Beastus_Maximus

Waiter, I am thoroughly impressed, I had talked with you a little bit before you started the whole ordeal last summer, and it looks to me like you have hit a home run. I cant wait to see it with the cowlings on and hear the report on the first flight. Bravo Zulu to you sir!

like say a motor cycle throttle...

Awesome man, that would be great, I will PM you my phone #

Could be worse, in corpus on certain days you can swim in it.

Hey everyone, I have been on the site for about a year now, I was planning on starting a build last fall but I got laid off from my job, now I am back in the saddle again, hoping to be able to get back on track following my dream of building a Long Ez. I do have one problem however, it has been a decade since I have sat in one, and I have grown considerably since that time, I need to find some one in south Texas who has a Long Ez that I can sit in to see if I fit so I can determine if I will need to widen the fuselage any. I am about 18 miles west of Corpus Christi, if anyone has or knows of some one who has a LEZ in my area, please let me know. - Nick

nor should you use said tube when flying low over high voltage wires.

sounds like fun. I will keep it in mind. and yes, I am totally trying to figure out what it is exactly I want to do right now. Getting there slowly but surly.

The one thing I do see that Blue mountain has going for them, is all of thier Efis work as an engine monitor as well, Dynon doesnt, well they have one model that does, but when it comes to double redundancy the Blue mountain or aspen has em whooped.

I will check him out, and yes, it will cost a bunch of money to run that setup, but the upside is, I can get it a piece at a time verses having to buy the whole kit and kaboodle in one shot...

I hear you there, if everything goes right and I get through the pipe dream stages of doing what I am doing here and get into making it a reality it will be after the first of the year at the soonest before I can start working on it, so I am speculating that there will be many a good toy that comes out between now and then, it seems like they are making leaps and bounds. I like the size of the Aspen system, I was thinking 3 of em would fill up a Long Ez panel nicely. Before I set anything in stone, I am going to get out there and actually see the stuff, I am going to get involved with the EAA here, and hopefully next year I can hitch a ride to Oshkosh or fun in the sun and check all this stuff out hands on. Then make up my mind as to what will be getting installed.

The E racer is based off a Cozy with no back seat basicly isnt it? I wonder how the cabin width effected your top speed and fuel economy? I have always wanted to build an E-racer with the chevy small block as they were designed, but from what I understand that isnt the best combination.

Those are some very good points, thinking about it, I think my best bet would be to find some one who has Berkut plans, and get a set of copies, then build my wing and canard to berkut specs seeing as how it is designed for that powerplant combination. Then use the EZ canopy, and seating ect, I think the lower fusalage is pretty similar, and I do have a different engine cowling in mind than the stock EZ any how.

Well, the plan is evolving, I finally got a price for the G600 today, they want 30 grand! so... ASPEN AVIONICS HERE I COME!!!

Definitely, I got one plate in my head already , I don't need another! If it comes down to making major modifications like that, I will definitely seek out the assistance of some one who is well qualified in such things.

Heh, one time we got a guy to sick his hand under the yellow contrail tube told him we needed him to stick his hand under there so we could purge the condenser on the radar to see if any water came out. "Yeah guys, lots of water coming out, its warm too..."

Thats right, I shall go to the gym, I will spend eons there pumping iron and eating protein by the barrel, I shall surround myself with a wall of VASCULAR STEEL! mua ha ha ha.... Ok, Zipping right back to reality... I definitely see where you are coming from, I think if I do this I am probably going to have to stretch the fuselage, and move the cabin forward. This would be much simpler if Berkut was still building kits....

Hopefully at or around the first of the year Thinking of calling it the "Super Long Ez" heh a "SLEZ"

