Big Steve

Hans: I have been silent while this has gone back and forth. Your last reply: This statement kind of set me off. I guess the thing newbie's dont understand is all they have invested in this is a few key pad clicks. Most of us have 1,000's of hours invested in these projects and also a few keypad clicks. There are very few totally stock Cozy IV's and very few totally stock canards in general. It takes a long time when you change things. I have a forward hinging canopy, a remote fuel valve, custom rudder pedals and brake cylinders. I have a gull wing door to he turtle deck and I am probably not done yet I will probably do down draft cooling. Most of these mods are considered acceptable to most of the canard community. They took me a whole lot of time to figure out. Especially the fhc and the rudder pedals. My tub and all through chapter 9 is bone stock. I think the main reason that a lot of the canard community bristles at a newbie and his strange new ideas is there lack of commitment. I dont care what you build or how you build it just dont call it a canard or a Cozy IV I plan on building and flying my project. I also want to be able to license it and insure it for a reasonable cost. Modifications to flying surfaces and fuselage changes that make the plane no longer a plans built but a total experimental falling out of the air endanger my project. That makes me bristle I have a lot of time and money invested in this project you have a few key strokes. Go build something then come back and tell me how easy it is to modify and change things. I am a journey man plane builder you are an apprentice expect to be treated as such. STeve Building on

Bill: I had a very similar exsperience with my old Longeze that I built. I taxied out to do my run up. While taxing the plane sounded like it was making funny noises not enough to keep me from going flying though. I had to taxi almost a mile to get to the run up area. When I throttled up my plane fell onto it nose very abruptly it pushed the nose bumper into the foam and stripped all the teeth off of the gear. It was a long depressing walk back to the hanger. I took the whole gear mechanism out of the plane and turned the cast gear over. Be carefull that you get the load on the brass gear right. I think what happened is that I let the gear drop after I had propped the plane and got it running I think it went down to fast and hit the stop and bounced back out of over center. The taxi ways were very smooth at chino airport so it did not take any real shock until I throttled up the motor and it pushed the nose down braking the gear. It is the weakest spot in the retract mechanism. My cozy Iv that I am presently building has the same mechanism in it. Like waiter said in his post I am going to install the little ratchet mechanism that keeps the gear crank handle from only turning one way. This should act as a lock to either hold your gear up or down locked where you want it to be. STeve Build on

I am looking for a broken prop that 1/2 of it is good. I have just bought an 0360 for my cozy IV project. I am going to make a duplicator and make my own prop. I would like to start with a known prop profile. I will be at Rough river would be willing to pay a fair price. I wish I had the time to go find the one marc threw out over the desert. STeve Build on

The lodge has a restaurant that takes about 5 minutes to walk to the food is pretty good and the prices are not to bad. there is convenience store about 1 mile off field that has junk food. The world famous pizza place which I have missed out on is close. Make sure you bring extra fuel to give all of us builders rides there is no fuel on the field. STeve build on

Jon: I am defiantly going I have my tickets bought and the boss has given me the time off. Even bought me a new tent so the guys from Michigan can help me put it up. I wish we would wear name tags or something so we would know who each other is. Steve build on

If you are set on a varieze I have seen several for sale as partially complete to almost complete on the web for sale. The prices are way cheaper than what it would cost you to buy the materials and you could save several years of building. They also have those hard to come by wing attatch parts. You might look into that just bide your time and have cash in your pocket. STeve build on.

I could not justify the shipping cost for these so I made them out of some local Doug Fir with the right ring count. I made them .700 X.700 they worked great. 20% stronger and 20% heavier. The cost justified the trade. It helps to have a planner. build on STeve

Arbitor writes: Dont even go there. I did not even think of any kind of government involvement when I originally started this thread. We need to change our image and that involves no governmental involvement you involve the government and you get $3,000 hammers. I think Mark has something with writing letters and challenging perceptions with facts. Educating the media so that they know that craftsmen not "barnyard mechanics are building these things. We need to be responsible enough to know when and where to fly our planes. If we are still working out bugs with the motors We should not be taking off or landing over homes. When I flew my Longeze for the first time it was out of Corona. They had a brand new housing tract at the end of the runway. They let me take off there but I had to land at chino. The only reason they let me do this is because I had the plane all together and they changed the rule while I was preparing for the first flight. To my knowledge know one else can fly out of Corona until they have there test hours complete. I had heating problems so my flight was short but Chino was close. If I had it to do over again I would fly out of Chino for saftey sake. We have to live and learn I guess. Any type of governmental control will cost us more and make it harder to contiune building and flying our own creations. Dont even go there. Steve Build on

