rogerbacon
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Everything posted by rogerbacon
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Hi all, Its time for the first conditional inspection on my plane since I bought it. I need to find someone who can do it. I'm based in Miami and I'm looking for someone that is familiar with Long-EZs. The regular mechainc is good enough to work on the O-320 engine but he doesn't know anything about Long-EZs and I'd rather not pay him by the hour as he tries to figure out how to take the wings off. I can fly it to the mechainic so anywhere in Florida is OK. Dan N81HM
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Hi Tony, I just had the same problem. I have an Ellison throttle body and I couldn't understand why, lately, I was always flooding the engine. Everytime after I would stop it, I couldn't start it again. It turned out that some part in the carb was damaged and the fuel flow was always going through even when the mixture was at cutoff. I got stranded at Boca and had to send the carb to the manufacturer to be rebuilt. They charged $438.88. A new one was $950 so I think yours should probably be in the same price range for repairs since they are in the same price range for new. I can't help you with were to send it though since yours is a different type and they only work on their own brand, naturally. I just did a short flight around Homestead today and it flies beautifully again. It sounds like you are getting close to flying. I'm looking forward to flying with you when you gether in the air. I need someone flying next to me to get some good pictures of my plane.
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I'll plan on going. I'm in South Florida and Mississippi is not very far as the EZ flies.
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I measured the size of my current gas caps and it was 3". These http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/lwsprlfc.php are 70mm, which is just a little under 3". Is it likely that my measurement was off by just a little and these would fit? Are the openings pretty much standard size? Last question: we don't need vented gas caps because we have the fuel vent at the back of the plane above the passanger seat, right?
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Hi all, I'm writing fron my phone cause computer's down so may look bad... Yes i need to find out if it was the nut or the boltthat was stripped, I plan to buy replacement parts for both si will be able to replace the right one when i get to the plane and only have to take the thing off once. By the way. what size bolt is that for the nosewheel? I've been reading up on the termiknology so I can understand whatthe numbers mean better. As for the tire... I replaced the tube because it has aleak. The tire itself looks fine. Sorry if i used the wrong term earlier(longest phone message ever)
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So, last weekend I changed my first flat tire on my Long-EZ. I had a spare tube and I took the tire off and took the tube out and replaced it. Kind of simple, except for getting the nut off because part of the cotter pin broke off inside and sort of stripped the inside of the nut so that it turned freely but wouldn't come off. Anyway, I've heard people talk about having to split the tire in half to change it but I didn't have to do that. I could just pull the old tube out and put the new one in. Did I do it wrong? I only taxied with it but it seemed to work fine. Also, I want to order another spare tube and/or tire. What size should I order and where should I get them from?
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I'm not sure but I think so. I don't remember seeing it before. No I didn't just paint and I didn't build it. Since it is under the fuel tank my concern is that it might be a fuel leaking into the structure. I hope not but I will try the razor blade and see what's in there.
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I have a small soft area under the wing along the fusalage on the left side. I guess this is delamination but it is very soft and spongy. How should I go about fixing this and is it a ver yserious concern until it is fixed? Here is a picture I took: http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2238/imag0063k.jpg
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Hi. I have a gel battery in my Long-EZ. I thought I heard somewhere that you can not jump start a gel battery. Is that true? I assume you can put one on a charger though otherwise once they are dead there would be nothing one could do. As you might have guessed, mine is dead. Well, not completely dead but dead enough that it won't start the plane.
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Hi All, Recently I have found a lot of water in my gas tanks and I think I have gas caps that are leaking. What kind of gas caps do you recommend and where can I purchase them?
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My Long-EZ parks outside and we get terrible rains down here in May and June. I went out to fly yesterday and found a couple of inches of water in teh nose. I spend 30 minutes bailing water out and then soaking more of it up with a towel. How do you keep water out of the plane (other than putting it in a hanger which is not an option). I think most of the water came in through the elevator openings in the canard. I've wrapped that are with some plastic bags and stuffed the ends into the holes. I hope that makes a difference. Does anyone have a better solution? Also, when I lifted the nose up a lot of water ran out of the wing. I have tape over most of the seams between the areas wher the wings attach but some of it has come off. It is no big deal if water gets in there because it will drain out once the nose is lifted up, right? It can't get in anything important right? I mean soem people don't even tape up those areas.
