flyingclay

here are a few more pics with Marlon Gunderson's MK III

I haven't been on this page much so I thought I would add some of my 6 summer build of my Cozy MKIV I now have 6.2 hrs of flight time and hope to fly off the Phase one testing this spring.

Nice job, looks great.

I have a brand new set of cleveland wheels, brakes, master cylinders, and axels for a cozy MKIV they are part number 199-152 and are over 2400.00 and I would like to sell these for 1800.00 or trade for a garmin or Icom nav/com radio of similar value. Please let me know if you are interested and you can email me at leslaidlaw@hotmail.com

Looks great, you want to com to MN and rig mine????????

I do not have any pics now. I will post some soon. If you look up Bulent Aleive (SP) he did it first and I like the look but it is wider at the seat back. If you haven't made the turtleback and want to go this way it would be easier than what I did, cutting the finished turtle back down the middle and adding a wedge. I just finished glassing my elevators and I will finish with the install of the aluminum attach points tomorrow. I also just glassed the outside of my winglets and got the foam brackets glassed on the inside for the installation of the canopy. I will hopefully finish the upper winglets tomorrow and get the turtle back finished as well.

I just had to redo my turtle back, I am putting a lancair canopy instead of the standard similar to what Buly did with his, it is six inches wider at the seat back and tapers to the standard firewall. I like the look and it also gives a lot more headroom without adding height. I cut my wings over the winter and am planning on starting to assemble them soon. I hope to have my fiberglassing done by the end of summer as I teach and it gets really cold here in the winter. I also have my cowls and molds for them, if you want to make a pull off of them you are welcome. Are you going to oshkosh this year? I am about 6 hours drive west and you can make your cowls.

Nice work. I have been jumping around chapters with mine and you are doing it right. Looks great.

I wasn't aware of this. I guess I will put it in front of the pedals. Thanks for the advise.

I am going to put nav in the wing and com in the winglet and also just the canard for two antennae. I checked out what RST had on their diagram for the cozy I think I will have too many antennae but better than not enough. I was thinking about putting the transponder antennae in the wing tip and using the lower and upper winglet fro the antennae and the group plane lengthwise. Does the ground plane for the xponder need to be a circle or is that just to make it the right size?

and some more

Here are some more

Here are a few pics I will keep uploading pics as well, I am trying to remember the order so there might be some out of place

I have as Facebook page with the Pics. Cozy Build log is the name for the page. I do not have any pics of the canard or the wings but when it warms up I will get them taken. I was cutting out the wings at the university after teaching using the community templates that Charles put together and are circulating through the builders. They work great and gave me the confidence to start cutting. I made my own wood templates but decided to go this route because of the importance of the main wing. I am glad I did it this way because of the template that might not be exact after putting the piece to the plans together. I was able to photocopy the canard template and it came out great but it also fit on one page and matched exactly to the M-Drawings.

I have my wings and winglets cut out and am working on some things that I can do while it is still cold here in MN. I made a mold for the fuel strake leading edge and working on a canopy latch design for a forward hinge canopy. Before it got cold I was able to get my canard cut out and glassed on the bottom and it has been sitting jigged up on my work table ready for warm weather to finish the top. I still need to install the foam for the hinge attach point for the elevator and install the antennae. I still need to buy a bubble so I can finish the canopy and also the electric nose gear retract so I can finish the nose. If anyone has a line on a stalled project or someone parting one out I would be interested in purchasing these two items. I have been stalling on buying new in case I could find one used. I purchase cowls and I have the leather for the interior but that is still a long way off. Any tip or hints on wings, strakes, or finishing is always appreciated, I hope to have all my glassing done by Oshkosh. Ill keep you updated when I am able to get back at it.

I got the landing gear installed and removing the bushing and filing down the tube worked great. I still have to install the axels and wheels, brakes. I am kind of worried about this portion and do not want to mess it up. I have to get the Dragonfly out of the hanger so I can have the space to do the measurements. I have just about finished the turtle back and have the windows installed. I did the cozy girl strake "kit" and laid up the two large pieces of pvc foam and glassed both sides with the low vac system. I have yet to cut the parts out because that chapter is still aways down the road. I posted that I am in need of a front electric retract system and also a canopy. If you know a project that is being parted out or sold I would be interested in either of these items. Thanks again for all the advice and support.