Well I thought it was time for another happy update. The longest chapter of the whole plane is done. Chapter 18 is all done except for a couple of latch's that I have to think about before I build them. Here are a couple of pictures with hatch's open and hatch's closed. I am starting to really want to go flying. I am now working on chapter 16 controls making all the little metal pieces myself. Build on Steve

Jon: Not to start another rant but I have decided to put my money on AOPA instead of EAA. I personally dont see EAA doing anything for experimentals or homebuilts but AOPA is actually doing something so I put my money there. STeve Build on

I have been reading the sad tail of the Velocity crash in N. Las Vegas. All the information is not yet in but one thing that if for sure is there is an airport manager of that facility that does not want us to fly into his little airport. http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8887402 This greatly troubles me. We as a home built comunity must do better to improve the public image of us as pilots and the planes we fly. The news caster made it sound like you could build a velocity rg for $30,000 That is ridicules I wont be able to build a scratch built Cozy IV for that. The driveby media makes it sound like us builders are a bunch of backyard mechanics that throw these things together over night and havent even taken a flying lesson. I am not a pr. person but somehow we have got to improve our public image. When we kill ourselves and passengers in a open field it makes small news. When we fly our planes into the home of somebody sleeping and kill them it makes national news and they start talking about banning our hobby. (for some it is a Passion) I dont know what we should do but we have got to do something. STeve Build on

I also at the admoshiment of Edge bought a lightly tinted canopy from todd. I plan on flying 95% of the time during daylight hours and will enjoy some relief from the sun. It is not so dark I will be unable to see at night when on those rare instances I return home in the dark. I really like its looks but it has obviously not flown yet. STeve build on

I concure with the previous poster. Dont throw the stuff away use it. OR give it to another builder. There are plenty of fairings, wheel pants,doors, and such on your plane that if it isnt super cured will still work just fine. If it concerns you dont build your wing out of it. It is hazardous waste dont throw it away give it to someone that will use it. Steve build on

Andrew: I did something similar but not exactly the same as Wayne Hicks. Infact I do a lot of thing like Wayne but hardly ever the exactly the same. Here is a link to the picture of the nutplates I put in mine. I dont remeber if it was a joggle or what. It works good was hard to make and bolts in really tight and nice. I would do it the same way again if I did it over. STeve build on http://websites.expercraft.com/bigsteve/images/6320478194745a56284003.jpg

I think that guys without plans who seem to post the most want to build but are not for what ever reason. Those of us who are actually building dont have time to do all that posting we are busy in the shop making the dream. STeve Build on

Due to the fact that a plans built Longeze has no rudder pedals, no throttle control or no way to lower the nose gear from the back. The back seater is forced to bend over kiss it good buy and hope for better day. If the Pilot in the front seat is incapacitated. I do suppose you could fly around the airport until you run out of gas dead stick the landing the plane will stop pretty fast with the nose gear up. STeve build on

Lynn: Thanks for the pictures. I got drool all over my computer. This gives me a reason to fly back down to Chino when I get mine done so I can check it out in the Glass. STeve

Lynn: Where do you have some pictures of this beautiful airplane you have built since I left Chino almost 17 years ago? Post some pictures so we can drool over them. STeve

Edge: That is exactly why I am not bonding the turtle back in until the very bitter end. That way I can take it off and not worry about smashing those time comsuming window. Can also set it down closer to the ground to work on. Build on STeve

Arbiter: I dont think most people think that widening your fuslage a few inches is going to kill you. I do believe if you put to much weight in the front seat you have a much higher chance of killing your self. If you keep the weight to 400 it is considered safe. I have read about guys flying at 500lbs in the front on accident they forgot to take out their balast when they put a passneger in the plane. It flew alright just kind of different. I sure would not fly with this kind of cg. Read about broken nose struts on the list. The plane was made for 400lbs in the front seat you do what you want but that was what the designer put as the weight limit and that is what I am planning on flying. No more discussion on this build on STeve

Just to stir the pot here a tad bit more do you know how ugly and extra wide cozy is? There are several different ones on the web and in my opinion they are butt ugly. build on STeve

You do not say what you and the wife weigh? IF the two of you together weigh over 450LBs. You are over gross and probably better look at another type of plane less sensitive to weight and balance. STeve build on

I posted 2 pictures it would not do both here is the other picture.

I thought it might be time to update my fhc construction. I installed the gas springs today and they work so good it gives me chills. It is exciting to see something work that you have worked literally 100's of hours on. The gas springs go over center as I lower the canopy and actually give about 20 lbs. of down force. I just need to heal up from my hernia surgery so I can get more done. build on Steve

My old Longeze had and 0235 c2c motor I regularly burned car gas it ran fine. When I was by myself it was perfect put a gib and add full fuel and it turned into a dog. I always thought that the 0320 would be the perfect motor for the Longeze. When I build my next Longeze it will have an 0320 with Cozy IV motor mounts. STeve Build on