Hangar Flying

Charles,

"Concensus"? from a group of homebuilders!

There is a rule of thumb that anything more than a 7 degree angle of slope promotes seperation of the airflow if no steps are taken to prevent it (such as VG's).

The aft end of an Ez type is very draggy with the blunt cowl and I believe the boat tail helps to smooth the airflow back there by getting rid of that big angle on the bottom rear of the cowl. I think they look pretty good myself. Just wish I had the energy to implement one myself on my Goose. Done from the start I think you could do one with no weight gain.

Gary Hertzler went another way by eliminating all but a small inlet bump for induction and starting his slope up way forward of the cowling. If you check the shape of the lower fuselage aft of the speed brake the original plans angle is.... approx. 7 degrees!

Not being an aerodynamasis or any other kind of "sis" this is my own conjecture taken from years of interpreting this aeronautical stuff. So your experience may vary.

Look on the web and you should be able to find a downloadable copy of AC20-27. This advisory circular has an appendix 10 that has a good checklist of items during construction FAA form 8000-38.

BTW I do not have a paragraph ref. but somewhere in AC20 or AC21 It read that the above form could be used by the inspector to final inspect the plane for certification. And that it would be used to determine elegibility for the 51% rule.

Dan had a good idea about checking off each page. Don't forget to add in ALL the drawing changes that have come out over the years, Add them right onto the relevent page.

< Sucessfully taxi tested yesterday!!>

Congratulations, one more big step down toward flying your bird.

<My question is,does anybody out in cyberspace have a POH and a cockpit checklist for a 0-320 e2a powered Long EZ?>

Procedures should be the same as O-235 models, just modify power settings (red lines and restricted ranges) for the  engine you are using.

<  After the initial taxi test one thing was noted-The Brakes SUCK-I have Cleveland brakes with stainless rotors-fire wall mounted master cylinders,poly flo brake lines(PLASTIC).>

With a 20+ yr. project yours might have the original light duty brakes, if so there are kits out there from Cleveland to change to a thicker disc which helps. I changed early on to the thicker disc setup and had a dramatic increase in effectivness.

<Several EZ pilots tell me the initial break-in (no pun intended)period one needs to put a lot of heat into the system to break in the pads and to condition the rotors,by dragging the brakes at relatively high speed,for a relativly long distance to get the system to work up to its potential-anyone out there have any experience in this area?>

Don't know about the above process but the one that came with my brakes suggested a process of low speed with brakes on for a couple of 100ft stop and let cool for several minutes then repeat several times. This was suppose to post cure the pads without glazing them. Your results may vary!

<Also it was put to me that I should wrap "fiberfrax-heat barrier) around the bottom of the gear legs (the axel and brake caliper area) to protect from extreme heat generated by the brake components.>

Absolutely

<Also, if heat is such an issue, then it seems that the poly flow brake lines
would be suject to failure-any input would be appreciated!!


THANKS,
MIKE BISETTI
(N106NC O320 E2A)>


Don't know about Poy flow tubing my experience is that Nylo-seal is what should be used for brake lines.

My experience was on a windy day with long xwind taxi luckily the tubing failed just as I came to a stop. The entire caliper heated up to the point that the tubing softened and failed right at the fitting into the caliper.

The fix was adding a short stainless steel braided hose from "Earls Performance Products" with standard 37 degree fittings on the caliper to a small adapter block just short of the  gear leg faring.

Well, heat rises!

If you have exhaust vents on the top of your cowl this will minimize that condition. But there has been discussion about increased drag from them in flight. For me they help inflight cooling by aiding airflow out of the exhaust end of the cowl.

I have seen, on a tractor type plane (glassair) one that the owner had installed some hinged doors that hung down open when the plane was not moving but when pressurized in flight were pushed closed but I don't know if that would work in our situation.

My CHT's are showing normal for all modes of taxi and flight.  However, during my post flight walk around my cowling is really hot.  Almost to the point where you can not keep your hand on it.  Is this normal after engine shutdown?

Thanks

Kilo42

Hi Charles,

Looks like you have answered your own question on the tire size.

As far as finished weight, I will be quite impressed if you come in under 950lbs with an all up O-320 and nose lift system.

A Long Eze under 900lbs. is light.

500x5 or 500x4 ?

It looks like most LongEZ's use 500x4 as the tires are cheaper and you pick up about 3 kts.

I plan to fly only off of good paved strips.  My Long EZ will have an IO-320 and will not be light (probably 875 to 900 lbs estimated).

Charles,

This e-mag p-mag product does look like a wonderful solution and it may turn out to be a cure-all item.

But!

Just be aware that this is a new product that has been out to the public for less than a year with not that many units and hours out in use. I also know that there have been some problems crop up. The company is responding positively to input so I am sure all will work out.

BTW check your clearances as I understand that the "P" unit is long enough to be a tight fit to the firewall. Although it does have an advantage in that part of it can be relocated off the unit to help this

Thanks for the lead on E-Mag.

Their P-Mag has a built in miniature alternator that takes over in case you have an electical failure.  

It seems you could safely run two of these and do away with the magneto backup.

It also installs in the conventional magneto space, which makes for a very clean installation.  

This looks like an awesome solution.

Hi Charles,

I am of the "one of each" camp on this. I have been running an Electromotive solid state ignition system on the lower plugs for the last 11 years with no problems. I also have a Slick mag running the upper plugs.

While running two SSI would provide some added performance I don't think the small gain from the already efficient single, would outweigh the benefit of having two totally seperate and different systems in place for redundancy.

Also some of the systems I have heard of, running dual SSI, create dual battery and in some cases dual charging systems. to ensure redundancy. This can contribute to weight gain and increased complexity of systems and operation, while one of each provides that redundancy with no weight penalty.

As an aside I know of one Lancair owner who had a runaway alternator who fried most of the electronics in his panel along with his SSI part of that was a bad circuit design. Fortunately that happened while he was on the ground.

I have had an alternator failure and still completed a 3 hour flight home with no problem running radios and the SSI, monitoring battery voltage along the way.

I would also recommend to anyone considering electronic ignition to read all sections of the CAFE report on SSI as mentioned in this thread. This is must read info! I also believe the report supports the use of SSI and that it is not just an expensive add-on. Also I might be wrong but I don't believe most of the commercially available systems are "cockpit adjustable".