Hangar Flying

What was it like?
One Thanksgiving, our son in Atlanta waited too long to get an airline ticket to Texas for the holiday. On the spur of the moment I sent the family in the van from Fort Worth on their way to deep south Texas and launched in the VariEze for Atlanta to get him. The sacrifices you make…
The trip was 4.5 hours. The next morning we took off for the seven hour flight to San Antonio, playing dueling GPSs along the way. Lots of practice re-folding sectionals.
After a couple of days at my folk’s place, another son and I flew further south to my wife’s folks in Kingsville for more turkey. Again I sacrificed, missing the trip in the van.
After a few more days of turkey we set out on the return trip to Atlanta, following the curve of the Gulf of Mexico and enjoying nature and each other, and the turkey sandwiches the family packed for us.
Its always fun to fly into PDK in north Atlanta. On my first trip there I didn’t have a transponder and called the tower the day prior to get some kind of secret handshake permission. They said no problem, give us a call and come on in. I repeated the problem three times and they repeated the solution three times    
Each time I have been there they have had a restaurant at the south end with a Mustang and other aircraft parked outside. Midfield there is a playground for the kids, and bleachers with the tower on loudspeaker for the grown kids. Nearby there is a hangar deck hamburger restaurant. And who knows what all else.
The flight home that Thanksgiving is the one that sticks in my mind. With several previous trips to and from Atlanta the path was well worn and known. After reaching cruising altitude and settling in for the trip, I set the GPS and sectionals and other things aside, readily available, and kinda propped my feet up and relaxed and enjoyed the flight.
The manual trim systems work pretty well but tweaking in a gentle nudge of stick or rudder, whether you need it or not, is enjoyable. The distant airports marched predictably into view and disappeared under the canard, sometimes being viewed with interest through the side window, wondering if there were any Ezes hiding in the hangars there.
The Mississippi River astounds as usual. Usually calls for a drop down from altitude to see the sights a little closer.
The approach into Texas was flown as usual with one wing in Arkansas and the other in Louisiana. The southern run around the airport laden Dallas/Fort Worth area is laced with shimmering aircraft, small and large, fast and slow.
I arrive over the airport at about the same time the family is driving up to the house in the van. We are probably all saying our ritual “Home again home again jiggety-jig” at about the same time.
Spartan flying. Even without all the amities. Two mags. No electrical system. Handheld com and GPS. Backpacker foam for upholstery. White primer paint. Normal updraft cooling. The B&T prop that came with the engine...
To your point, even thought spartanly equipped, and maybe because of that, still pretty fun  

                                                 Yowza!   

Jamie-
Leaving for work this morning, walking out into the hangar I stopped and paused for a moment to look the Eze over. The sunlight streaming in the windows highlighted its shiny sleek lines. Pretty cool...
Walking outside I was blown away by the sunrise. Spectacular. Overwhelmed, I paused again...
It is not the first time i have been in the middle of thinking i have done something even slightly significant and am then blown away by the works of the Maker of Molecules. In flight as in life, we dont break His laws, we prove them.

It looks like you are twice as old as my ten-year old grandson. Good for you. He flew half of the stick time to Oshkosh and back this year, and has some really cool autographs in his logbook. He does really nice wingovers. If i may, i will mention the same thing here that i tell him about his baseball and pitching:
Whatever your circumstances, speak to yourself what you want. Talk good to yourself  
Keep a diary; or for us guys, a log.
If you advance on this eze journey, please keep us informed.

(BTW, I see these pictures when i am logged in, but don't see them when not logged in)
Bill

Builder Fails to Make Rough River Again
It may be a record. Twenty-four years of failed attempts to finish the airplane and fly to the renowned Kentucky event.
First flying it in 1917 and trying valiantly to finish up the last minute details, and failing again, the owner of the Oldest EZ hasn’t given up. With the 25th anniversary of the fly in coming up next year, he is already again setting his nose into the headwind to finish up the plane, finally fly off the restricted period, and be there next year for what promises to be a gala 25th anniversary RR event.
You may not be familiar with this airplane, the builder is somewhat reclusive. I believe it is probably the oldest EZ in existence. The builder reports that two mods, a speed fairing installed behind the GIB’s head and the addition of wheel pants from a Model T, shown in the picture, resulted in an amazing 10% increase in top end speed… 5 knots!  
Speed was confirmed flying alongside a Model A driven by his wife.
I think it would be accurate to say that he was ahead of his time.
He reported that several additional attempts to increase speed proved to be disappointments including
Gray speed tape on the gaps,
Dimples on the valve covers and gear struts,
Painting the airplane yellow,
‘Squarer’ trailing edges,
Zig-zag tape - the original,
Vortelons – which he thought that was a type of watermelon,
Trailing edge fences - picket and post oak,
A worn out smooth nose wheel,
Various nose lengths - final shorter crimped nose shown in picture,
An internal water temp gauge,
Various external control cable diameters,
Baby moon hub caps,
Tapered valve stems,
Dihedral and anhedral on the canard - neither on purpose,
Backdraft cooling,
Inverting the Ooga horn, and
A 1917 Packard ram air grill.  
For slowing down on landing he tried lengths of 2x4 studs on top of the wings for spoilers but couldn’t detect a measurable speed change.  

Evidently two events relate to his reclusiveness. First, he was put off by a visitor that referred to his svelte highly refined steed as a “Barn Find.” And then one day another aviator stopped in his hangar, leaned on the prop and said that he had already thought of and tried all those things ten years earlier.
The owner is in the middle of the mod that kept him from making RR again this year… rounded lips on the ooga horn, and is open to any suggestions for getting that last .02 knots.

