longezdave

Have you opened the containers Thomas? My understanding is that there is no reason to suspect the epoxy as "out of date" or lost any of its' properties if it has not been opened. This is from the C-A list from the glue guru. Can't remember his name right now (Gary???).

I once had an instructor in back and he landed my Long. I was nervous and had my hands ready to take over, but he actually did fine. I do have the strake windows in mine.

Email him at hertzler at yahoo dot com.

I have a Lightspeed prop on my Long. Klaus doesn't make them anymore.

I would recommend Gary Hertzler's Silver Bullet props. Everyone that I have talked to that has one, speaks highly of them. Gary is a great guy too and extremely knowledgeable about our planes.

I put mine in the lower aft baffle. There are a lot of folks that have done so. Before that I had oil temp troubles. I had the first cooler in the standard location on the left side of the lower cowl. That adds drag due to the air coming out of the cowl at the cooler outlet. It didn't cool well for me anyway. I put the second cooler behind that one with the oil flow in series. Still didn't cool well. I changed to one cooler in the lower aft baffle and now I have to block off some of the cooler to get reasonable temps. The most I have ever seen even with over a third of the cooler blocked off is 91C. I must mention that it is a large cooler. The air comes in the cowl and hugs the bottom and slams into the baffle and the cooler and you get a lot of flow through it. The bonus is that the air out of the cooler is just added to the cylinder cooling flow and does not require a draggy additional outlet.

There's stuff for the kids at RR. They have a mini golf course, swimming area with a beach (probably going to be a little cool for swimming), play ground area with sand and swings and stuff. Sometimes they have activities planned at the Lodge for kids - you'd have to check with the Lodge.

As for the best time for meeting people, planes, and rides - I'd say from Friday afternoon through Saturday night is prime time. EZ population will be dwindling rapidly by Sunday morning.

Electrical Engineer working for Ameren UE at the Labadie power plant, generating about 2500 MW of electricity.

(3) Was said, "For the areas that Burt has designated as critical structure, you want to make sure to use peel ply well (no gaps where it doesn't touch) and avoid the sanding." I don't agree. The peel ply is to keep layups from delaminating from the edges. At least it says so in my Cozy Chapter 3 education chapter, that is as far as I know an exact duplicate of the Long-EZ plans with the exception that the "CP" bucaneer has been whited out and relabled as the "CZ" bucaneer. The Rutan video backs this up too. The education chapter says to prep sand with larger grit sandpaper. The video uses 36-grit to prep sand a non-peel-plied area. And no, peel ply doesn't mean "don't have to sand." There are alot of experts in the field that say you MUST prep sand peel-plied areas before applying the next structural layup. There is at least one presentation on Marc's website that tells the reasons why.

 

Wayne,

On page 3-14 of the Long EZ plans, Burt states "Once the dacron is peeled off, the surface is ready for another layup, without sanding."

I do agree that it is better to lightly sand the area after the peel ply is removed, so I'm not arguing with you.

I also believe that Chris has it right that we need to get on with the building and flying and less picking of nits.

I'd suggest just sticking to the info in the education part of the plans. Page 3-12 says "To prepare a cured glass surface for layup, the cured surface must be sanded to a completely dull finish with 36 to 60 grit sandpaper. If any of the glossy surface remains, an incomplete bond results which is weak." Pardon me if you've recently read that and didn't need it re-stated. For the areas that Burt has designated as critical structure, you want to make sure to use peel ply well (no gaps where it doesn't touch) and avoid the sanding.

Hey neighbor! We need to get together soon Dick.

I have the D-10A in my Long and have been thinking about the Dynon AP also. I haven't broken the news to the wife just yet.

Did you see Al Holland's post on the C-A list Wednesday? He gave a two thumbs up report on the installation and flying of the AP although he is in the early stages of flying with it.

He says - "The AP-74 completely unnecessary for autopilot usage, but it is cool to have instant access to AP". Since I'm a dummy when it comes to APs, I don't understand that statement.

I had wondered the same thing about the pitch servo installation.

Here is a thread on the installation in a Velocity - http://dynonavionics.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1225913737

Rick,

Sorry to hear that you are selling, but understand that you have to do what is best for you. I will miss seeing you at the races and having a fellow Long EZ driver among all those RVs. It is a sweet bird.

I wish I could tell all that I had precicely tested before and after my changes (suggested by Klaus) that I made per Klaus's suggestions and that I added X knots. The truth is that my uMonitor was giving me incorrect CHT data (I built it - my bad) in the early days. With the incorrect data, I never made any meaningful performance tests because I thought that any performance tests would be over-temping my engine due to inadequate cooling. Therefore, I never "pushed" my engine until after my rebuild, circa 2008 that included checking the calibration of my CHTs on the uMonitor. I found that the uMonitor was off significantly and I made resistor changes on the uMonitor to correct the callibration. My check of CHT callibration was done by putting one of my CHT probes in oil. The CHT probe was wired (mechanically/thermally) to an RTD probe (recently calibrated) and placed in oil that was heated by a torch. That was how the descrapancy was found and corrected. It was only after correcting the CHT indication on my uMonitor that I was willing/able to push my engine. Right or wrong, since correcting the uMonitor error, I have entered five races. During those races I have pushed my Long/engine as far as it can be pushed and have done well - http://www.sportairrace.org/id257.html including my best race speed of over 204 MPH. I hope that running at about 374 F on the cold side (updraft cooling) has not caused rapid cylinder wear.

