tonyslongez

Richard

I'll give it a shot.

Tony

Longez360

Thanks. I'll keep posting. You guys can help me along. I sure appreciate it.

Tony

More Pics

Pic 1) New "A" kit

Pic 2) Home Depot conduit removed

Pic 3) It's hard to see but he used silicone on the back side of the conduit. The silicone is now embedded in the

fiberglass. Does anyone know how to remove silicone without damaging the glass?

Pic 4) This is the back of the front face closeout. I have alot more micro to remove, then I can redo this section of the spar

this section is ready for the new layup

I'd say the transformer was either a weight to hold something down while curing or it was planned to build a DIY power supply for the strobes.

Raiki

Could've been either way. Whatever the intention it's not going in this airplane.

I hope that you will post a lot of pictures. You are doing a great job so far. So keep going and keep posting.

We keep our fingers crossed.

Mak

Thanks buddy. I'll keep posting so you guys/gals can see how this restoration is going to play out. Not to mention just how much support you really need for a project like this.

This is kind of scary, as it begs the question of how do you know the layups were right (or is just about everything pre-manufactured in the kit)

 

Have you considered doing a set of core drilling and burn testing to determine the actual layups used for any of the original owner's glass layups?

 

 

No, It's fine. I'm redoing the hand layups that are called out in the plans that you as the builder have to do. These layups (though they need to be done correctly) are not critical like the spar. The wings and canard that he layed up went into the trash. A new set of wings and canard will be built next month in a hanger. All I'm doing is replacing everything that is not factory on this kit. Everytihing else is essentially factory new.

Tony

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.

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding.

Give that man a prize!

Here are some more pics.

Pic 1) I fein sawed the front face at an angle. This will create a lip to glue the face back onto when the layup is redone

Pic 2) Front of spar removed. Steel conduit from hardware store still installed. It's hard to see but the layup for the close

out was almost entirely free of epoxy

Pic 3) Steel conduit from hardware store AWSOME!!!!

Pic 4) front spar face removed

Are we having fun yet?????

Tony

So Tony, are you building these from cores or skins?

T-Mann

these are the foam core wings.

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

Richard.

I don't know what it is, transformer, door bell? It was meant to be funny:ROTFLMAO: trying to make lite of the whole thing.

the shorter list is "What isn't wrong?"

True! Yes, but that isn't what is wrong in Pic 5 keep looking. Besides the holes incorectly drilled and the layup is wrong. I'll give you a hint it has nothing to do with the spar itself. It's staring you right in the face.

Tony

Tony, you should be proud. You're the only guy I know who is currently 'un-building' a kit. You wont find that process in any homebuilding FAQ. Your one a kind.

Raiki

your not kidding brother. I have to say though the neat thing is, I'm kinda reverse engineering as I go. Alot of this stuff will find it's way into the Long Ez as well

I think at some point down the road all the crappy prelim work that was done will prove to be a silver lining in the bigger picture

Hatswitch

I couldn't agree more at first I was really bummed, and I lashed out against Walt publicly and that was wrong. I really thought I just spent alot of money on a boat anchor and my anger got the best of me not to mention He wasn't exactly being truthful with me about the condition of the kit, but hey! he was doing what he could to sell it and I can't fault him for that.

what's the disposition of Tony's original Long-EZ going to be?

Well, I sold that to a friend of mine that has been helping me build the thing for some time now. I gave him a great deal he's happy and so am I. We're going to get the Berkut up and runnnig first then finish the Long Ez.

I think I prefer Tony's "hard work" method. Keep it up, I'm jealous

Satch

Thanks for the support I think it's great to have you guys support me on this one. What ever you guys want to know about a Berkut now is the time to start asking. We will be moving very quickly. I'm shooting for this time next year to have the engine ready to be mounted.

Pic 1) John Andrejeski and I are framing the stands that will hold the fuse level these are bondo'd to the floor.

Pic 2) completed frame for the front

Pic 3) completed frame for the rear

Pic 4) In the box of Berkut parts I was going thru. I found this, It's a door bell. Now I looked all thru the plans

and I can't find where the door bell goes on this airplane. I better call Dave and ask him why I need a door bell on

my airplane.

Pic 5) Lets see how good you guys are. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this Picture?

BTW- Did you say this guy was a mechanic?

Oh yeah "Mechanic" sure at this point I should have the fuse corrected entirely tomorrow. I have alot of friends coming over to help me get it ready for the new bulkheads. I should have the bulkheads in by next week. I'll pick the wings and canard up this weekend in california. The whole thing should be as good as new here pretty soon.

Tony

More progress

Pic 1) Started the removal of the side arm rests notice the front seat bulkhead is still attached (not for long)

Pic 2) SEE!! front seat bulkhead gone. Unfortunately I couldn't save it even with the fein saw, that was as close

as I could get to the side's and floor.