I have been looking around at engines for sale, I have found more than a few Continental IO-470-L's and IO-550-B's Initially I was planning on going with a IO-360, but all the ones I keep finding for sale have been involved in a prop strike for some strange reason. In comparison, I know that we are talking two heavier 6 cylinder engines verses a lighter 4 banger. I also know that they will both burn more fuel. The specs for the IO-470-L put it at 260 HP weighing 411 lbs. It is 43.17 inches long, 33.56 Wide, and 19.75 inches tall. The specs for the IO-550-B put it at 300 HP weighing 406 Lbs. It is 37.97 inches long, 33.56 inches wide, and 27.32 inches tall. The specs for the IO-360 put it at 200 HP, 300 lbs. It is 29.81 inches long, 32.24 inches wide, 22.99 inches tall. So a minimum gain of 60 horsepower, maximum of 100 would add at the most 111 lbs to the aircraft. The shortest configuration is the IO-550-B, Ironically it is also the lighter and more powerful of the two. I am planning on building using the Infinity retractable gear Which according to them will allow you to run a 72" prop. My concept is a extended nose Long Ez, with the IO-550-B and a 72" 3 blade prop. This would make for a 300 HP constant that based on my estimates on articles that I have read would get on down the way at about 15.6 GPH at high cruse, and 13.9 rolled back for some economy. Those are the numbers AOPA posts for a 206 with a IO-550 conversion. So conceivably these would be the worst case numbers. Also, to help with the weight and balance issues, I am 265 lbs in my skivvies, I will always inhabit the front seat, if you figure in my weight over what a standard FAA 170 pounder is which I am assuming is what the aircraft was designed around, it would put an additional 95 LBS of *ahem* ballast in the front. If I figure in a max weight for 110 lbs for the GIB, I am figuring this will make the total weight added to the "design" less the added weight for the lengthening of the fuselage about 141 lbs with both seats occupied for a gain of 100 horse power! I am thinking it is doable because with the Berkut the option to run a IO-540 Lycoming was offered, which actually weighs depending on the model 25-41 lbs more than the Continental. Also in my research comparing a LEZ to a Berkut, it appears to me that the main differences are fuselage construction, the Berkut is molded, the LEZ is one off fiberglass over carved foam. The Berkut uses the Roncz 1145MS Airfoil made from carbon fiber, and the wing is a LEZ wing with a straightened trailing edge, a enlarged aileron and is constructed out of carbon fiber. From what I have found searching around, it has been claimed that a Berkut with the IO-540 in level flight under the right circumstances will hit 300+ MPH. In comparison the Berkut has a larger canopy, and it would appear a larger fuselage profile than the LEZ, I am considering that with the 300 hp engine, and all of the other aforementioned mods, along with the shorter Long Ez canopy, I could potentially have an aircraft that would Cruise at 240-250 knots. Assuming I could pull 240 Knots out of it, with 55 gallons of usable fuel on board, Consuming 13.9 per hour, that would give a range of 828 NM, and would get there in just under 3.5 hours! This is with a 30 minute reserve. If I could extend the fuel capacity to 74 Gallons, as with the Berkut this would pump that range up to 1156 NM, and get there in 4.82 hours, again with a 30 minute reserve. So wanting to see how this works out on a map, I made one with my 3 major centers of opperation, Corpus Christi, Tx, Livingston, Mt, and Lancaster, Ca. I am thinking it would be a pretty outstanding bird if it all came to fruition. What do you all think?

When I was in the Navy, if you were a new guy in the squadron, we got you to go test the sound powered phone in the aircraft....

Sent you a PM

Jack, first of all, let me say that is some damned outstanding flying on your part getting a flaming aircraft down onto the runway and getting out safe. It is something we can all throw in the face of the nay sayers who bring up John Denver and the fact that "you cant just pull an airplane over to the side of the road" I think that your case goes a long ways to show that experimental aircraft, with a properly trained pilot at the controls are safer than many would like to speculate. Granted it was an awful close shave, but you made it through. As a future Long EZ builder, I would really like to thank you for being so honest and upfront with people here about what happened, it has provided me miles of insight on things I need to think about in my own build. I am sure that there are many of us here who are going to benefit from the lessons learned here.

The bad news is.... your website is so not working right now

I have had a lot of luck using these little guys, they are a 3 bulb led, and they go for about 10.00 each, they run on 12V. Used em in my Semi to light up the cab, worked great. I love em. They are cheap and easy to install. Somthing else you can do with them, is take some 10 gau aluminum, and a hole saw, cut out a 1.5" dia piece, then halv it, drill holes the same distance as the mounts on the light, and screw it in over the top of it, and it gives you a great directed light baffle. http://www.maxxima.com/LCL-3-CL-specs.html

One more quick thing to add to this, next semester in school I am taking auto cad courses, a little closer to the end of the year if you want a hand redesigning the cockpit to fit let me know. I live in corpus and would be more than happy to help you put together a plan that actually has some prints to go with it. I am also a welder, and working on becoming a Machinist, and I have a decent amount of experience doing fiberglass.

I know exactly where you are coming from, I am 6'1 265 lbs, and fitting in a LEZ is going to be a tight squeeze, I am taking a different approach, when I start mine I am going to be building a plywood mockup of my cabin, then adjusting my plans as necessary. Somthing that occured to me with your size, why not make it a 3 seat? Seat yourself in the center in the front, give yourself a nice comfortable pilots seat, and then keep the dual seat configuration in the back so you can carry 2 passengers. Then you can configure your controls and everything exactly how you want them, even possibly put a right hand stick in the back seat. As well much like they do in some of the velocity models, you could make one of the seats in the back flip down and become a luggage rack where you could strap bags down. I would definitely mock up what ever you do first though, including setting your canopy on it to see how you are going to like the end result, the materials to do it aren't going to run more than 100 bucks, and it will be well worth it to know that you are going to be happy with the end product, as well if you get frustrated and need motivation you can jump in your mockup and make airplane noises... Just sayin..