Allen Crowder

Last September I bought my Long-Ez. Over the last 3 years or so I had been actively looking for a suitable plane and was fortunate enough to fly several arrangements. (With vs without wing pods, O-235’s vs O-320’s, heavy vs light). And Drew was kind enough to come down and let me get an hour in his Cozy. The day I bought my bird I had perhaps ~80 hours in the logbooks. Now with that said I must confess that I have been around flying since I was a teenager and received plenty of “unofficial” flight training from friends and whatnot and I had aircrew training in the Navy. When I took my check ride I had 41 hours in the logs and passed with flying colors. That all said I will give you my impressions of transitioning over to a Long-Ez. First, these planes are slick! They will gain speed in a hurry if you do not manage your attitude and motor closely. The first real noticeable experience was when I was coming home from my first long cross country trip and has up at 11.5k. I had flown what was a normal decent for me in the Piper. When I arrived at my airport I still had 6000’ of altitude to get rid of. Lesson learned: Start descents WAY farther out. Second, since these birds are so quick things happen a lot faster so cockpit management is a no longer an etiquette, it’s a law! Know what you are going to do at 5000’ and 30 minutes into the flight before you even leave the ground. Drew shared some great ideas with me on simple things like just pre-folding a sectional. (Your not going to do well trying to do it in the cockpit with the lid shut.) Lesson learned: Think ahead and be prepared. I miss having a back seat that I can just turn around and retrieve things from. <sigh> Organizational skills are a must. Third, landings take some relearning. You don’t really flare these in the same fashion that you know. You really fly them all the way to the ground. Which in turn means that since they are so bloody slick you will become a guru at speed and attitude management, or you will learn to land looooooooooooooong. Finally, all of the backseat time in the world cannot prepare you for your first flight from the pointy end! The view is amazing and the plane almost becomes an extension of your hand. You don’t get into these planes, you wear them. Moving into one of these planes would be much like getting a driver’s license in a nice comfortable sedan, and then buying a 1000cc sport bike. Although the same road rules apply the vehicles are fundamentally different. Can it be done? Certainly. Remember that Dick Rutan gave check rides in the first Long-Ez to Oshkosh visitors who had zero previous canard time. But before you go down that path you need to do some personal risk analysis. Bottom line is that these planes are only as safe as the pilot. The biggest differences I have found to be the comparatively high speeds to what I had been flying and a new style of landing. Good luck!

If you find yourself in the Roanoke area (KROA) feel free to drop me a line. I keep my Long-Ez at that field. Trade you for a ride!