Reporting,  Bill James
Sorry, plans not available.

For what its worth, a description of the left strake vent line, both are the same. It goes per VariEze plans starting at the strake high point about 5 inches out from the longeron, about midway between the headrest and the aft canopy corner. It goes under the longeron and up inside the near wall of the passenger head space. It goes up and over and down inside the headspace and down inside the fuselage wall along the front of the main spar, straight down and exits just in front of the right main gear strut, and curves out forward about two inches, about one inch from the surface. One piece of tubing per side. Benefits are that the vents don't pee on anythiing, and are in that area in front of the strut where the drag is hopefully insignificant.
Cheers y'all-

I think the VariEze building push lasted about ten years. The impetus was turning 40 and realizing time really was flying and I was not. The day before, I had been 20, now I was 40, and tomorrow I would be 60. Many dreams had been reached and many had been on hold, and now was the time to get the plane going.
As I planned it, it should take about ten years to fly. The criteria, based on when the youngest child was expected to be out of college, set the time when I expected be able to get the engine. So maybe 10 to 12 years to first flight. That was frustrating but better than doing nothing at all.  Once the pile of parts and boxes was in the garage I was OK, no longer so much living that life of quiet desperation in the aviation realm.  I thought of also building a scale working model of the VariEze with all of the details built in so I could show the detail of the many mods in the plane. Instead I built the plane.
The highly detailed model I envisioned would have probably taken almost as much time to build as the real plane. Especially since building the plane went faster than I expected. From start of building to first flight took 5 years. During building life was gooder. The more self-employed work I had the better the building went, with each kinda feeding on each other; the opposite of what I would have expected. I enjoyed the discipline of doing something every day and, with the mods, did in fact probably did stay fairly well epoxy fumed-up for another 5 years or so.

About three years ago we moved from our home of 28 years. During the intense move and until now the plane has been flown at will with only moderate care and feeding. Several cowl refinements were accomplished at that time and still haven’t been finished up with proper paint. I hope they will be a little more presentable for heading to Oshkosh.
The thought here has to do with not being in the building mode for several years, and how recently my head was about to bust with several un-acted-upon ideas bouncing around in there trying to get out. I was (happily) waking up every morning with the image of a new airplane project out in the hangar. Not that I need another airplane, which would be fine, rather the issue was whether the seemingly excellent ideas were solid, efficient,  and beneficial; or just something that someone else had probably already dreamed up and tried, that didn’t work.
 The solution, immensely gratifying, satisfying, and simple, has resulted in a crude scale working model of the landing gear mechanism concept, and a hand-carved tan foam two-foot-wingspan model of my idea of what the perfect airplane would look like at the moment. Being able to actually hold, touch, play with the ideas, and run my finger along the lines of the airplane, resolved probably 75% of the angst, at no cost, and if I want something in the hangar I don’t have to walk an extra half-mile around an expensive, unfinished, un-flying plane to get the tool I need.
Hats off to those that have put their ideas to work and actual use. For now I will continue to claim minor success through the enjoyable venting of some elbow grease that was burning a hole in my sleeve, acting like I was building something for a time, and making a tiny step forward on some ideas, without getting in over my head.
Yet.
Good Eze-ing,

flyingwarbanana
You mentioned flight characteristics. In the front seat of a VariEze, the first 30 seconds after liftoff is pretty critical, whatever your experience or flight time.
It was especially so in the early days, when a back seat checkout was not available. With no other similar sight picture, I understand that it was possible to over-react when the nose came up and push over too much, especially with the more sensitive short cord elevators, with the nose wheel hitting and then bouncing, and then the mains, and so on. Although I haven’t heard of pilot-induced oscillations for a while, I bet even today not being deliberate enough about the first flight preparation, including plenty of back seat time, could pretty easily be a problem.
With respect to a stable and not overly exciting liftoff, the process includes setting the elevators an inch or so down and letting the plane fly off when it is ready. The mental part is to be prepared to set and hold the takeoff attitude for the thirty seconds or so until you get to altitude where you can start to maneuver the plane and get used to the small input and quick and responses. You can imprint the takeoff attitude by sitting in the plane with the canopy closed and the nose gear extended and on a paint can. That will also be close to the landing attitude.
I mention the above because it is the same as with any plane except that in my experience, once you get the feel of the plane, it is more easy and fun to fly than most planes. However you still have to do some of that pilot stuff; sometimes more than others. I flew out of a long runway for a long time, and now enjoy the challenge of being “up” on every downwind and approach to a shorter, downhill runway.
You didn’t mention probably the most significant issue, judgment. The VariEze is a highly specialized design. Most days you take off solo with a coupla hours fuel and all is good. The challenges are to be shrewd about weight especially on hot days. Or going into places like Oshkosh too soon, or Rough River with its fairly short sloping runway with lots of distractions. At Oshkosh a guy can’t be thinking about stick and rudder when the Champ in front of him decides to impress everyone with his short field landing at the approach end.  I don’t mention judgment as a negative, but actually as a positive, as a significant issue that we all face and re-decide anew every flight. Not as a disqualifier, but as something to work on too. I have enjoyed observing many including myself that are better because they chose the discipline and challenge of building and flying their own plane, which often means first being better at everything else in your life too.
My intent is to hit a few items you mentioned, in answer that they are all do-able, one bite at a time. Good idea to listen to these guys and gals.
Good flying-

All good except the last statement. That is done to the raw foam before glassing the wings.
Keep on trucking along this journey of becoming an eze expert