Hangar Flying

You should do the right thing no matter how the buyer acts.  If you don't then essentially everything he said actually comes true.

Lack of time and lack of building experience...

I can understand this----I have bought 2 canard airplanes myself.  But keep this in mind...

If you are really saying that you would rather fly now than wait 5 or more years-----I can understand.  However, don't think you can buy one of these planes and treat it like a car.  It is not.  You don't purchase an experimental airplane----it is a lifstyle.  You will need the plans and all of the canard pusher newsletters----and you need to get familiar with them.  You will also need to belong to Central States Association.  And if you don't have building skills (like most of us when we started), you will soon.

Experimental planes need to be cared for----and it will take time to do this.  You will break something----and you will need to fix it.  You will at sometime want to modify something----and you will do it.  But you can't do those things without the plans.  And getting people to work on these unique planes will be quite hard unless you have lots of cash.

Embarassingly enough, I had to learn to fix my plane after my first solo flight.  Prior to the flight, I did not crank the gear all the way down against the overcenter lock.  It felt weird taxiing---but could not figure out why.  Then the nose fell all the way to the ground and sheared the teeth off the round worm gear mechanism.  I had read all the newsletters prior to me buying the airplane---and knew what I had done----and knew what I had to do to fix it.  The temporary fix was to turn the worm gear mechanism 180 degrees (to use the normally unused gear teeth).  However, I did not know much about the nose gear structure----so I pulled out the plans, studied them, and charted a course of action.  I later ordered a new round gear from Brock and replaced the original.

I have owned a Longez since 1999----and sold it this year.  Bought my Cozy in April.  I would consider my Cozy in very good condition---way better than my Longez when I bought it.  But even with a Cozy in very good condition, since April,
-installed a solid state turn coord and ILS (this caused me to have to do a fiberglass job on one of the fresh air inlets---one of the gauges would not install due to the vent being in the way----moved the vent)
-got rid of the standup master cylinders (anybody want to buy some---I have 4?) and replaced with the laydown kind
-replaced the brake lines (leaking)
-removed the plans built heater valve (it leaked and could not fix it---pumped hot air into the cockpit in the summer---too hot) and bought a standard heat valve from spruce---works great---involve adding another push pull cable (2 control cables to the heat valve).  This also involved making some new fuel lines to clear the valve
-the builder had a fuel line cutting thru a fiberglass baffle on the lower cowl.  I thought the line got in the way of cooling---and made the cowl hard to get off.  Made another fuel line and rerouted
-lots of plugging major and minor holes in the baffling
-removed lots of brittle plastic clamp in engine bay---replaced with adel clamps
-removed a restrictive breather system---and replaced with the correct size
-electronic ignition wires worn----replaced
-lengthened the lower cowl baffles to "retune" cylinder cooling
-replaced the bracket that holds the nose gear to the spring (Steve Wright sells it)-----the builder cut it in half to install it---no right---putting the new one on involved some fiberglass work on the nose gear cover (maybe that is why he cut it in half)
-Will be installing a EFIS Lite as soon as it gets here

Like I said, the above list is just from April---some of the items were required and some were desired.  And keep in mind that that was work on what I would call a very good airplane----and I knew what I was buying

The bottom line is---I love these planes.  I invest just about every weekend flying or fixing.  Experimental aviation is not just about flying----it is about working on these great machines.

I am not trying to warn you off.  But you really have to ask yourself a couple of questions.
-Do you have the time to invest about learning about these machines---and working on them?
-Do you have the desire to learn the required skills to do these tasks?

If the answer is "yes", then you are good to go (I don't even care what your current skill set is---the desire is what is required).  If not, you should reconsider.

Also, these machines (all piston powered aircraft) like to be flown weekly----they rust if they sit.  If you don't have the time to fly weekly, you may want to consider renting only----or getting a partner.

My plane is currently down for the winter.  I will be winterizing the engine this weekend.  In between flights during my "flying season" I pump dry air into the breather to keep moisture from forming.

Harry,
I think that she was just trying to make sense of the information that is within the NTSB preliminary.  And to tell you the truth----there is not much there.  As a comparison (on the other side of the scale) take a look at the NTSB on John Denver's crash-----that's probably the longest one I have ever read for a small airplane!  Any more detail that you can provide?  Or with your involvement are you not allowed to say?

I was speculating on the poor judgement----what was the bad luck?

Noel,
That is a pretty accurate description of fitting in the back even for a small guy like me.

I would challange any Mooney or Cessna 182/172/152 driver on who has more room and comfort in the front seat compared to my Longez.

The reclined position is very comfortable.  I can stick both elbows out as far as I can and not touch anything (elbows go in the strakes).  Longez passengers can't really stick their elbows into the strakes because the strake hole is a little too far forward.

In the front seat there is lots of room.  There is plenty of hip room and elbow room to the sides of the fuselage.  And in the front seat, you can put your elbows in the strakes.  No problem with headroom either.  You need to add or subtract cusion to make sure that you are at the correct height.  You can wear a baseball hat with no problem.

In the Cozy, the elbow room is less.  The left strake does not hit the fuselage at the same "geometry" as the Longez---and is pretty much not available to put your elbow in.  On your right side, you have a passenger sitting there----so you can't stretch your elbow there eigher.  I always wear a baseball hat when flying to shade my eyes----and in the Cozy, it is hard to look left because the bill of the hat hits the canopy.  Of course you can look left---but you sort of have to move your head right to look left---to keep from bumping the bill.

I was more comfortable-----and probably had more fun in my Longez.  However, my passengers have more fun in the Cozy----and the Cozy is a more practical airplane.

I also used the one from Aircraft Spruce.  If you look on my website, you will seea picture of it in the open and closed position.

For mounting on the headrest, I made the bracket out of an angle extrusion.  Cut the out the outer layer of glass on the headrest (same footprint as the angle extrusion).  Removed the interior foam down to the next glass face.  Layed the bracket in the hole with a bed of flox---and I think that I reglassed over the top of it.

For placement on the headrest, I adjusted it so that I got the open angle that I was looking for and had some "down force" in the closed position.

The first angle extrusion that I used for a cross brace was too light and the spring really twisted the crap out of it (did not break or permanently deform----but did not "look" good).  So I dug out the first one and put in the more beefier one that you see in the pictures.

I think that I have seen some carb heats that are electric.  I have seen many insist on monitoring the carb throat temperature.  Once it gets into the icing range, they apply carb heat whether they notice the oncoming effects or not.  I am not an expert at either one of these----having flown with neither----and currently have fuel injection.

Yep, can't use the old extrusions as jigs.  If you try to nestle them, the holes won't match----you would have figured that out though when you tried it.

Many people say that you don't have to do the bottom ones.  I did not---but probably safer to do it.  The hard part is that the lower extrusions are behind the sumps.  This would be a good time to do some aero-cleanup.  Here you can remove the sumps and bring them inside.  Waiter shows some of this on his site under "April 2005".  My cozy has 2 internal sumps (left/right) which are underneath/behind the armrests.  I can't tell if Waiter's is a common or split sump.  It appears that he has a split sump (looking at the foam sump before glass but can't quite tell).  I think a common sump is ok just as long as you can isolate.  I think it is bad news if you cannot isolate.  You will hear people argue both ways.