Phil Kriley

I second that!

We just visited the Museum last week, and sure enough, there was the Long-EZ! Right next to a North-American X-15, Bell X-2, Douglas X-3 'Stiletto', the X-29 and various other exotic research aircraft. I did a search on the museum's web site, but there are no pictures of it yet, so I posted an entry in their 'blog' asking them to create an entry for it.

Yes, FedEx can do a real number on foam. They got to buy a new set of cores for me. Looks like they placed the box across two other boxes and then dropped a drive-shaft on it! Notice the smooth "dent" next to the break. Steve did a great job of getting a replacement pair sent out, with warnings and lables all over the box - made it unscathed!

Steve's product support is second to none as well!

It's a Mark IV... FAA Registry N-Number Inquiry Results -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- N500K is Assigned Aircraft Description Serial Number 0163 Type Registration Individual Manufacturer Name MARSHALL JAMES J Certificate Issue Date 08/22/2003 Model COZY MK IV Status Valid Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Single-Engine Type Engine Reciprocating Pending Number Change None Dealer No Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 51435321 MFR Year 2004 Fractional Owner NO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Registered Owner Name MARSHALL JAMES J Street 5228 HEATHERDALE DR City GRAPEVINE State TEXAS Zip Code 76051-7340 County TARRANT Country UNITED STATES May the pilot RIP. I hope the NTSB can find reason...

May I ask why youswitched from the 3-blade to 2-blade? And why does a composite prop need to be overhauled after 170 hours? Thanks!

Excellent! Too late for me, but maybe there will be other areas where a similar approach can be used. Thanks for taking the time!

The graphics department at the History Channel must have been bored! These are stills from the graphics they used to depict the engine of a LAncair IV that crashed in Dayton...good grief! A 7-cylinder radial, completely under cowl, exhaust stacks and all, in-line with either a 5 or 10-cylinder engine of some sort... Also, they had the prop turning clockwise and note that during landing the plane had a nose-high "altitude"...

The Cozy main gear is made of "S" glass which is very hard and strong. The bow is usually bought from Featherlite and then modified per plans to create the completed landing gear with mounting tabs, enclosed brake lines and fairings.

Ditto the above - you really kept your cool in the emergency and showed us all how to do it. Very sad about the loss of your beautiful plane, but it lives on in the various DVD's out there. Very glad that you escaped relatively unscathed and looking forward to your next project. You showed us just how beautiful these canards can become, when done right. For a little levity - did you read the "news" article that said you crashed inverted? Reporters...sigh... We are all behind you 100%, Jack!

Rats - gonna have to take a step back. The elevators do not match the contour guide - top is flat instead of convexed. I'll order another set of elevators from Eureka and try again.

Steve - did you use the Cozy Girrrl hinges and plans for your FHC? I can't tell, but it looks like you have a hiinge right at the front of the canopy...? Lookin' good!

Good progress this weekend - finally got the top skin on the canard. I also started work on the elevators and got the bottom skin on.

That's what I try to do to. Last night I cut glass for the elevators during the intermissions in the hockey game! Penguins gave it a go, but the Red Wings were the better team.

Keep up the good work! You'll have a tub in no time!

I added two radio antennae under the bottom skin - a NAV and an FM - and skinned the bottom. I had one large bubble on each end and corrected them with peel ply, freezer paper and leadshot bags. Looks good. I sanded the leading edge to a taper before I trimmed the cloth - I used a straight edge sanding block and sanded until I got to the duct tape. The duct tape protected the foam from being sanded. This worked well. We made the blocks to bondo to the bottom and were surprised that rather than adding shims under the boards near the spar, we had to add 3/8" to the rear of the boards where they touch the PVC pipe bondo'd to the trailing edge. I used 1 1/4" OD pipe - not sure why mine turned out that way, but it did. The wing has no twist. The hinge hardpoints were easy to do, and I had very little to do in the way of repairing the foam with dry micro. A little sanding tonight should do it. I think I will use wet flox and peel ply at the aft edge where I removed the peel ply to make a smooth transition for the top skin. We're almost ready to lay up the top spar cap - I'll be extra careful not to overfill this time! What a pain that stuff is to grind down!