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Hi all, I posted two videos of recent flights to Yahoo video. A flight along Miami Beach: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4937849/13151046 A flight home from Key West: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5125324/13583492 Quality is so-so since I was using a still camera in video mode. Also I was doing the filming and the flying for the Miami Beach one so its not as good. Enjoy.
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What tools will I need to take off the canard? The hobbs is on the side of the pilot's headrest and the wire that came lose is on the right side of the panel. This is the real disadvantage of not having a hanger-- working out in the hot South Florida sun.
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He built it. It's been mine since 3/24/2009
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Last Saturday I was returning from Orlando and I called on the radio to announce entering the pattern at an uncontrolled airport "Long-EZ 81HM entering left downwind...". Another plane nearby heard it and diverted to the airport just to see my plane and ask me questions about it. They were a nice couple. The man used his plane (Eurocoupe) to commute between North Carolina and South Florida and he was looking for something faster. We talked for a little while as I tied up and began cleaning the plane. Like everyone else I’ve talked with, he said he hoped he could get a ride some time. You don’t get reactions like that renting a Cessna.
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My hobbs meter is running at about 1/3 speed. When I climbed out of my long-ez the day before the flight I pulled a wire out with my foot (those holes are small for my legs and feet). I checked all the instruments and concluded that the wire probably went to the clock since it was the only thing not working. I didn't check the hobbs at that time though. It was later, after my flight, that I realized the hobbs was running slow. Any ideas on what I should look at to fix it? How does one get in there to see where all the wires go?
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X51. It's smaller, gas is cheaper, and the people are nicer.
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Not yet. Hopefully this weekend. I flew again last evening (before dark). This time I made a landing that I felt much better about, although still taking the entire 3000 foot runway. At least there was no bouncing this time. Believe it or not, there is not much to see when flying in South Florida. Most people think of South Florida as being scenic but that's just along the beach. You can't do much flying there unless you want to be surface-skimming since MIA's class B airspace and FLL's C airspace keeps you down low. That's not where I like to be, espicially when learning a new plane. So, that pretty much leaves the everglades. If you've seen one swamp, you've seen them all. I am so glad I have a plane that can actually take me somewhere because the first 150-200 miles out of Miami has nothing good to look at.
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What oil do you use in your engines? I found this article on oil and thought it was interesting. http://www.avweb.com/news/savvyaviator/savvy_aviator_52_thinking_about_oil_changes_196730-1.html
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Below is a copy and paste of a letter I sent to a friend of mine that doesn't know anything about planes so that is why I explain things that everyone on here already knows. =============================== Last Saturday I flew to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to meet a man selling a long-EZ. I had a mechanic inspect it and everything was as advertised so I bought it! Actually, because of bank problems I wasn't able to get the money wired until Monday and I had to drive to Texas to do that since there are no Bank of America locations in Louisiana. It was a three hour drive each way but it was worth it. Tuesday morning I took a taxi ride out to the airport and loaded up my new plane. I really like the sound of that -- "my new plane". There was a light rain but by the time I finished loading up the plane... MY plane... the rain had stopped. I was very nervous when I taxied the plane out to the runway. I had never taken off before. The seller had given me 5 hours of time in the back seat but it is not the same as actually taking off on your own. Taxiing was a little tricky but I got out to the runway without difficulty. It was a little cold but my blood was hot and my hands were sweaty. I called on the radio and announced I was taking off. There was no control tower at the small airport so you just announce what you are doing. I gave the engine full throttle and felt the plane come alive as it roared down the runway. Soon the nose wheel lifted off and I held it in that position as I built up speed. (You want to get the nose wheel off the ground as soon as you can because it is not designed to take a lot of weight like the main gear). Within seconds the plane lifted off the runway and I was flying!! I had my course plotted into my little handheld GPS and I turned into my heading, which was due east into the rising sun. I climbed to 