Crazycanuck

I read an article in one of my flying magazines recently about a group of demonstration pilots that run their Lycoming engines on 100% ethanol at various airshows. They have a total of 3000 hours on ethanol with only minor alterations to the engine and say that they have done so without a problem. Most notably they say there is a significant increase in HP with ethanol. I also know that ethanol has a higher natural octane rating than petroleum gasoline. Why couldn’t the fuel tanks be lined with a coating that can withstand ethanol based fuels?

Don't worry, Adam Smith will continue to provide AVGAS so long as there is a need. I would love to be able to put mogas in my plane, but from what I have read the extra savings isn't worth the risk.

I think I will be installing a starter on my plane and looking some where else to save weight. Titanium nuts and bolts perhaps?

When I was a kid my dad lost part of his thumb to a radio control airplane. That was only a 0.25"^3 engine so I found the suggestion of hand proping a 360"^3 engine a little odd. It is a little like that game that we all used to play as kids of slapping the backside of a bull and then running for the fence. Ahhh, fun memories.

Please forgive that I am a bit of a noobie here. I was reading the plans for my Cozy last night and it said something about forgoing a starter motor and hand proping the engine in order the save weight. Do builders actually do this? I am just trying to figure out how I would convince my wife to start a 360"^3 engine by hand while I operate the throttle from safely within the cabin. I can't see it happening.

Yeah, if paving isn't really an option unless I can convince the Ontario Government that the area needs a paved runway for MEDEVAC access. Can't see that happening, and they would probably see right through my argument.

In northern Ontario there is something called crusher reject, which is basically fine aggregate that is a by-product of the mining process. It packs very hard like concrete and it is cheap. I have been thinking about the logistics of resurfacing the strip with this material. I have also been thinking about some sort of chemical packing agent such as tar or oil. This would likely involve lots of permits, but it is a common practice for improving roads in the area. Perhaps simply renting a compactor for a week would be a solution. However, if there is a way to upgrade the landing gear that would probably be the cheapest and fastest solution. I thought alot about various aircraft before settling on this plane. Basically it works out faster to land 60 miles away and hitch a ride to the cottage rather than fly a slower utility plane just to land at one turf strip. This location is just one planned destination.

There is a gravel/sand airfield within less than 1 mile of our family cottage. I would like to be able the land my Cozy at this field because the closest paved airport is 60 miles away. I was thinking about using a 12” nose wheel and larger wheels on the main gear. In addition I would fashion some kind of fender on the nose wheel to help prevent debris from being kicked up into the prop, and use wheel pants on the main gear. I would likely be the one maintaining the airfield as it has essentially been abandoned, but has been used in the last 10 years. So I am trying to figure out ways to remove any stones and achieve a hard packed surface. Does anybody have experience using pusher prop aircraft like the Cozy on unimproved airfield surfaces?

I am probably late to this thread, and I am only a pilot in my mind's eye but I will soon be a builder. Here is my advice for what it is worth. Don't ditch your plane. When engines fail there is always a reason. Do whatever you can to make sure the engine is in tip top shape and the engine should run fine. Wait for a clear day with calm seas. If you are a spiritual man then say a prayer before you take off. Your odds are very good for making the trip without a problem. However, here is my suggestion in case you do have to ditch. Carry some sort of a helmet with you. A bicycle helmet is probably you best bet, but consider the kind with a chin bar. If you ditch your plane you will probably bang your head on something. Your chance of survival probably comes down to your actions in the 15 or 30 seconds following impact with the water. You won’t be able to respond very well if you are knocked unconscious or are stunned from a head impact. The rest comes down to staying warm in the water and getting a rescue effort happening hopefully prior to impact.

Get some torque wrenches and use them properly. I haven't rebuild an aircraft engine before, but most of my problems with my motorcycle engine rebuilds have had to do with improper torque on critical nuts and bolts. I have since become religious about properly torquing nuts and bolts and it saves me many headaches.

