velocity dreamer

Delta hawk has good performance data shown on their web site. Some proven, others speculated, but on most other sites There is nothing about altitude or cruise performance other than just RPMs. Anyone with a Rotary, rather planning or flying can you give me some projected fuel and altitude performance for your engine. thanks in advance Lynn

My name is Lynn, from Fort Smith, arkansas. I have 2 1/2 jobs. Job one is my primary and it is for TAC Air, the FBO at the Fort Smith Reginal Airport (FSM). I am the line,training, and Quality Control supervisor. I have worked there for 15 years and still love being around all the different aircraft, civilian and military. I have flown in corporate jets, steermans (one local and also the Red Baron demo team. Arobatics are alot of fun in an open cockpit), super chipmunk, swift, VE, B-17( most interesting, I sat in the nose gunner seat while landing). I have fueled many aircraft from altra lights to c-5's and 747s. Wide range of military jets including the f-117 Stealth Fighter. I have a awsome picture of the Stealth at our front door ( here for airshow)I will post later. I am a pilot with 200 hours, mostly in a tamahawk and c-172 I do not have my instrument rating yet. My second job is as a paramedic for one of the hospitals in town. I dont work there alot, just enough to stay employed and keep my license. I also love helping people. This ties into my 1/2 job which is a paramedic for long distance transfers(spare cash job, and what will fund my projects) I say its only a half job becuase its volentary. I get paid for my time but I can turn down the trip If I dont want to, or cant take it. My Screen name is Velocity Dreamer because I ultimately want a Velocity XL with retracts. However 45000 for the kit just to get started is a little out of my price range at this time. I was told about this site for the VE pilot based here. I started reading all the post for velocity and the long-ez. And after seeing a long ez come through here with the infinity gear retracts, I fell in love with long-ezs too. I also figured I could build a long buying parts just as I go, also it would be good practice. After completing the long I do not plan on selling it when I build my velocity. Someone told me in a post that few finish one plane much less two. If thats the case and I dont want to build a velocity after my long then I plan on buying a prebuilt one. Currently as of today 9-13-06 I am saving funds to build a work shop and to buy the initial foam, glass, and prictice kits. probably a couple practice kits becasue I plan on building my wings and canard first. Once again I was advised against this. My reson for wings first is its easier to store them. My shop can only be so big because my yard is only so big. Wings I can put in the loft above my shed or even in the den in my house leaving all the room to work on the fuse. If I build the fuse first, it would be harder to get out of the way while I build the wings. I do have the RAF CD, new canard plans, and the downloaded templates off this site. I plan to build a open ez with some mods. Most definatly the infinity retracts will be included. I want to put a desiel engine on it, probably the deltahawk. and If I go with that, Its said I will need to lengthen my fuse. If I do widen my fuse it wont be by much. Im not wanting to break a speed record or race, I just want to do about 200 true at 15000 ft. one last thing about me which im sure you have already noticed. I am not good with spelling, grammor, or typing. be looking for your post Lynn

As far as my name goes refer to the intros. I will put a post there to describe me since this is the wrong topic thread. Lynn

Sorry guys for Stiring things up. I wish I had seen the previous thread on pumps and saved everyones time. Honestly I have been wanting to to do this for so long and it seems always something comes up. I feel I have already wasted to much time and I want to get started. I fear that when I do I will rush to make up for lost time, thats seems to be the way I am. so anything I can do to help myself and make it easier I will try. After reading all you all have said I think I will go with the scale. Reason being I dont want to have to clean the pump. Cleaning up after myself is another weak point of mine. Also John you made it sound so much easier than what I had invisioned in my head. once again I do appreaciate all your thoughts.

From what I have read, if your going through the hasstle to vacuum bag it why not infuse it also. Add another hose or two and give yourself more time to make sure everthing is perfect. Its cleaner, and possibly save on resin. Im not into it for the weight savings as it may be minor, but Im into safety. lesson the risk of delamination, stronger parts. Im not wanting to make molds. My question was how to seal a bag for infusion without a mold. example the wing, only glass one side at a time. I'm willing to put a little more money and setup time into the process if it makes the overall job a little easier and gives me a peice of mind of how well its built the day I fly it the first time. Sure there is a learning curve. But once again I feel there is a learning curve on hand layups. I can picture myself squeeging the heck out of it only to have to add more resin or leave to much on in fear of having dry spots. It takes practice eiter way.(correct me if Im wrong). One thing ive noticed reading these threads, is that there is a better way of doing just about everything stated in the plans. Heck the long-ez plans are what 20 years old. Major imporvements since then. How many people have bought electric scissors to make trimming easier. Or going to try post curring to make the part stronger. We are all out to improve our planes. Thats just my oppenion though. I could still be miss informed

Thank you for your input. It just seems to me from my reading that there is alot of resin to mix and it seems that the scale would be very time consuming, especially on the large jobs like the wing. Am I just thinking on to small a scale or is it just not as much resin to mix. Lynn

I have a couple questions regarding infusion. everything I see on the net have to do with building boats in molds and not aircraft wings where there are no mold edges to seal the bag to. Lets say I wanted to do the bottom of my wing, I position the fiberglass, peel ply, and distribution layer. After putting my hoses in place what would I seal the top plastic to. Second item. the plans say leave 1/2 inch or so around just hanging over the edges to be trimed later, obviously this wont work if putting a vacuum to the area. Can you trim even with the edges before putting In the bag, or Is there a reason for leaving that 1/2 in . Thanks Lynn

It seems the measuring of resin and hardner described in the Long-Ez plans would be very time consuming and messy. Has anyone here used ratio pumps and if so which ones do you prefer and why. Lynn

Does anyone reading this thread have any idea when we lengthen the fuese what would happen if we lengthend the inboard strake where it attatches the fuse. This would keep near the same room on the inside. A VE pilot i know has also flown the long and says he likes the extra arm room in the front because of the strakes. I would like to lengthen mine but dont want to lose the arm room. Thanks in advance Lynn

quick question. when making the longer nose, do you leave the nose landing gear in the same place or do you move it forword too?

