Lynn Erickson

I think of the vari ez as a shrunk down Long eze why would you want to spend 6+ years building something that small when you could build a real airplane in the same time and have a very safe aircraft.

I am not sure he knows what he is building. the anwsers to some of the questions on the ebay ad are all wrong. he said it could be a 4 seater. wrong!he said you can get the main gear from velocity. yes you can but it will require a mod to the plans to make them fit. if you use the velo gear it will take up another 10" of the baggage space

not sure why you would need 6" of travel or the limit switches. 2" is way more then you can use. during operation you only use about 1/2" max. from level elevator to about 1" down at trailing edge is a whole lot. never needs to go above level unless you are trying to be a lawn dart.

Mine is very close to an Eracer, a bit wider and taller canopy. powered by IO360 angle valve, 200 HP model, at 8500 ft density altitude it does 200KTS GPS ground speed done on a triangle coarse with the engine at 2850 RPM. all E racers are build with the Roncz canard with the same elevator length as a long ez. the wing is the same as the long ez but the wing and center section spar cap layup thickness is increased by 25%. my gross is tested to 2200 lbs. with hydraulic pump and battery in the nose there is no need for balast with a 150 lbs pilot to 420 lb front seat load.

I think with all your experience with engines this is really not a short answer but the same one I tell too.

it will also isolate you from your money, only costs $900 so i think adding an antenna might be a little cheaper way to go

the long ez wing is the same as the cozy 3 wing. the cozy IV has the same wing outboard of the strake, the difference is in the spar length and the fuselage width. the span is 2 feet longer but the fuselage is 2 feet wider. the only gain with the longer spar on a long ez would be slower roll and slower plane. the extra width and wing span do make a big difference in top speed if powered by the same engine. A Cozy IV with a IO-360 will go 200 mph and a long ez with the same engine will go 240 mph

ah but thats where you are wrong. I love the rotary engine but did not want to spend many many hours building one to find out all the seemingly good Ideas have to be changed and after flying one for several years to only have logged 10 or 20 hours. when you have had as many years in experimental aircraft as I have you will have a better idea of the reality of using auto engines in aircraft. if you have not been there you have no idea of the problems that can arise. turbo prop gear boxes are one thing. a homebuilt redrive is another animal. go watch one take off. or I should say listen to one take off. when you can hear there noise of the redrive over the noise of a rotary with open exhaust and prop noise during takeoff I don't think that is a good sign of longevity.

If you want to fly use a proven aircraft engine. if you want to spend the first several years experimenting with a power plant then put in a non proven engine. the first year I flew the Lycoming over 300 hours and never had a problem with the engine and still don't have any problems just like the other aircraft with this engine. I have never heard of any that use other than aircraft engines that have flown 300 hours in the first year, most have not flown 300 hours in many years and many will never fly 300 hours.

if the oil coolers are in parallel how do you assure that there is flow in all the coolers? I have 3 coolers in series 2 for oil cooling and one for cabin heat. it goes to the cabin heater first and if the blower is on it heats the cabin if the blower is off it is just a wide spot in the oil line.

most of the instruments that are effected are sold either 0 or 8 degree tilt. that has been the aviation standard for 50 years. you will pay more for an 8 degree instrument.

if you have enough moisture on you instrument panel to worry about the carbon effecting the fasteners, you may have bigger problem with the instruments and radios that no longer work.

I you want flat shiny carbon panels. do the layups on a piece of glass and bag them

actually I don;t care where the pivots are but if I have to fly with retracts I prefer the ones the do come down when you need them and don't self destruct during landing.

I'll second that. the best type is the ones that don't retract and you put on wheel pants to reduce drag.

"In the real thing the rudders do not do that much slowing." Is that not what I said? they do increase drag and if you deploy them and hold a 0 rate of desent they will slow you down. my plane is flown a bit different on approach. I can fly a much steeper approach then a stock cozy do to the retractable landing gear. I can fly a higher approach and when the gear is deployed the approach angle is a lot steeper. use the belly board and rudders with a slip and it is a like a falling rock.

if they do build them they will be more cost effective and cheeper and when they are ready for sale they will be slightly less then the current stuff which will be even more then it cost now, so it will seem cheap then and be somewhere around a million give or take a few million

In the real thing the rudders do not do that much slowing. they add some but it is not going to save a bad approach. I don't ever use them on landing as they effect the roll way more then speed and they will cause more unwanted banking and yaw if not deployed perfectly equal. I use them only if needed to line it up in the last few feet. otherwise you almost forget they are there. if you need to use them in the video game then it is not like the real thing.

looking at the pics it is hard to tell if you have installed them so there is a differential of pressure across the coolers . you need at least 3-4 " of water pressure to get any cooling. those fans will not put out more then about 1/2" of water pressure . the cooler needs to be baffled the same as the engine with cooling air coming in from the bottom and exiting at the aft end near the prop. this will give you a differential of pressure while on the ground and in the air. you can test to see what the differential is by using a manometer. connect each hose to a aquarium air stone and mount them to the cooler one in front and one behind in the air flow. run the hoses to the cockpit and connect to the manometer so you can monitor the pressures during the flight. I did this to solve my oil temp problems and it was worth the effort without it you are just guessing as to what is going on back there.

running any 360 will require at least a 13 row cooler with a turbo it will need double that. do you have the cooler in the nose?

One of the tapes I used is plumbers tape it is the same basically as electrical tape but comes in 2" wide is very cheep and comes in 5, 10 and 20 mill thick. when you need to build up even more thickness use a layer of the tape with a layer of foam double sided tape covered by the tape . epoxy will not stick to plumbers tape and it gives a smooth finish.

Jack, you are my hero. I can't wait to see this new bird. Hopefully we can fly together next summer.

thats really getting into another can of worms. it would have to to be mounted farther forward as the sweep will move the center of lift aft. in slow speed you will get less lift as the air flow moves more spanwise and the wing already suffers from this why add it to the canard too? there is long eze type at chino that has a swept canard. designed by an aerospace engineer it does work but there is not enough flight data at this time to say if it is a good idea. as far aesthetics I don't think it looks as good as the straight ones.

why would anyone know this? there aren't any vari ezes built this way. if your engine is lighter why would you not put the engine back farther and the prop where it is designed to go? with the prop forward it may have more interference drag caused by turbulence of the wings and fuselage.

What would you gain by a longer prop? the prop still has to drive the same aircraft at the same speed with the same HP. if the prop is longer then it may need to be thinner or different blade shape. what does being geared have to do with it. the faster vari ezes are running 3000 + RPM and they use shorter props