I'm finally an owner!!!

[allen]

After several years of looking and one very bad experience with an unscrupulous seller I have finally bought my dream.

98' Long-Ez built by Douglas Small. I am the third owner. 264TT AF/E
O-320 160hp NA
Electric gear, speed break and trim.
No wheel pants right now since I'm still learning to fly her.
Cruise at 8.5 155kts @ 2500rpm.

Pictures to follow.

Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement after the San Diego fiasco. After flying home from Florida Sunday I was grateful that I did not give up my search. This message board was instrumental in helping me find a good bird and a wealth of information about the buying process.

Rough River here I come!

See you guys around the clouds.  :wink:

Allen  
N701DS

[allen]

Pictures

[allen]

One change I have made is the GPS. I bought a 396 for the XM weather feature. This feature has already paid for itself. On my way home I had to dodge around the Florida summer storms. This GPS allowed me to stay VFR with a wide margin of saftey.

Anybody want to buy a 196?

[Jeffco]

Congrats on your new bird, and I enjoy your stories on the web site.  I think we talked about selling my Long ez a while back. Turns out I sold out my partnership to my co owner, now I am having withdrawls. I also had my job transfered to Utah and it gets very cold here, I see you have discovered that with your report of flying while the cockpit was 7 degrees.  May look for another one with a good heater.  Keep up your flight reports.  I was thinking of writting something about selling and having a real craving to get back into another one.  Maybe I will, but it's a sad story.

Regards
Jeff G.
N141 former owner

[allen]

Jeffco,

   Thanks for the kind words about the website. It is nothing special when compared with what many others have up, but it allows the family to see what we are into here.

   After the proverbial kick in the teeth in California I avoided flying for some time. Thanks to many, many people who contacted me offline encouraging me to continue to get my plane (and fight the disingenuous SOB who went on to finally wreck the plane himself) I finally found one and pulled the trigger. As expected, I could not possibly be happier.

   One thing that really caught me off guard even after all these years of flying was the view from the pointy end of these planes! Absolutely indescribable. Ridding in the back can in no way prepare you for what it is really like when you finally fly it yourself.
MY Long-Ez and me will have a very long relationship as I cannot see any foreseeable reason why I would part with it. Minus a few avionics changes there is nothing I would really like to change.

   If you find yourself on this end of the country I would be honored to take you for a spin in it. My only regret is that its too cold to really fly more. My wife will be home on two weeks leave at the end of February and will take her first ride in it. Look for the update on the webpage.

   Again, Jeff, thanks for all the words of encouragement. I do hope that you find another canard soon.

 Take care.

[GlennBob]

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my cabin heater. I expect to be mighty toasty ! !   I live in the fridgid frozen tundra. (Wis).  I bought a second oil cooler and ran lines from the firewall. I got a blower from a boat supplier, (engine vent blower) all plastic, and rigged a hose going up the port side of the fuselage. The heater is under the forward side of the gib thigh support.  It dumps right near my feet in the front.  The rest of the bird isn't quite done yet so I don't know exactly how well it'll work, but with oil near 200 degrees, I'm thinkin' I'll be toasty !

If you'd like, I can send picks when I get home. I'm outta the country at the moment.

Glennbob

[easyrider]

The first picture shows brake master cylinders on the rudder pedals?
that is an interesting installation
Enjoy your new aircraft
Easyrider
LongEZ 93EZ

[Drew]

That is a mod that people have been doing for a long time.  Much better feel on the brakes.  All of the Cozys are set up in a similar way.  There are many different ways to actuate the brakes from the front.  This picture appears that he is using the "trombone method."  

Also see Berkut13's method:
http://www.berkut13.com/berkut26.htm

Also see Wayne's install:
http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/waynehicks/chapter_13_5.htm

[allen]

The builder had documented real problems with the brakes on this plane. The second owner rebuilt the entire brake system. He was located not far from the Velocity factory in Florida. He was decided that the system that they used on the Velocity was the way to go so he roughly followed their design with fantastic results. This is the only Long-Ez that I have been in the pointy end so I do not have anything to compare it to. However, the guy who pre-purchase test flew it said that “these brakes will throw you through the canopy.”

The only problem was with the routing of the brake line. At about 8k I noticed a slick feeling under my right foot. When I looked down I noticed that right where the line passes through that hole in the bottom of the photo it severed in two leaving me without a right brake. This was my first ever in flight emergency in any aircraft, and I had only owned the airplane a few hours.

I could not tell if I had any brake available on that side so I planned as if it was not available. St. Augustine was about 25 minutes ahead and had a very long runway. To this day it is still my best landing. I put the mains on the numbers and I stayed as far to the right side of the runway as I could figuring that I wanted to use that 150’ width to my advantage. Once I was tracking dead straight I allowed the plane to slow to the point that the rudders were ineffective. At the point I was committed to a full stop I shut down the motor and cut the fuel and coasted to a stop.

Both lines have now been rerouted. I am contemplating taking them out entirely and replacing them with hard lines.

[rglos]

Alen
I know what you mean by a sick feeling. I lost a brake line just on touchdown and used the rudders to steer between applying the brakes. I noticed that by pumping the effected brake I was able to get enough pressure to get some stopping action. When I pulled off the runway, the corrupted brake no longer worked.

I replaced the Nylon lines in the plans with Aeroquip hose.

The thing was to not panic.

Rick

[easyrider]

I have up front brake master cylinders based on the Debbie Iwatate sytem
which when hooked up to Grove wheels,brake calipers and discs give excellent braking. I lost a right brake after a heavy landing at Mojave, I think I went thru. wind shear, those desert winds can do strange things. I wasn't so lucky as you, I went off the left side of the runway and collected a large landing light.The first car on the scene brought Dick Rutan who was waiting to fly the X-Cor Rocket EZ to California City for the world record for distance for a rocket powered aircraft, later he did just that.The damage was a wrecked wheel pant and a bill from Kern County for a new landing light.The brake line had failed at the caliper, I have now replaced those plastic lines with a 5"" length of Stratoflex from the caliper to where the line goes into the gear leg. Mike Melville wrote a CP on replacing Nyloseal/ Nyloflex with Stratoflex for the entire system.The plastic lines suffer from U.V. degradation and need to be replaced every 5 years.
Easyrider
LongEZ 93EZ

[msm]

Hey Congrats in the new EZ!!! By the way you have a very nice site, the video is great :!:  :!:  :!:

Marcelo