I am a pilot and have 150 hours c-172 time and alot of tamahawk time. I can easily do W&B on these aircraft. I also have the Long-ez and velocity W&B on a spreadsheet. What ive been trying to do so far is use the long-ez manual to try and get a new static empty weigh cg to plug into the spreadsheet. Doing this I have changed the stations rear of the pilot adding 6 inches to everything and guessing at what the weights might be with the bigger engine. I know doing it this way probably voids the W&B box in the manual since the overall CG will be aft a few inches. All I have done so far has not helped me. The numbers I plug in throw the cg 12 inches farther aft which sounds to me to far. I know the different engines weigh different and each aircraft should look to see if 6,3 or 8 inches is right for there bird. Im average weight and want to plan it with me as the starting point. I was just wondering where the 6inches came from. was it like the width borrowed from the berkut or did someone actually do the math.

look at this and tell me if you think it will help me. It may just be for RC aircraft I dont know http://adamone.rchomepage.com/cg_canard.htm Lynn

Everyone is saying if you put the bigger engine on we need to lengthen our fuse 6in. can anyone produce sample weight and balance sheets that support this 6in vs 4in or 8. Lynn Split if you want I just post here cause it has the most people looking

sorry about the spelling. I wanted to start on the wings because I cant figure out what I want to do with the fuselage. I cant decide to widen it or not. I fit into a VariEze ok but a inch or so wider would be nice to. I also would like to possibly put a deltahawk engine on it and want to wait on doing the firewall till I know what kind of bracket I need and how to attach it. I still have a few more weeks to think about it but I want to get started asap and not keep putting it off till I decide what I want. Lynn

I may have answered my own question. Reading a little more into the discription of wicks it states on the polystyrene that it was originaly used in the VE and LE aircraft. Im going to assume for now that that means Vereze and longeze. please inform me if im wrong. Lynn

I am wanting to start on my wings first. I look in the plans and it states styrofoam cores and calls for 2lb/ft^3 7 in thick. looking on wicks in styrofoam they have the 2lb/ft but the max width is 4in, They do have the polystyrene foam that is 1.6 lb/ft^3 7 in thick and match the other dimentions as well. Has anyone heard if this 1.6 is acceptable or do I need to glue 2 styrofoam blocks together. Ive read through alot of the newsletters and seen changes in the other foams but didnt see any for the wings. I hope to build me a workshop this summer and get started this winter. Lynn

has anyone looked at the link I inserted to post 59? Just wondering if anyone agrees with this report and if so how could we use it to our advantage. Lynn

all of you on here seem very smart and sound like you know what your talking about. I found this link and wonder what each of you think about it. http://users.wpi.edu/~stay1or/canard2.htm not sure if this link works may have to copy and past to view. Im not a computer wiz Lynn

I am wanting to build a openez. I have the plans from the TERF CD and I am trying to price some supplies. Looking at foam I have a few questions. looking on wicks and aircraft spruce the foam available dont match the plans. example. Plans call for say R45 but now things are listed as H45 I guess it is the same. Plans call for 16 lb/ft^3 but I only see 15.6. Thicknesses are also off plans everything is in decimal points and when purchasing its in fractions. Even when converting fractions to decimals they do not match. Can anyone help me with this. Lynn

My workshop is not attached to the house I will have to construct it from ground up. Ive been looking at a prefab 16' X 20' at home depot for 5000 dollars. I think I could just buy the materials and build it from scratch for cheaper. If im going to build a plane that flies I should be able to construct a shed. I also have limited yard space and very strick building codes where I live. Only other place I could build is 17 miles away. little bit of a drive to check on things ex. vacuum bagging parts, I figure I need to stay close while doing this. I know this dosent have much to do with the open ez but its my biggest hangup. Lynn

IM not going to stress to much about getting the canard plans. with all you all are doing to get the open ez plans coppied and fixed im sure the canard plans are soon to follow. im not trying to get off cheep i'll be willing to pay for them latter when i start working. Im still trying to find a place to build mine. cant justify spending 3000 dollars on a workshop when that same 3000 could go to the plane. I appreciate all your post. Whith all I have read I fell like i know exactly what I want in my bird and ready to start building. Lynn

How do you go about logging your build time. whats required for airworthyness inspection by the FAA. whats included in the times? is it the time taken to lay up the part or the time taken to lay up and cure. If it says 500 hours to build could you say 10-20% of that is cure time for the fiberglass. Also does the hours and hours behind this computer reading post count. haha.

I would like to see pictures of some projects with different mods. I would like to see a comparison of long verses stock nose, longer and wider fuselage. anyone with completed or partial completion I would like to see the progress.

Can someone catch me up on things. Ive been reading post after post and Im lost. What templates have been copied and where can they be found. I see a lot about the bulk heads but how about the wings. Someone said you could buy wing cores from aerocanard but I dont see them on the website. I dont mind cutting my own wings if I had the hot wire temps and jigs. Lynn

any one know the advantages of down draft cooling with the modified upper inlets over the updraft cooling with the naca scoop. Lynn