longezdave

Chris,

 

I wish you could have kept the project and got it in the air. Maybe the ride I gave you wasn't enough motivation for you.

 

Did Al buy it? If he bought it, at least the project will be staying in the area.

The plane has been sitting for a while, and needs some work.

In my mind, this is the biggest part of the puzzle for those of us. Just as Lynn has asked, is this a complete "flying plane" or a project? Prospective, interested folks, need to know what would be required to get the aircraft legally in the air. We can't even tell from your post if the plane has previously flown or not. Can you help us out here?

Yeah, I don't think Brett meant any sarcasm. I think he was being sincere.

I'm with you RGlos. The Brock assembly is fine if installed and maintained properly. It's hard to beat its' weight I would think. I have over 700 hours on mine and I replaced one cable that I messed up. Got the replacement cable from the local bike shop.

80 Mpg?????

You don't state how tail heavy the surfaces are. Since it looks like you are going to be sanding at least the elevators, I would recommend as NeilK said and sand the paint.

 

You might be surprised how much change in balance you can make by sanding on the paint while still leaving an adequate layer. I would say sand top and bottom. You could leave a little less on the bottom surface.

 

Maybe hit it lightly with 400 and then switch to 600 until you are (hopefully) just about balanced or better yet balanced. Transition progressively to finer grit till you get to 2000. Buff the rest of the way to bring the gloss back.

 

If you're going to sand it off anyway, you might as well take it easy and go slow and see if you can remove enough to bring them into balance.

 

I'm slowly using this process with the intent of increasing the laminar flow on my Long. This takes all or most of the "orange peel" out. The shop that sprayed my Long used quite a bit of paint on most of it. Maybe they did on yours too.

The photo makes it APPEAR that the layup done by the previous owner fails Rutan's dryness criteria (dryness evidence more than 10% of the area). I'm GUESSING that it won't be a problem in this part of the aircraft, since the layups are primarily to add torsional stiffness. I'm not aware of failures of the gear legs that could be attributable to such a dry layup and believe there is probably workmanship as bad in the field. Sure we have legs that fail by being over-heated or ripped off the attach points, but I'm not aware of the gear legs failing due to builder applied dry torsional layups.

 

To answer your question, it would only be supposition, but my guess would be excessive squeegy action.

I say just knock off any bump it may have made and rough it up and glass over it. Build on as Steve would say.

For me, the most important parts of your post are that you are considering getting the old bird to fly again and that the fiberglass is "dried out". For anyone to give you any advice on the internet, we need more info about the fiberglass being "dried out". Can we start there with much detail about what you mean by "dried out"?

Thank you for the advice, where can I find Gary Hertzler

 

Congratulations on your purchase!

 

You can reach Gary at hertzler@yahoo.com. He's a good guy.

My friend Greg Gurnow and I had a big time at the race on Saturday. I turned in my third fastest speed at 204.3 MPH and won my class (the other two guys entered in my class didn't make it to the race). I won first place in sprint class for the year and third place in the league for the year. It was fun! Greg enjoyed the race, especially the almost 4 G turns. Here are two links to photos of the event - http://www.meetup.com/Amateur-Photographers-Social-Club/photos/?photoId=11930348&photoAlbumId=769970#11930348

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/specialdelivery8/Rocket10009?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHJh5fZ-J6zMw&feat=directlink#5407427012040498178

 

And here is a professionally done video of the event including an interview with me -

 

I'm hoping that I'll see some of you at the races next year. Here's where you can read all about the Sport Air Racing League - http://www.sportairrace.org/

 

See you at the races!!

They seem really close to the same plane. Just one is supposidly more sensative on the controls, and the other can fly longer distances.

The 40% more wing area of the Long EZ makes a pretty big difference.

But, why the downward orientation? There are many more installation options if I can mount it horizontally.

The ground based antennas, that your transponder antenna is going to communicate with, are vertically oriented. If you orient your antenna horizontally, you will loose (a ballpark of) about 20 db of signal. This will result in less range, but it will still work. I would not recommend going horizontal.

That's a nice looking canard! But hey, put your pants on!

I can't believe that none are responding in agreement or disagreement to the thought that the layup is wet. Look just to the left of the ruler and notice the epoxy saturated area. I still say that it is hard to evaluate a layup from just a photo. I would also like to say that it is hard to say that the photo is of a layup that is not excessively epoxy rich.

 

I think you need to evaluate your squeegee technigue and that could help your bubble problem and your wet layup problem.

 

Another thing that bugs me is those that encourage extensive use of peel ply. That has been discussed extensively previously and possibly should be reserved for another thread. I'll just say that peel ply should only be used in areas that are known to have critical bonds in their future. If not, the peel ply use often adds weight to the layup in an effort to create a pleasing surface.

It is hard to tell from a picture, but it looks like you haven't done enough sgueegee work. Although it looks like you have bubbles, you also have a very wet layup there. Your parts are going to be heavy. Have you trimmed the practice layup to the specified size and weighed on a good scale?

The first flight is exciting to say the least. Even though it's happy times, it is stressful. Could've been just enough to wear you down and keep you from being able to fight off the bug.

 

That's over and it's about time to have some fun!

You're supposed to say "bug guts".

Looks good!

 

When you flip the wings level and are ready to do the skin layup, use popsicle sticks or whatever between the trailing edge foam and your bench to take out the waviness of the trailing edge. Where it dips a little, raise the foam to level and five minute the popsicle stick in place to hold it.

 

After your first skin is cured fully and you have it flipped ready for the other skin, do the same again. Put the sticks between the skin and the bench to take the remaining waviness out. Check with a long straight edge to make sure you've got it straight between jigs.

 

If you site down most trailing edges, you'll see that they aren't straight. The waviness acts like little ailerons fighting each other. Some trying to roll right and some trying to roll left. That doesn't make for the most efficient/fast wing.

Congratulations Jerry! Enjoy your new bird!

I believe the best way would be to sand it off. I need to do some of that myself. It's looking pretty rough in some areas.

It was my pleasure Ryan! RR was fun again this year even if the weather gods weren't so kind to us.

And don't forget the three week dry time! I was in a big hurry on one of my wings and built a temporary oven around it and cured it for two days at 130 F. The rest of the plane did dry for three weeks. It's holding up fine after about 17 months now with PPG Concept as a final coat.

Maybe I should find someone with a Long Eze. Thats got to be safe, I rode in one. I will just tell her it's just like a Cozy Mark IV on the outside but totaly different on the inside. Hope that is close enough....

John,

 

I'd be happy to be the Long EZ driver to take her up if you can't come up with the Cozy ride. That is, if the weather gives us a break.

I got the Dremel version a couple months ago and like it. I should say that I have no previous experience to use in comparison. The blade dulled pretty quickly. Where should I get a good quality blade to fit the Dremel?

 

Thanks,