Pic 3) still removing old fiberglass

Pic 4) O.k this one is really funny! notice one sandng line is at a 45deg angle and notice the other

line is vertical. Well here is the funny part. The Drunk F-ing A-hole glued the front seat bulkhead in the

fuse initially straight up and down. He removed it and reattached the bulkhead at a 45deg angle

which is to far back. Now I'm cleaning up old epoxy layups there as well ( Stay positive! Breathe Tony. At least I

have a Berkut)

This is the last of the bulkheads that have to be removed THANK GOD!! Now on to the engine mount dissaster.

OBTW if you don't have a Fein saw I highly recommend you get one WOW!! what a saw.

Tony

More progress

pic 1) After talking with Dave R. it was agreed that I remove the out board wing attach plate and replace it only

rather than digging out all the plates. This is really the only one that is bad enough to replace.

Pic 2) Here is the spar with the uni layup removed. I was extremely careful not to sand anywhere close to the

glass in the spar. All the excess epoxy and BONDO has been removed.

Pic 3) Here is the joggle in the wing that is causing me so much concern. The gap between straight edg and the leading

edge is where the wing is set back. cosequently that is roughly how much the wing is drooping right at that joggle

both wing are identical it's like one half of the wing was sanded and the other wasn't then when it was layed up

the last part of the wing moved in the jig causing a major shift in the last section of foam. Very Strange

Pic 4,5) More pics of the wing mess.

Waht really suxs is that I have to layup new wings all over again as if the Long Ez wings weren't enough. After seeing this drunks work, I did a damn good job on my Long Ez.

Tony

John

That's really funny!!! LOL:D

John

Thanks for the kind words. This airplane is my passion. Unfortunately when the kit was available I couldn't come up with $48,000. I'll take her anyway I can get her.

Mak790

This guy definately did some strange things. The scariest part is that he claims to be an A&P and an AI:scared: . He may know how to turn a wrench, but he can't build an airplane, that's for sure.

The instrument panel layup is actually O.K. so I'll leave that one allone. That is unless John thinks I should take it out. He mentioned the seat back

may be to far reclined. I'll check it against his seat back and see where it sits before I take it out. I started sanding on the wings They may be O.K. as well but there is a strange droop in the wings about 3/4 of the way down on both wings. I don't know if that is supposed to be that way but they are both the same it allmost looks like the foam wasn't alligned properly.

Good news I just got off the phone with Dave R. he found me a new A Kit so I will be laying up new wings and canard for this airplane. So no other work will be performed on the old wings.

Pic 1) The right wing with alot of not so easy to sand "micro" it's more like slurry

Pic 2) Another shot of the mess that is these wings.

Pic 3) Forward most bulkhead is now removed. Fuse is ready for the new bulkheads

O.K. here how things are progressing thus far.

Pic 1) Most of the old layup has been removed and the bulkhead cut away from the fuse.

Pic 2) Bulkhead removed.

Pic 3) you can see the cut lines in the bulkhead that where not followed at all. Probably would've been able to

cut them with a dremel but it's hard to make a straight cut with a dremel tool. These should've been

trimmed prior to install.

Pic 4) Sanded down what was left of the old layups. I was very careful not to go to much into the fuse glass.

Pic 5) OOPS! have to be careful with those roloc disc sanders they chew thru layups in a blink of an eye.

this is a small circle about 1.5" Dia quick Bid fix. No problem.

Moving on to the most forward bulkhead, which was shoved into the nose so far that it broke the bulkhead.( I swear this guy was drunk when he did all this "work".)

Tony

Well it looks like some sort of epoxy it's hard as hell that is for sure. I think what's going to happen at this point is the sawsall is coming out to play I'm going to just cut these bulkheads out of the airplane and start over the biggest problem will be the engine mounts and spar. John will be here thursday to go over the spar with me he seems to think it's O.K. the way it is but I'm not so convinced. Maybe I can get Dave out this way to take a look at it and see what he can come up with.

Tony

more pics for the berkut. This is now a rescue mission!

Can anyone tell me how this looks to them. I'm just about ready to pull the bulkheads out and start over. Any objections to this????

please loook at the what would be NG30 does it look right it doesn't to me.

Tony

but it sounds like the canard is too bad in other ways.

Well I just don't trust it. My canard on my Long Ez is pretty much perfect. when I saw this canard it looked like a two year old tried to put it together.

I'll take some pics tonight when I get home from work, but givin the pics I have allready posted here you can imagine what the canard must look like.

Everything that was done to the airplane that wasn't factory has to be redone. The nice thing is, he stoped working on the airplane before the point of no return.

Tony

O.K.