I am looking for an electric nose gear retract assembly. I am building a MKiv so it needs to be able to handle the 400Lb front passenger. I also need the canopy. I have the glass installed in the turtleback but I do not have the main canopy. Any help with either of these would be greatly appreciated. Les

Kent, that sounds like a great idea. I think I might try this. I didn't even think about this but it sounds like the best solution. thanks for getting back so soon.

Back at it and have another problem. I have my main gear finished and installed mg1 and 2 and drilled out the 5/8 holes for the stainless steel bushing and went to fit the gear and one side is too tight. I took out one bushing and put it back in backwards and it fit perfectly. I checked my distance from f-22 and they were both exactly the same. What should I do? Should I flox them in the right way and flox one in backwards? Would this have much affect on the gear? I could machine MG-2 down on one side and that would give the bushing enough room? I could machine the end of both front and rear SS bushing and that would give enough room for the gear but would change my measurements? The easiest is to put it in backwards, flox it and let it cure. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Les

Andrew, Thanks for the advice. I have already got the gear legs done. I used oversized straws for the brake line tube. I did not glass them to a point, because I am going to fair the legs with foam. I got the attach tabs installed and the reinforcement in the bulkheads added. I am in the process of getting my seat belt attach points added. How large should the plywood seatbelt reinforcements be? I am not using the plans step, but am going to have a retractable step. I need to get a landing brake motor so I can finish the layups on the fuselage inside the landing brake. I am getting ready to start the canard and am a bit nervous but I think it will be ok. I was nervous about all the steps to make the gear attach point and after doing it is wasn't as bad as I thought it would and I hope the canard will be the same. It is a fun project. I wish it was faster.

I looked up the hinge and saw that others are using the full length hinge and so that is what I did. At first I cut out the floor with a saber saw with the short hinge as the plans shows, and I didn't like how it worked out so I rigged up a piece of Pink insulation foam at a 45 degree angle and used it to smooth out the edges and cut another brake out to match the new hole in the floor with a longer hinge. I now have a 23 inch board cut at 45 for the hinge placement and I am going to cut the bolt lugs out of the 1/4 inch aluminum. I am not sure how many to cut but I think 8 should do over the length of the hinge. I also cut a larger piece of plywood that will be used for the lowering mechanism. I think it is a bit heavy and planning to put lightening holes in the wood and filling them with foam plugs before glassing. This way I get a larger hard surface and also keep it a bit lighter than using smaller piece of wood, but get more strength from the wood. It is going to be warmer here today and I should be able to do some glassing so I am going to glass the first for on the landing gear. I do not have the straws yet but will stop and try to find them today or tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply. I could not do any glass today because it was too cold. I did sand the gear legs with the belt sander and also cut the uni for the layups. I cut out the landing brake and fabricated the wood parts and will be ready to do the lay ups when it warms up again. Andrew, I will do what you suggested. I will probably leave the side that is wrapped and not wrap the other but will do the bottom. I hope I will not have to do repairs in the future, but I probably will. I am glad that almost everything is repairable but I would rather have it right the first time. I still have it on the rotisserie and have not got to sit in it yet. It will come. Thanks again,

Kent, The plans say, in Step 3: Glassing the Bottom, "The bottom layup should extend down one inch onto F-22 the landing gear bulkhead and firewall." I thought it also had the same for the sides, but I can not find it. I did glass one side but not the bottom as quoted. Should I not worry about the other side and just glass the bottom lip of F-22? Is the bottom more important than the sides? This is where the canard attaches and I think a little extra would not hurt but I am not an engineer. It is all peel plied and it would not take much to add the tapes and peel ply, it would be a mechanical bond but would still be stronger than not adding anything. What do you think? I was able to get the plies to lay down and extend further on the landing gear bulkhead and firewall so I know that is strong but the canard is what is holding me up in the front of the plane and I do not want that to fail. Thanks again for all the help.

I have got the exterior glassed, I wasn't able to get the glass to bend around f22 on the bottom and the right side. I think I might add two bid tapes that will fit in the depression for the front cone. I do not think this will fill the area and I should still be able to add the glass that will fit and give me the strength on f22. I rounded over the left side a bit more and was able to get it to lay down without bubbles. I will round these other edges a bit more before glass taping and hopefully not get the bubbles under the glass. Does this sound like a reasonable fix? I will wait to hear if this should work or if I should try matching this with the same amount of uni that was on the bottom and sides. Should I use three layers of bid on the side and two on the bottom? Any and all info would be greatly appreciated. I am looking forward to being able to sit inside the fuselage and make plane noises. Thanks in advance, Les