5,500 feet and all I could think was that the long wait had been worth it. It was beautiful to see the world below me. As I flew eastward I passed over a Military base. An F-18 (fighter plane) came up on my left side and slowly passed in front of me. He was close enough that I could see the pilot's helmet. I passed Mississippi and Alabama and reached Florida. I saw Tallahassee on my left and saw a small plane doing a touch and go there. I plan to fly up to Tallahassee and revisit some of the places I went to back in college and see how much things have changed. I didn’t stop on this trip though. I just kept on flying. My next waypoint was a small field called Cross City. I have been plotting flight plans there for years because I always said I’d stop there when ever I fly my Long-EZ up North because the gas there is cheaper. So, I began my decent into Cross City. When I arrived I was nervous. It would be my first time landing the plane. There was a cross wind which makes landing a little more difficult. As I approached the runway I realized I was too high and too fast and I wasn’t going to make it so I aborted the landing and went around for another try. On the second time I made the runway. It certainly wasn’t one of my best landings but I got the plane down without hitting anything or causing any damage to the plane. I taxied in to the parking area and got out of the plane. I was so elated. I had just made my first landing. In my mind I had expected lots of people to come out and ask me about the plane but it turned out that there were only two people there who had ridden in on their motorcycles. It was kind of anti-climatic. I got 15 gallons of fuel at $3.39 a gallon. I rearranged the luggage in the back seat. Previously it had been covering up the visual fuel gages, which are in the back seat. I moved things around so that I could see how much fuel I had. At that point though I knew I’d have plenty of fuel to fly home. I hopped into the plane and took off headed for Homestead. There were a lot of clouds ahead and clouds can mean turbulence and rough air. I didn’t want any of that so I took an option that I wouldn’t have in a Cessna—I went OVER them. I climbed the plane to 11,500 feet and passed over all of the clouds. I didn’t have a nice view of anything on the ground because it was all clouds below me but I’ll trade the view any day for nice smooth air. When I was about 40 miles out I had to start my decent. I found a break in the clouds and went down through it. Once below the clouds the air got bumpy. In bumpy air you have to slow the airplane down to what is called “maneuvering speed” so that the abrupt bouncing around doesn’t cause structural damage to the plane. For the Long-EZ maneuvering speed is 120 knots (about 135 miles per hour. That is slower than I had been going so it made the last 40 miles seem to take forever. Once I had Homestead regional airport in sight I put my GPS away and called to announce my landing. Homestead also doesn’t have a control tower so you just call and tell anyone who’s listening what you intend to do. This landing wasn’t as good as the one at Cross City. In retrospect, I should have aborted but I tried to make it anyway. The plane bounced on the main gear and it looked like the next bounce would land me off the side of the runway, which would be very bad. So, in mid-bounce I applied full power and the engine roared to life. I climbed up and went around for another try. The second try was better. I still floated a little high and I was not happy with the landing but at least I got it down without any damage. Once at Homestead I tied down the plane and went inside to tell the FBO operator that I wanted to get an account to keep my plane there. The manager was out so they took down my info and said the manager would call me when he got back in town—probably this weekend. This weekend I will do some more flying and practice the landings. Each time I will get better and better, I’m sure. The seller said that I shouldn’t take any passengers for the first 25 hours or so of flying until I get more comfortable with the plane. I think that is good advice. N81HM
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Where would one look to find a good mechanic to do a pre-buy inspection on a canard plane? Google comes up short on this one.
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I have no idea if this is the right sub-forum or not but it's something people would want to buy so I'll ask about it here. Who sells covers to protect Long-EZs that have to sit out in the sun? I know there used to be one at http://www.aircraftcovers.com/techsheets/lez.html but he no longer makes them.
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News on Rocket Racing League
rogerbacon replied to Jon Matcho's topic in Events, Fly-ins, and Trip Reports
Does this mean that Velocity aircraft (or whatever the new name will be) will stop selling kits? Rocket racing is OK but not if it comes at the cost of the loss of a good kitplane. -
I'm surprised to hear this. I flew in the backseat of a long-ez back in the 90's and at one point the pilot told me he hadn't touched the controls for over five minutes. We weren't IFR but is sure seemed stable to me.
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Thank you.