I was at Oshkosh in 1999 and ran into Klaus. I struck up a conversation that ended up at my Long EZ. He was a bit interested, since I told him that I had bought my EI and prop from him. I asked if he had any advice for me. He mentioned the cut-outs that I had made in my cowl on both sides above the cylinders. He said the air coming up out of the vents would be somewhat like two 2 x 4s (boards) sticking out of the cowl. The high speed air comes along and slaps into the low speed air spouts at the vents and would cause a lot of drag. The other thing he mentioned was the clearance between the back of my cowl and the prop. He explained about the wave in front of the prop slapping the back of the cowl. He didn't mention anything relative to cooling, but did mention opening the clearance would reduce cockpit noise level and help prop efficiency. I grabbed a pencil and asked him to make a mark where it should be cut. He didn't want to mark on my cowl. I got him to show me where and I marked it. I sealed the vents up and cut the cowl to the mark on both sides as soon as I got home.

I hope that working out the bugs doesn't take too long and you get back to having fun with your creation! That's what it's all about. I look forward to meeting you at future EZ events.

I'll be there if at all possible. It's one of my favorite events of the year.

First of all, best wishes on your new endeavor.

I don't intend to discourage you from the "American Dream". I just want to present my experience.

I had flown my Long EZ for over 500 hours and life was good. I thought that life could be better and I started my own business in 2000 (first flight of my Long was in June, 1995).

Years later, I got my Long flying again (June 2008) and that was after selling the business that I had started to make room for my "American Dream" at the expensive of flying my Long EZ.

When I started the business, there was no discouraging me, just like none could discourage me from building the Long in the begining of the construction in 1984.

My point is that, I built my Long EZ and got it flying, took time off from it to pursue my own business, and my business required so much from me that I didn't get my Long back in the air and enjoy it while I was running my own business.

I sold my business in the last of 2006 and got my Long in the air again in June, 2008. I started racking up the hours (enjoying my Long) and then started racing in October, 2008. I am now the Sprint Class leader in the Sport Air Racing League - http://www.sportairrace.org/id258.html

My whole point of this response, other than bragging, is that even though it seems like the right thing to do to start your own business, sometimes it is a bad move and you would enjoy life more if you don't start your own business.

Dave

I'm with Lynn on this. You want to use micro on the foam that is as thick as practical to spread and work with. I think that the Rutan video used thinner slurry to show how quick and easy the composite construction is.

Van's sells prefab NACA inlets for cockpit ventilation. I used one for my passenger compartment -

http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?ident=1245805475-118-618&browse=heatvent&product=ventilation-components

I don't currently have any ballast, but I may need to add ten lbs in the nose to pull the CG forward an inch (currently at 104.5)

 

Waiter

Have you done something in your mods to change the aft CG limit?

I don't see how it could keep from reducing your range. Is the Berkut speed brake made from CF?

My stock speed brake is holding up well. I did incorporate the changes as outlined in the CPs. Seems like you should just go stock, although strength and stiffness impovements are what the CP changes were intended to improve.

You are about 1.5 hours SE of me. I'd like to get in on the action of a new Long hatching, if something may happen Monday and I can be of any help. Is there anything I may be able to do for you Monday? Do you expect high speed taxi testing?

Rich,

Welcome to the fold. You have come to one of the places that you can get the info that you need. Be specific about the help you need and I'm sure you will get it.

Dave

The problem I see with that is the resulting increase in humidity and the associated problems (fogging, condensation & frost).

I would not think it would take much to heat a styrofoam box.

TMann,

You won't be adding moisture to the cockpit (unless you spring a coolant leak ), so you won't be increasing the humidity in the cockpit. Since the absolute moisture content of the air inside and outside of the cockpit should be the same (except for respiration or other sources of moisture), your relative humidity inside the cockpit will be lower with the elevated temperature from your heater.

It doesn't take much to heat the styrofoam box if you (mostly) seal the leaks.

Dave

What is the mimimum temperature needed to do the layup initially if you use a warm box to store the epoxy and then cover the layup after with a heater?

Beyond just warming the epoxy before and the layup after, it is important to have the layup warm while you are wetting out the cloth and using the squeegee. You can use a hair dryer or heat gun to help during these phases, but it's best to have a warm shop.

The garage is already insulated and all utilities are easy to get to. I just might have to get a heater and have at it.

That's the direction to go - warm shop. As a rule, the warmer the shop, the lighter the aircraft.

Some of the things that you have said lead me to believe that your slurry is too thin. I recommend mixing in enough balloons to make it where it will not pour easily out of your mixing cup. When you get it on the foam, it won't tend to run off. It would be better if you need a little heat to get it to spread around. This will keep it from running off and getting on the other side and you will be building a lighter part. Mix it up as thick as you can practically spread it around and fill the pores of the foam.