that I've read about is disabling the scavenger oil pump that sacrifices a little bit of dirty crankcase oil to the gods of 'at least a little bit of lubrication' and replaces it with a bit of two stroke oil. Seems like a great way to increase the lifespan of the apex seals, for one, the most often targeted component in these engines.

Ok, there are the two practice layups in Chapter 3, right? Question, do I need to order seperate material for that? Or does the 'Chapter 4' kit from ASS include enough extra to do it?

A Flying students' diary.. Week 1 Monday: Rain Tuesday: Rain Wednesday: No rain; no visibility either Thursday: Take instructor to lunch. Discover I don't know enough to take instructor to lunch. Friday: Fly! Do first stall and second stall during same maneuver. Cover instructor with lunch. Week 2 Monday: Learned not to scrape frost off Plexiglas with ice-scraper. Used big scratch as marker to set pitch. Tuesday: Instructor wants me to stop calling throttle "THAT BIG KNOB THING." Also hates when I call instruments "GADGETS" Wednesday: Radios won't pick up radio stations, so I turned them off. Instructor seems to think I missed something. Thursday: Learned 10 degree bank is not a steep turn. Did stall again today. Lost 2000 feet. Instructor said that was some kind of record -- my first compliment. Friday: Did steep turn. Instructor said I was not ready for inverted flight yet. Week 3 Monday: Instructor called in sick. New instructor told me to stop calling her "BABE". Did steep turns. She said I had to have permission for inverted flight. Tuesday: Instructor back. He told me to stop calling him "BABE", too. He got mad when I pulled power back on takeoff because the engine was to loud. Wednesday: Instructor said after the first 20 hours, most students have established a learning curve. He said there is a slight bend in mine. Aha--progress! Thursday: Did stalls. Clean recovery. Instructor said I did good job. Also did turns around a point. Instructor warned me never to pick ex-fiancee’s house as point again. Friday: Did circuit work. Instructor said that if downwind, base and final formed a triangle, I would be perfect. More praise! Week 4 Monday: First landing at a controlled field. Did fine until I told the captain in the 747 ahead of us on the taxiway to move his bird. Instructor says we'll have ground school all this week on radio procedures. Tuesday: Asked instructor if everyone in his family had turned grey at such an early age. He smiled. We did takeoff stalls. He says I did just fine but to wait until we reached altitude next time. Three Niner Juliet will be out of the shop in three days when the new strut and tyre arrive. Instructor says his back bothers him only a little. Wednesday: Flew through clouds. I thought those radio towers were a lot lower. I'm sure my instructor is going grey. Thursday: Left flaps down for entire flight. Instructor asked way. I told him I wanted the extra lift as a safety margin. More ground school. Friday: Asked instructor when I could solo. I have never seen anyone actually laugh until they cried before

Wouldn't retractible mains make an off field landing safer?

I've read at least one builder's description of increasing the length of the canard by a couple inches to raise the front seat weight limit. I know this is right in the middle "oh, you crazy girl, why you wanna be a test pilot?" country, but I'm wondering if anyone has put together a chart of what kind of canard mods can give what kind of max front seat weights without "defeating" the canards role in stall resistance?

Quick question... I know that some of the Subaru and Rotary installs put out 200+hp, do experimental flyers using them need to get a high performance endorsement? Is there a different FAR in effect for experimental vs. certified engines? Or is this one of those things where nobody dynos their engine so, as far as they know, they're <200hp? Or is the first rule of autoconversion fight club that we don't talk about autoconversion fight club?

Thanks for the post, very informative! Well, I've got a few years to hash something out in the meantime. Maybe the faux carbon-carbon will be more of an alabaster or something for the final product. Also, who knows, maybe the horse will learn to talk (and there'll be some third option that's not immediately apparent). I guess one of my next assignments will be to learn more about epoxies, eg, what are the differences between MGS and what Rutan originally used, and stuff like that. I love this project, I'm learning more every day. I can't wait until I can start on chapter 1. It's gonna be soon, I can feel it. A week or two maybe, we'll see.

I notice that Lancair/Columbia is offering aircraft outside of the normal range of whites that other composites are limited to. For example: http://www.lancairusa.com/warranty.html In the warranty, they mention that something about their technique allows surface temperatures of up to 175F, which allows lots of color options. Does anyone know what they do? Is it the difference between the old stuff and using MGS? Finally, even if the Columbia technique isn't used, any thoughts on whether a paint scheme like this would be safe? http://hallert.net/cozy/paintideas.htm Thanks!

I spoke with Larry Aberg. His Cozy lives about two hours north of here, and he invited me up one of these weekends to check it out in person, and definately going to do that. I've started putting together my project page. Might as well work on that which I can while waiting, right? http://hallert.net/cozy/ I've listed some mods I'm considering on the "Variations from plans" page there, was wondering if I've thought of anything new or spectacularly stupid.

Well, I received my info packet. I'm gonna do this. I'm in the middle of a job search, and depending on how much is left of my severance package when I get hired, I'll be getting getting the plans and that Chapter 4 kit from AS to celebrate. I'll be posting here more as soon as I begin construction. If there's one thing I know already, it's that I'll have Cozy Girrrl strakes, and I'm pretty sure a Mazda 13B is in my future. (just as long as it's not in conjunction with an NTSB report)

I can commiserate. I flew a Cessna 152 at 6'2, 280#. Not only did I fly it solo like that, but I flew it with a checkout instructor (I learned in a Cherokee, thank goodness) AND I took my mom and sister for a flight. Each flight required special attention to weight and balance. Eg, no full tanks! Good thing my mom and sister are wafer thin. I once flew my sister from Portland, OR to Eugene, OR like this. 120 miles, and the 152 is no Cozy for cruise speed. The plane feels cramped at 6'2, can't imagine what it's like at 6'5. "Cessna 152: The plane you wear."

Thanks Brian! I'll email you later about a specific file. Your Cozy is A: The one that convinced me to pick this plane to build and B: the one I show people whenever I tell them what I want to build.

Excellent! Looks great! All we need is a good pic, and it'll be golden.

Is anyone flying or building a Cozy in Oregon or southern Washington? I live in the Eugene/Springfield area, and I'd love to see one in person. Have car, will travel.

Hi guys, I wrote up a quick article about the Cozy Mk IV on the Wikipedia and was wondering if anyone had a picture of their plane that they would release the copyright to that we could put in the article. Also, since anyone can edit, please add more info. I'm just a new enthusiast about the plane, and the entry is the barest minimum so far. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cozy_MK_IV

It's true, there have been many bladder tank planes, but the ones I hear about are usually in the context of problems. For example, I know that for a while, there was a whole generation of 182 with deteriorated bladder tanks, if I recall correctly. I think there are also new requirements to keep tanks full during storage or something, not sure. I haven't built a plane yet, so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems like using a bladder tank is adding weight and complexity to a problem that could be solved through cleanliness during the final assembly.

I'd like to second the request for a build log website. I too am very interested in building a Cozy, but am intimidated by the build time and am fascinated by the idea behind the Aerocanard.