Hangar Flying

The write up was in the Squadron III free email newletter the Beagle puts out.  Excerpts and minor editing below:

Excerpt...
...He was forced into an emergency landing at a small airport in Osceola, 70 miles north of Springfield. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

...believes the engine's air intake became blocked, causing the engine to quickly overheat and misfire. The problem was not related to biofuel because he had not used biofuel since leaving Kitty Hawk. Instead, he was using standard airplane fuel.

He chose not to attempt to land on Highway 13 because of traffic. The grass runway was obscured by a bank of trees. So he landed on the paved taxiway, in gusting winds, and quickly had to turn onto a grassy field to avoid a building. His plane slid, rode up a berm, lifted over a road and finally stopped, upside down, in a drainage ditch 25 feet from a home.

His comment follows:
“Accidental deployment of speed brake during moderate turbulence... front end of tornado warning which was not in effect upon take-off.  Everything works except right leg... can feel but not move. “ 
Beagle preaching – I’ve been cautioning people against electric speed brake as I saw Klaus abort a takeoff when his cb blew and the belly board was stuck down.   I don’t think a less observant pilot would see the circuit breaker out after putting the speed brake up for takeoff – and it makes me nervous.  If you could work in a 5 minute timer on extending it, maybe then I’d feel better…

However, Len confirms he was shocked to find the belly board down when he was landing after cooking his engine – blames thick gloves in cold front for making the switch mistake.  The manual speed brake solves all this by popping up at 100 mph or so and also stands up in the cockpit before takeoff – in the way of the throttle.  Sure Rutan discovered various things that needed to be done to protect the pilot’s back in the Long EZ.

End Excerpt


For the question on the switch----you can use any kind of switch that you want.  For my aircraft, the original builder located the switch next to the pitch trim where it could be easily bumped.  It was a 3 position switch with the middle position being off.  The speedbrake indicator was right next to the switch.  If you like to mess around with partial speedbrake positions, a locking lever is not a good idea.  With a manual system, you only have up or down----and I tend to like the all up or down.  The current switch position is on my Infinity stick.  It is momentary down, off in the middle, and clicks up for up.  The indicator is on my Dynon engine monitor which is on the passenger side of the aircraft (not ideal).  However, I only use the brake for landing----and very difficult to make the same mistake with the switch on the stick----as well as me being spring loaded to check speed brake position with any heating problems.

And of course, downdraft cooling or manual speedbrake (properly adjusted) totally fixes this problem.  All I have done is to mitigate it---which is ok.  The point is---it bit me---I got lucky (maybe a little skill---but don't want to kid myself too much).  It recently bit the BIO fuel Cozy driver----and he was not so lucky.  The thread was resurected to scare the crap out of people to make sure this is in their scan.  Something so simple can majorly ruin your day or worse yet, kill you.  Leaving the brake down WILL bring you out of the sky.  There was at least one instance where there was a speedbrake failure airborne (stuck down).  He put his brake partially down to quickly get through a layer (or maybe to keep his engine a little warm during a cold descent) but then could not retract.  Because of that incident, I only deploy when I am ready to land.

I noticed that the BIO Fuel Cozy more or less got destroyed due to the situation that happened to me as delineated in this thread.  The difference is that he noticed that his speedbrake was down after he destroyed the airplane.

Be cautious of the electric speedbrake.  Only use it when ready to land.  Make sure the switch is protected (mine is on the stick now).  AND----if you have any trouble with your engine---check to see that the speedbrake is up---and better yet, just thumb it up anyway.

Of course, if you have downdraft cooling, this is not a problem with either electric or manual speed brake.   

Go to this site:

http://www.cozygirrrl.com/aircraftparts.htm

You are looking for the Torque Tube Offset.  The problem with the Longez torque tube, is that the tube scribes an arc which requires a rather large hole.  The offset shifts everything so that it rotates only with no arc.  This is a standard Cozy part----and Cozygirrrls sell it for the Longez as an alternative part.



Here is the text---go to the site to see the picture:

MKNC-12A Left/1010 Torque Tube Offset, Left
Location: /Long-ez Alternative Parts/Chapter 11 Elevator Assy
Price: $160.00 (left and right required)
Product Information: 4130-N steel weldment. For Cozy & Long-Ez While not a "per plans" part in the Long-Ez, these parts solve the serious draft problem in the Long-Ez where the eccentric moving elevator torque tubes come through the fuselage walls. This is accomplished by shifting a portion of the mechanism to be concentric with the hinge axis.
Value Added Features: This part has traditionally been made up of six individual parts welded together, we have reduced this to four CNC machined and laser cut parts. These are then TIG welded in a precision fixture and cadmium plated.

In regards to the question about the step for the back seat.  Bruce is right----that with electric nose gear, you can just put your pax in the back the stand up the plane----might be a little hard without electric nose gear.

No reason to put a step for the back---passenger steps on THE step, sits on longeron/strake, then slides feet into the back.  Any step that you are talking about would more or less be under the strake----which would not be useful.

It felt certainly odd with the stick in my left hand when I switched from the Longez to the Cozy.  After the first couple of flights, I got over it.

I much preferred the O320 over the O235.  It helps to have a longer nose so that you can move the battery forward to help balance the heavier O320 engine without adding ballast (or at least limiting your ballast).

These airplanes are really not meant to maintain in a hands-off fashion (unless you lived in the San Diego area--and had some good buddies flying canard aircraft there).  If you do not want to get familiar with the plane and Canard Pushers, I would recommend that you steer clear of these aircraft---and get yourself an aircraft with a standard airworthiness certificate.


I have not seen a belly mounted pod (except on a rocket racer carrying rocket fuel.  If you did have a belly mounted pod, you would definately need downdraft cooling instead of the standard updraft cooling.  And you would also need to do something innovative with the speedbrake---since that would be in the way.  All of those issues can be overcome---but you will need to role up your sleeves and actually do work.

If I were by myself---around 0900---with family in tow---before noon.