Hi Joe - actually, the "gap" is created when you remove the peel ply that's between the bottom skin and the foam. Some foam gets removed along with the peel ply. This leaves the bare glass of the bottom skin ready for mating with the top skin, BUT it leaves a rather large "joggle" where the foam gets ripped up by the removal of the peel ply. If you try to lay the top skin over this, you will get the glass-to-glass bond you desire, except that there will be a large joggle on the top skin at the aft portion, starting at the T/E and going inboard about an inch. I think it might even be difficult to get the cloth to lay down unless you either radius the foam or, as Lynn suggests, fill with some micro. You will still have at least 3/4" glass-to-glass, but w/o the joggle. I'm leaning towards wet flox, peel ply, cure, and then add the top skin. It will be stonger and since it is only a small amount it shouldn't add much to the weight. I want the top skin to have a smooth, uninterrupted airfoil shape that matches the "F" template when I'm done. I don't want to have to add filler on top of the skin.

This question was asked twice in the archives, but I could not find an answer: I'm ready to skin the top of my canard and noticed a 1/8" joggle at the trailing edge where the foam ends and the bottom skin continues. The contour is very close to the F templet and I'm afraid to sand the foam any further. My fix is to add small amount of wet flox, peel ply and let cure before applying top skin. Does this sound ok? And: Builders, I know Nat is on the road to the Big "O"....so I will ask for the other expert opinions out there. I'm getting ready to skin the top of the canard. I put 3/4" peel ply on the trailing edge of the canard when I did the bottom layup. Not the 1" called out in the plans because it removes too much foam. I figured this still would give me a 3/4" glass-to-glass close out on the trailing edge. When I flopped the canard over, cut the fishtail off, and pulled the peel ply. It still pulled up too much foam. My question is what is the recommended fill for the small void where the foam has been pulled out? Flox?, Micro?.... It looks like the peel ply made a perfect flox corner and I will still be able to get a 3/4" glass-to-glass trailing edge that I will put micro over to match the template. The instructions are vague on how to close out the trailing edge. I assume we close the canard out like the elevators that Nat shows in fig. 12, CH. 11 page 5. So what is the answer? Do we make a flox corner or use micro or...? Thanks for your help!

Same from me, Marc - you sure have a talent for making things easy to understand! Thanks!

Thanks for all the advise! I think that the problem is exactly what Wayne and others have pointed out. When I work on a layup, the shop and the work itself is at about 65. I use warm (90 degree) epoxy, but applied over the cold foam. Then when I put a heat tent over it, raising the temp to 80 or more, the cold gas expands and causes the bubbles. When I do the top skin, I'll warm up the canard under the heat tent FIRST, then do the layup with warm epoxy and then let it cure at room temperature - or if I do still need to use the heat tent I'll use a lower setting so as not to cause the gas expansion. Then when the part is cured I'll do the post-cure heat treatment. THANKS FOR THE REPLIES!

Hopefully there is a simpler and less expensive solution.

I just did the lower skin on my canard yesterday, and have a question that I hope someone can help me with. We did the layup, all llooked nice a smooth, we put on the 2 inch peel-ply on the leading edge, built a little heat tent around the work and then went bowling. A couple hours later we checked the curing glass (about 80 degrees in the tent) and found two large bubbles had developed. One was about 18 inches in from the end, was about 4 inches long, 1 3/8 wide and 3/16 high, oblong in shape. The other was on the opposite end, approx. the same area, but a little smaller in size. Bother were over the foam behind the spar cap. Since the glass was still curing, I stipled the two bubble down and worked the air out as best as I could and put the tent back in place. A couple hours later I checked on it aagin and the two bubbles had reappeared, although not as big. So again I stippled them down, but this time I also put on peel ply, covered with freezer paper and weighted with shot bags. Looked OK this morning, except that it's not as "pretty" as I would have liked being that there is a "patch" of peel-plied skin at each end. Any thoughts as to why this happened, and what I could do differently when I do the top skin? Should I let it cure at a lower temperature and then post-cure in the heat tent?

Congrats and welcome! I'm on Chapter 10 (canard). I'm in western PA, but will be making some trips to Boulder CO during the coming year. If Lakewood is not too far away, I might be able to arrange a visit!

I'm working on the canard, and the plans call for 42 yds of spar cap tape. I heard that some use a little more, so I ordred 43 - Anyway, we did the lower spar cap layup last night and the remaining roll of tape looked small, so we unrolled it and measured it - only 38 feet left! So I just ordered 20 more yards because I figured I sure don't want to be in the middle of the top spar cap layup and run out. I lost count of the number of layers, but I'm thinking 10 or 11 - the first 3 or 4 were full span. Is this typical to need to order so much more?

$40-$50? What was it made of? I looked all over Lowe's yesterday and didn't find a single 1/4" bit for anywhere near that price...? Maybe you were looking at a masonry bit or hammer-drill bit?