Drew Swenson

I hand the completed inspection checklist to the A&P when he arrives. I don't take the wings off very often----about every 5 years. The A&P then does a cursury look---checks all my paperwork and logs----then checks out then engine including a compression check. I am very used to not having canard guys doing condition inspections. If you are not yet confident in your inspection abilities, then by all means, seek out a canard expert A&P---but you will need to eventually gain the experience and confidence so that you can just use "any" A&P.

Congrats!!! Outstanding!!!

The FARs tell you exactly what is required in terms of required IFR instrumentation. I don't remember anything in there about size of the instrument. It would seem strange that a maker of CDIs would make a CDI that did not follow regs. I will say that as a person that deals with inspectors (non FAA) on a fairly frequent basis----that it is a fair question to ask the inspector the reference for the info that just came out of his mouth. It is the inspectors burden to point that out to you. I don't advocate challanging an inspector on everything he says (unless you want to totally T him off----and never pass anything)----but when you get to the part that does not quite sound right, he needs to reference the source/paragraph/etc.

*Research the performance and handling characteristics between the two. *How cheap are they to build and operate---and does that matter? *Which one has issues that are of more consequence? *What size people can you fly---and how much stuff can you bring on a trip for each one? The answers to these questions will instantly divide your current and potential Long/Vari owners.

Yeah---but Lycomings just have a certain smell to it. You will get the smell of the engine coming thru the heater valve---even if it is off unless you have a real good seal on it. Since you can't smell the CO, make sure you carry a CO detector.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRRkBNf8T9w

Oops--quite right--I do have the hidden rudder belhorns---and without the spring you would be attempting to drive the belhorns thru the skin.

On both a Longez and a Cozy, the POH tells you how to set up the pedals. The POH is not sitting in front of me---but you would stomp on the pedal as hard as you could (full braking) and then have someone measure the deflection of the rudder in inches at the bottom of the rudder. You would have to adjust the pedal (trombone, plunger, whatever mechanism that you are using for actuation of the master cylinder) so that you got that magic deflection at full braking. If you did not get enough deflection at full braking, then you are obviously engaging the master cylinder too early. On a cozy, the rudder cable has a spring on it. This more or less allows you to engage the master cylinder somewhat late in the process---this is good. This will ensure that you get FULL deflection prior to master cylinder engagement. On a longez (without the spring)---if you tried this, you would probably break something.

I would typically go to 2000 ft in a Longez O320 without the 50 ft obstacle. I currently use 3000 ft for my Cozy. Had to break out the book recently when I inadvertantly landed on a 2600 ft runway (with trees at either end). Offloaded my pax to get out of there.

Usually the front 2 cylinders are the hottest---however, for those who have paid good attention to balancing the heat, you can end up with them being the same (ideal) or even overbalanced in the other direction (hotter in back). The real answer is that nobody can tell you---you need to find out yourself. Personally, I would never own an airplane without all 4 CHTs and EGTs monitored. This is from a monetary perspective----you've got somewhere between a $10K to $20K engine----a $2K engine monitor is a cheap investment to make sure you are not abusing the engine. And also, this is from a safety perspective. You will be able to pick up warning signs on your engine via an engine moniter before your ears and butt will ever pick it up.

And you also need good heading information for the windspeed calculation.

If you are talking about the casting at the top, get the one with the taper bearings---just installed that several months ago---works great! The original wears and gets sloppy from side to side after time.

Saw that---that is why I was reconsidering. I will be very interested to see what things eventually get included in the map. With my BM, I get precision approach capability ("needles"----separate ILS feeding in), and the cool thing I like is the victor routes and all the waypoints displayed right there. Skyview will be very sparten when it comes out----but the company is real good---and looks like Skyview capability will grow quite well. Can hardly wait to see the user documents so that I can see what is coming down the line.

The newsletters don't just update the plans---but also talks about best practices, tips, etc. For example, in one of my recent posts about the helper springs for the throttle cable. The plans nor changes to the plans tell you about the fact that the throttle needs to be actuated by cable alone and without the helper springs. So if you just went to the plans changes of each of the newsletters, you would miss that important fact---which could either kill you, hurt you, or damage your airplane. I spent the time to read each one and document each article in a spreadsheet. Any time I would have a situation come up, I would sort on engine problems----or whatever the issue was. At first I did not do this---and found myself spending hours looking for the right article that I knew that I had seen----now it is at my fingertips---whether we are talking about Longez or Cozy. I did the same thing with the CSA newsletters---but from only the point where I had started recieving them (as opposed to CPs and Cozy newletters---where I have the entire set).

Like I said---flying my BMA lite for several years glitch free. I have sent my lite back when I broke a fitting off the back---they repaired it and sent it back to me. My real future issue is it appears that BMA has stopped issuing the monthly database updates which keeps the moving map update----and of course Dynon's like product does not even have a map. With all that being said---I am contemplating going back to a Dynons efis (I currently run a Dynon EMS). With your Dynon Efis---if it breaks, you can send it back for repairs. With the BMA line----there is no one to repair it----and like all computer products, they will need repair at some time or another.