In my research on rotary engines so far has led me to a few RX 8 forums. Generally I have found that those guys seem to have alot of blown engines. It is not a scientific sampling and many of them guys were doing significant modifications, but they they certainly weren't trouble free engines. It is great to see people trying to make it work. The experimental category is intended to support innovation, and that is exactly what is happening. That is what makes a person an aviator instead of just a pilot. However, so far it seems that rotaries are more suitable for racing applications. Has anybody considered a Briggs and Stratton engine? JK

Fair enough. Please recognize that I am not suggesting that rotary engines are not a good choice or good design. I am merely saying that a simpler design in and of itself is not a good indicator of reliablity.

I have been thinking about which type of engine to put in my Cozy eventually. Rotary engines are on my short list of choices that I am considering. I just wanted to comment though on the common argument that rotary engines are more reliable because they only have 3 moving parts. At first I felt that this was a good argument, but not so much anymore. The same could be said for 2 stroke engines, as they have only three moving parts at their core (piston, connecting rod, and crank), but they tend not to be nearly as reliable as 4 stroke engines generally speaking. I have a very complex engine in my motorcycle with things like variable valves (VTEC) and its engine is considered one of the more reliable engines out there. So in the end it isn't really the number of parts that determines reliability, rather how carefully those parts were designed for their given purpose. my $0.02

Yeah, we will definitely have to keep in touch. I plan to start building within the next 12 months. I first have to secure a workshop which should happen soon.

Rumour has it that my wife ordered the Cozy MKIV plans for my birthday.

So basically it is probably better to just keep the aircraft nice and slippery and forget about the ram air intakes. Most modern supersport motorcycles come with some sort of ram air system. I guess it must be a marketing gimick.

I am planning to build a Cozy MKIV and I have been thinking about and researching the possibility of using a Renesis Rotary for the powerplant. I like that the Renesis is naturally aspirated, because alot of the auto conversion challenges seem to be related to turbo charging. This got me thinking about a ram air system in order to maintain the higher intake presure required at higher altitudes. Has anybody experimented with ram air on the Cozy with a rotary engine, or any other for that matter? Does the extra drag out weigh the power advantage? I was thinking that little scoops under the wings against the fusalage would be the best high presure location. Any guesses on what kind of presure increases could be achieved with such a system?

I think that you would have problems running a superbike engine at high output for extended time periods. Their horsepower also generally peaks at high RPM of around 8,000 to 12,000 RPM. Superbike engines are really designed for short bursts of high power. They are also designed to rev up very quickly, a feature not really required on an aircraft engine.

I just wanted to introduce myself. I think that I have officially decided to build a Cozy MKIV. I have been dreaming about aviation ever since I was a kid when I used to watch the Beavers take off from the lake at our family cottage. In the last few years I have been dreaming about building kit plane or homebuilt. I love working in the garage on projects and I think that building my own plane in the only way I can justify flying financially. For a long time I thought I would build something like a Zenith Air CH701. I like the idea of a bush plane, but I am not sure if I want something that utilitarian and that slow. A few months ago I came across the Cozy website and before long I had Cozy on the brain. If I am going invest all that time and passion into a project I want to final product to be a thing of beauty, and the Cozy certainly fits that description. I also want something that is going to improve my quality of life and for me that means saving time and traveling far. I really want a cross country aircraft to escape Metro Toronto back home to Northern Ontario for regular weekend doses of the outdoors. The 8 hour drives and weekend traffic just isn’t cutting it anymore. I can just imagine being whisked up north within a couple of hours waving to the traffic below. So I don’t actually have a pilot’s license yet. I have always planned to get one, but I don’t want to go down that road until I know that I can afford to fly on a regular basis in the same plane. I think irregular flying is probably dangerous flying. So I think it is best the get a line on a plane and then get the license when the plane is within a year or 2 of completion. I hope this doesn’t inhibit my building ability too much. One more thing, I find the concept of powering the plane with a rotary engine very interesting. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, but I would really like to consider this. I love playing with engines and I have some decent mechanical abilities. I just want to be careful about getting into a situation where I have to test a new engine at the same time as learning to fly a new type of aircraft. So I look forward to learning more about this from other builders. For the next 5 to 10 years I hope to get a lot of information and advice from other Cozy builders and look forward to being a part of the canard flying fraternity. I expect to have access to a nice garage starting next fall, so I think I will probably look to get the plans in the spring so that I can spend time studying them before I start.