Big Steve

Waiter: Sorry to hear about your gear problems. Canards are more fun to fly than to fix. This incident has made me really realize how glad I am that I decided to stay with fixed gear on my plane one less thing to worry about. Hope the fix does not take to long. STeve building on

Pretty cool looking paintjob. Would be nice to see it all together. STeve

My lathe will turn 15 inches without taking out the removable weighs. Does that make me stupid??? STeve

Rich: I think he is talking about a fat Longeze not a CozyIV so Burt would be the one to quote and Marc runs a site for Cozy builders. I had a light Longeze in a previous life it was a joy to fly. The only thing I would have changed is swap the 0235 for an 0320 Still keeping it light is the best thing you can do for these planes. STeve build on

Joe: Reading from the Cozy IV owners manual it says: (The Co-Z plans model MarkIV with an 0-360A Lyc. engine , light weight starter, alternator, and throttle body and with the canard shortened in span to 145" leading edge tip-to-tip has a 250lbs. minimum and 425 lbs. maximum front seat limit.) The above was copied out of my owners manual. I guess some guys are pushing the envelope and flying at 450LBS in the front seat. I am trying to build a lite enough plane I can fly with 450 in the front. We shall see. No matter how light I build this bird moving balast is a way of life in a Cozy IV it is something you just have to get used to I even build a special balast box in the nose for the specially formed lead I will install there after my weight and balance. Steve build on

Acording to your first post you had plans on lengthining the nose and installing a longeze gear bow. I think you will be suprised how long these two projects take you. I would have completed all my airframe projects before purchasing panel junk. It might be 2 years before you get those projects done by then the Dynon will have a couple more technology updates. Most builders build the plane first and do panel last. Panels are easy and fast airframe especially changes are slow and time consuming. Have you ever worked with fiberglass? If not you have a learning curve you need to start on the nose and the gear worry about the panel when you have the airframe ready to go. you asked you got my .02 STeve build on

Steve fly over and pick me up I will help:D It is to far to drive for a weekend. STeve building on

Phil: Lynn is right The kink is at Bl 67.5 It is where the fc1 and fc2 cores meet. I had to use two straite edges when I did my wings one for the inboard and a long one for the outboard. I am just leaving the kink in and doing it per plans. It is a big kink and would take a lot of foam or micro to fix. Phil Look at the picture of the wing on page 19-10 It shows the aileron starting at a right angle to bl 67.5 it starts its 90* at 7.6" up from the trailing edge this is shown on page 10-8 fig 46 If you have a really big kink at bl 67.5 a little bit of it will be on the inboard edge of your aileron. quick edit after looking at the plans again the 7.6" is the measurment for the bottom of the wing. The top of the wing measusrement is 5.9 as per fig 46 page 19-8 STeve build on

Maybe someone else has done this I dont know. I bought a couple of small carpenter squares and drilled holes in them. If I needed to sqare up a block and cut a nice straite square line I would put the foam block on my nice flat table and just put the square on the table and line it up with the mark on the foam. Insert composite cleacos (Hicks drywall screws) and cut away with my hot wire I only had to usually put 3 screws in it to hold it tight enough for the hot wire. I am all done hotwiring I will miss it till I build the next project. STeve build on

Longeze VS Varieze: They both have different mission statements and they have different wings and fuselage's I built a Longeze it has more room. The Varieze is cheaper to fly and own it has no room at all Take your pick. I have seen flying Variezes go for 12,000 Never seen a Long go that cheap. STeve

The cps are all on line all you have to do is look.

Maledy Said: Well come on over I got one you can sit in if you want. You would have to help me flip it right side up it is upside down in the shop right now. As they say on the price is right come on down. STeve

Marc said: And if you can get BMW, MB or Porsche to paint your plane with their paints in their booths with their robots and processes, and bake it in their ovens, then you will get the results that they get. I worked in the office furniture business for 20 years. We made the change to water based paint back in the late 80's it was a nightmare. They did get it right finally but like Marc said you have to bake the stuff. Robots dont paint as good as a good painter but it is hard to beat that 350 degree oven to get a shiny hard paint job. STeve

Have your friend take some pictures of the accesorie case so you can see if the motor has a fuel pump mount machined. I bought a 0235 C2C for my Longeze and had to have the accesorie case machined for a fuel pump. I was just learning back then. I know better now. It is all a learning exsperience. The motor worked great in the long but I would put an 0320 in now if I was to do it over again. That motor is 108 hp. My .02 STeve

That milling machine a lathe and a really nice little mig welder are what is paying for this little airplane project. Using them on my plane is just gravy. Steve

Great Idea Rick; Now eat your heart out I have a milling machine with a digital readout. Guess how I drilled my holes??? Steve build on

trisem1: Buy a set of plans and let the adventure begin. We all learned how to build them by doing it. I have met several people who built planes and then learned how to fly when they were done. You will never regret doing it and you will become very confident using your newly aquired skills in other areas. Steve

Thanks Waiter. If this Cozy turns out as good and as fun as the Longeze was I am going to be a very happy camper. Steve

Ronny: I built my Longeze without a pilots license just before I got it finished I broke down and got the license. I got a little back seat time in and eze then started flying my Long. No big deal like waiter says if you can fly a Cessna you can fly an eze. Just be careful and stay current. STeve build on

I thought some of you could use this quickie drill jig idea. I took a chunk of aluminum and squared off the face. Then drilled a hole through it the size of my drill I was going to use. You mate it flush up against the surface you are going to drill and you get a nice straite hole. I used it to pre drill my spar pilot holes. Yes I am back Jon sent me my password. Thanks Jon. Build on STeve

I had a big weekend this week on the plane. Got my wings mated to the center section spar. It was a tight fit in my shop and took 13 hours to get it all done. I am up to 1570 hours working on the project now. The weather is starting to cool will have to start running the heater to cure the epoxy. Build on STeve

Amen Br. Dennis:

What makes Gary Spencers application simple and better is that it is direct drive no psru. I have seen his plane a couple of times It is a nice looking installation. I still think I will stick to my Lycoming.

Rock: I think You are allright with the 84 hardener. You could scuff it up and paint on a couple of layers of 87 hardened stuff but I think you would be adding unnecessary weight. I have had a couple of pieces of glass in a bottle of auto gas for almost 2 years now I can see no change. I took it out about 6 months ago. It acted just like a regular piece of fiberglass. I am using 84 resin on the whole plane. STeve

I had Atkinson fuel sites in my Longeze back in the early 90's they were my only source of fuel usage. They worked great. I had no leaks and I could see them really well. I also ran car gas but that was before this alcohol crap they are putting in it now. I am putting them in my present plane. I also have the lighted units. I consider them a necesarry back up to the probably Dynon unit I will also be installing with fuel floats and flow gauges and totlizers and all that other electric cool stuff. A guy I ran into at Osh with his brand new retractable was bragging about how he had a mirror on his wing to make sure his gear was retracted properly. I have no prolems installing a small mirror to check my fuel situation. Mirrors and site gauges are about as light and reliable as it gets. STeve build on