For the throttle mechanism, the pull only cable was ok for an engine without an accelerator pump. Even the CPs note that if you cannot actuate the throttle without the springs that you have a "down" aircraft (my words). The springs purpose was to only take the sponginess out of the system---not to make it work. Obviously with an accelerator pump, you will never actuate the throttle with the springs off. From CP65 page 13 (in part): "The throttle and mixture both should be set up and adjusted so that they will work with no springs installed. The springs should be installed so that they pull the throttle to full power and the mixture to full rich in case of cable failure." From CP78 page 2: "Before your first flight, and at regular intervals thereafter, get someone to help you check that the throttle and mixture controls do indeed, move the appropriate range to the full throttle/full rich positions and also to the idle/cutoff positions WITHOUT the use of any helper springs. If you cannot get the throttle and mixture controls to work satisfactorily without springs, consider going to push/pull cables. I realize this is a hassle, but not nearly as much of a hassle as losing control of your engine at a critical time." Biggest tip to make the push-pull work well: Once your cable bracket is made and on the aircraft (I used a modified Vans Aircraft bracket), take a scrap piece of push-pull cable (with all the end pieces attached) and use that to find out where the cable wants to penetrate the firewall. The scrap piece needs to be short enough to move around---and long enough so that you can mark the firewall with a pen. If you don't do this, the small "kink" going thru the firewall---then the short distance to the bracket will put a lot of friction in the system.

Kent, The real good thing with splitting up all the air like that---is that you know exactly where it is all going. 100% of your downdraft goes to cooling the cylinders---and nothing else. Nice looking work. Not sure I would have done the big naca on the bottom for new construction----maybe more like the ram air on a berkut. Regardless---looks very nice and will function well. I also like your ability to tune the oil cooler.

The work I mentioned above is actually pretty easy---and is the least time consuming piece of the whole thing. You can swap out the extrusions in less than a day. I am not a welder---so I farmed that out. Cowls, plumbing, throttle cable, baffles, oil cooler mounting, wiring, etc takes a lot longer. My O235 was fine with the brock throttle bike cable. The O320 required a push-pull cable---also not that hard---lots of tips from me on the bulletin board. But there are a lot of little things that have to be done to accomplish this feat. Swapping same engine types can be done in a day---putting on a bigger engine involves more work. You will also need a new prop to absorb more rpms---and you will need a prop extension----your old one won't work.

If you Leave CS-73 in place on the lower extrusions, I see zero difference with the brake either attached or not. For the upper 2 extrusions, remove and replace with an extrusion with a 1/2 inch taller verticle web (for the heavier vibrating mass). The replacement will obviously remove the hole in question. The extrusions are floxed and bolted to the upper longerons. Use a magnetic cheap studfinder to find the back of the bolts on the outside of the turtledeck area. Mark all 4 locations then drill through the fuselage to get access to the back of the bolts. Unbolt them and remove. Use your dremel to carefully dremel off excess flox around the aluminum/wood joint---don't dremel on the longeron itself. Once cleaned up, use a pretty hefty sledgehammer to beat the back of the extrusion. You need to break the bond in shear---and it will take quite a bit of force---and it will beat up the back of the original extrusions. Make a jig from wood, bondo and bushings so that you can use the old extrusion to match drill the holes for the new extrusions. The rest should be easy from here. You will also need to upgrade your engine mount. Dave Ronneburg did mine----Cozygirrls sell the mount outright---and I believe they can modify your existing mount.

BMA is out of business---but my lite has always worked like a champ. I installed both Dynon (longez) and BMA (cozy). They both worked as advertised. Most glitch type items I saw on the message board usually was traced to install problems from those who did not know what they were doing. The FARs delineate specifically what equipment is required for the type of flying you will be doing. Since I did a retrofit instead of a new panel from scratch, I have everything backed up except for heading. I have found that I still prefer using the "steam" airspeed and altitude----but maybe that is just what I am used to.

Went into an airfield yesterday that I thought was 3200 ft. Unfortunately, I did not read the fine print of a 600 ft displaced threshold which was included in this number----and the threshold was kind of a hard pack asphalt with a dispersed/loose gravel type material on top (great for RVs--not so great for EZs). The main part of the runway was listed in fair condition---but had lots of cracks in it which made it sound like it was going to tear my nose gear off through the deceleration----on the brakes right after landing. Also---trees (50ft obstacle on both ends). As soon as my main mounts hit, I said to my wife----we won't be back. After my time there for the fly-in (which was a good time), I started asking questions about the runway length----because it seemed pretty short. That is when I really found out that it was 2600 ft (I use 2900 to 3000 ft as my pers min with no obstacle). I could really only take off in one direction----start off on the end without the displaced threshold. There was next to no wind----but the little that was there favored the other direction. Time to break out the perf charts. Looks like I will need just about all of the runway available minus displaced threshold----an aborted takeoff would be very difficult. Luckily, I had just met a bunch of nice people at the fly-in and asked one of them if they would drive my wife and 3 yr old to the neighboring airfield with a much longer runway. Dropping off about 160 lbs of combined weight did the trick and bought me several more hundred feet of takeoff roll. Getting off the ground was good---boy was the field short and the trees tall----and again, what a crappy runway (as I willed my airplane not to shed the nose gear). Picked up my wife and daughter and away we went.

Don't know why people make this a big deal. I do it sort of like Marc. If I have a passenger that is going to depart, I put the weight in the back and shift it up front after my pax leaves. If I will have my pax for my entire trip, I leave the wt at home.

I have the standard one for a MKIV. I took it out when I replaced it with Jack W's taper bearing contraption----which works outstanding by the way.

I agree---but to sort of change the subject---it is kind of funny how people automatically assume that you must be rich if you own a plane. I know people from just about all walks of life who own a plane. On the poorer end, they just made sacrifices to make it happen. But when it comes to the tax man---user fees---and whatever else they want to pile on----they assume we are all rich.

Sure---I think you can build it. In a kit form, will it be faster to build for those following your plans?---sure, maybe. Will your prototype be faster to build than a plans built longez---no way. In the time you took to ponder about these postings, I would have already had all the bulkheads done and much of the tub complete.