Phil Kriley

Thanks for all the replies - even the silly ones! I ordered all the stuff from AS&S and the Cozy Girrls needed for the wings yesterday. Gonna work on rearranging my shop tonight and making some storage areas for the canard and CS. It's clear the wings will not be finished this summer as I had hoped, with some builders reporting over 300 hours for the chapter. But when they are finished it will surely be an accomplishment!

I feel kinda silly asking this, but to build the wings, do I go through all of Chapter 19 twice? I've read through it a few times and didn't see any place where it said to stop and go back and build the left wing. Are there no differences between the two, other than being a mirror image? I guess that's good. I guess I just reverse the order of the jigs and go - is that it? I'm terrible at turning things around in my head, I guess...

Pretty bird - and it's not white! Would you mind sharing with us the paint and color that you chose? I've been leaning towards the pearl-white color that is used on the Cirrus plane - paint made by PPG.

That's very unfortunate. Tell me the company and I'll boycott them if I can. Anyway - what sort of work do you do? Not that I can help, but that would give others an idea of what you are looking for. Good luck, and welcome home!

Welcome aboard!

And the only difference today is that instead of one empty beer bottle, there are 20 cases of empties under the table!

You can build your cowling to fit your engine. There are Cozy's flying with jet engines. Can you give us a hint as to what you have in mind? It may have been done before.

Back to building: I cut the openings in the front of the center spar last night, and did some prep work for the final 2-uni layup (and yes, I bought a gallon of EX poxy with the 87 hardener). I tried to use a Dremel sanding drum to cut down the foam along the edges of the holes to make the glass-to-glass mating, but cut through the inside fiberglass. I had just gotten started, so I stopped and decided to ask for some advise before I make a mess. One thought is to just go ahead and put on the glass cloth, let it cure, and then make flox "corners" between the glass layers. Seems to me that since it looks like things are going to go in and out of these holes a lot over the plane's life that the edges of the holes will take a beating. Or I could stick to the plans and maybe use an X-acto knife to trim away the foam, and then gently sand down to the bare glass. How did y'all do this w/o taking 3 days?

Second set of elevators are perfect!

I bought a great DVD - you could just show segments of this: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/bvpages/canardDVD.php

That's good news - especially that you are regaining your strength after your surguries! I hope your health continues to improve!

Yep - that's the same one that is in the Tristar "sneak peek". A friend built one of those, it flew pretty wee - all things being considered!

Yep - I got out bid!

Yah - but his "sneak peek" at the Tristar yields a video of a flying lawnmower...

That's the last tool in my shop I'd part with. Is this just an extra one?

If you have a Fein tool, it would not be that hard to "shave" off the layup and redo. That's what I would do.

You should not have to sand the foam when assembling the sides in Chapter 6. When you build the sides in the masonite jigs, adding the foam spacers, longerons and glass, they will have the desired curvature.

You can start by visiting the web sites of the recommended suppliers that are listed on Marc's Unofficial Cozy page. That's just a start. What is your purpose with this list/catalog? Not that it wouldn't be nice to have it all in one place, but it will be nearly impossible to keep it current...

Except Henry probably said "Voila" instead of "walla"... Just teasing! Lookin' good!

Bingo - Mine has been great for the 2+ years I've been working on the plane - but I dropped it last week and broke off a piece. It still is usable, but I'm going to order a new one anyway and have it on the shelf for when it's needed. I have the money now - might not have it in a couple of years! It really is a great tool!

Well, for the record, I DO stir EVERY pot of epoxy for the full two minutes, and and I attempt to scrape the sides of the mixing cup with the stir stick as well - per the plans. I use a count-down timer to make it easy to do. EVERY cup, EVERY time.

I bought two 25 lb sacks of lead shot and made 10 5 lb bags. I put the shot into a Ziplock, then into a bag made from old curtain material.

Just a couple of thoughts: did you do the practice layups in Chapter 3? If you did, you would have learned everything you need to know to do the seatback. It's not difficult, and you would have to try hard to actually ruin it. I use ACS and Wick's, and both have been very good - and both have made mistakes. When you get your fiberglass cloth - always check it to make sure it is either BID or UNI. I got a roll from one of the companies and the package was labled UNI but was actually BID. Fortunately, my son noticed the problem before we ruined anything. If you did not do the practice layups in Chapter 3, I suggest you stop and do that - you'll be glad you did.

That's very hard to believe. I'm not calling you a liar, but 75 a/c from SCRATCH! In one lifetime...? Sorry, but this is pegginig my B.S. meter. Can you prove this statement? I can't even fathom someone building 75 from kits, let alone 75 from scratch... EDIT: Ah - I see you had a business - I'm assuming a business where you had a number of workers who built planes. That's a little different than saying that you personally built 75 planes from scratch, don't you think?

Just one word on plans updates: do yourself a favor and take an evening or two and write in ALL of the updates from the newletters/archives - you'll be glad you did.