I got Walt to give a small canard allowance So I'm sending the check to him today so the Berkut will officially be mine. I've begun to mask off all of the cut lines with electrical tape so they are easier to see. Here are some pics of the road ahead not pretty but I think it can all be fixed, the idea of course being, to fix it with minimal weight penalty. OBTW I've added the pics of the spar attach fiasco. It's a bit hard to see but in one of the pics you can see the layup behind the spar face didn't attach at all to the spar unfortunately this layup looks like it goes all the way down the spar it will be difficult to fix I may have to cut that front spar face off an reattach it corrrectly. The other pic is of the lower engine mount, it looks like he poured about a gallon of epoxy onto the mount. This will have to be replaced. the layup isn't touching the firewall at all on the other mount . Any thoughts

Tony

The drilled holes in the canard are absolutely fixable, you may have to strip off the outside carbon wrap plies

Richard did you mean the holes drilled in the spar are fixable?

I got absolutely no sleep last night thinking about what to do. I just don't think the airplane is worth the hassel. I had no idea someone could be that careless. There is no doubt he got rid of this airplane because of his workmanship (I use that loosely).

John, of course, will be a great help in figuring out what to do, his workmanship is flawless.

Yeah I'm lucky to have him in my corner. I figure I can make a new set of wings pretty fast. After building the Long Ez wings the berkut should be a snap. Plus! I have John, and my other friend Dale who loves composite stuff he built some of the first turbine powered hydroplanes. So no, not all is lost but I think I need a better deal.

Tony

Well I got the Berkut today here are some pics.

First let me say it's a beautiful airplane but there is some bad news. the reason I got this Berkut so cheap from Walt Sally became very obvious after unpacking. The work he performed on this airplane is so bad that I can't use the canard at all. He cut into the hinges with some sorta device not sure with what but they definately can't be used. The layup on the canard is so bad there are huge bubbles along the top of the spar cap how he did that I have no idea but I can say definatively my a$$ is not flying with that canard. My thought is to send the templates to Eureka and have a new canard CNC wire cut. Now onto the wings. The wings don't look to bad but given the work walt performed on the canard I'm not sure I want to use those either they may be salvageable. John Andrewjeski came by to help unload the plane and see the work that was done to it, he wasn't sure about the wings either until we can look at them further. Thirdly, Walt tried to install the spar but he only microd it in, THANK GOD!! he didn't do the layups that would permanently attach the fuse and spar together so, that is good! but, there is a bad spot here as well. You're suppose to trim the fuselage along the trim lines where the longerons would go, once that is complete you can level the fuselage then level the spar and so on and so on. Walt never trimmed the fuselage longeron lines. I have no idea how he got the fuselage level when none of the lines where trimmed to begin with. Now here is the best part of it all, he TRIED! to drill the spar you know the part where you bondo the wing to the spar and drill thru the spar into the aluminum plates that are glassed into the wing and spar? Yaaaaahhhh that didn't go so well there are several holes drilled into the aluminum plates apparently from what I can tell He tried to use a forstner bit instead of a counter bore with a pilot. So the forstner walked all over the place he did manage to get two of the holes drilled correctly but the other four as far as I'm concerned will need some serious attention I may have to cut those plates out of the spar all together and replace them . In the end the kit was not worth what he is asking for it. That's my opinion. I really feel like the kit was misrepresented. The good news is that it isn't paid for yet. I'm going to ask for a canard and wing allowance if that doesn't work I might just pack it all up and send it back to him. It's a real mess. Any thoughts

Tony

Some of you may now know that I have acquired a Berkut project. I have been thinking for some time about using an MMac actuator for the gear. Question! Why does it have to be a cable? the other problem that I can see, (for the Berkut anyway) is the outer gear door. Once we get rid of the stock pump, the actuator for the outer gear door goes by by as well. Or am I crazy?

How do I close the outer gear door? and no I'm not going to leave it off.

Tony

T-mann

Has area B been modified at all from the original drawings? I only ask because I thought that my buddy John's hinge looked different than that. I'll check on Sunday during our Bar-B-Q.

Tony

Mak

Get rid of that top piece you added, so it looks more like the drawing that

T-mann posted

Tony

T-Mann

Yep that is true. I can redraw the hinge to refelct that with no problem.

Tony

lets tap these.

Tony

MaK

I finally got around to putting the hinge in cosmos however it didn't like the hinge as a whole piece. Unfortunately I got the same results you did on the last stress Jpeg you posted, my looked identical to yours. I think I know why it wouldn't let me do the entire hinge because it was imported from autocad. I draw much faster in Autocad than I do in solidworks. I will have to redraw the hinge in solidworks and assemble it in solid works then I can get cosmos to stress it. sorry for the delay. Are we still interested in this setup? I think I am! It looks cool and I think it will be easy to make.

Tony