I had the joy of flying in to the Golden West fly-in and airshow yesterday with David 'Beagle' Orr in Dave Lind's stunning N14DL - what a treat.
I work away from home (ABQ) and am thinking a Long might make a great commuter (I am typically 500-1000nm from home) but it has been about 20 years since my last flight in a Long-EZ (with Dave Haggard of Newton, KS in his then O-235 powered Long) so I asked Dave if he knew of anyone going to Golden West, he said no but then later offered to come up himself.
Beagle flew up from LA to San Jose Friday evening where I am currently working (in just under 2 hours at 12,500) and I had the opportunity to pick his brain on the results of his 3,000 hours of canard experience, to talk about 14DL (which is simply too nice for words), and then Saturday morning we blasted out of Reid-Hillview (KRHV) for the 107nm flight to Golden West (KMYV). We were faced with low clouds so we departed south, and after a little scud running found a nice opening and blasted up through the hole in the clouds (4,200 fpm initial rate of climb from level at 180 kt - yeehah!).
We climbed up to 8,500, trimmed and leaned it out and had a ground speed of just over 180 kts, 14DL is a rocket ship. During the flight Beagle was kind enough to call out power setting, TAS and GPS groundspeed every now and then, during climb cruise and descent which really helped to put the tremendous performance of 14DL into perspective.
On the way to KMYV I had some time to sample the excellent handling qualities of 14DL and must say I am impressed, the roll rate was way better than I recall from my flight 20 years ago (probably the effects of time and me being like 19 at the time), the pitch stability was impressive, and the speeds were simply awe inspiring.
With the divert south to find a hole to punch through, a couple of mandatory strafing runs on targets of opportunity spotted along the way (Beagle was a FAC after all in a previous life), we made the trip in just over 40 minutes on about 6 gallons of 100LL – about 20 miles-per-gallon and about 100 smiles-per-gallon for the GIB.
There were several other Long’s at Golden West, as well as a VariEZ all the way from Denver and a fixed gear Velocity. I haven’t been to this show before but liked the small show atmosphere. Great collection of airplanes on from the last flying Taylor AeroCar, to the Epic LT kitplane, T-6’s and an SNJ, some great aerobatic routines, and a beautiful Yak-9U from Half Moon Bay, CA. The pilots of the show and aerobatic planes were very approachable, there were EAA forums and vendors galore, all in all, a great show that I will return to, hopefully in a plane of my own.
As a shameless plug for Beagle, if you are interested in the EZ’s or Berkuts or Cozies I cannot say enough about David’s knowledgebase, not only of where the planes and projects are, but also about operations, safety, inspection, etc. You owe it to yourself to visit with him if you are looking for a plane or project, and I would even suggest that folks who may be new to canards or who are just interested in adding to their skills, contact Beagle, you will not be sorry.
And for Dave Lind – sir my hat is off to you for 14DL, what a tremendous plane. The attention to detail and craftsmanship evident in that ship is simply stupendous, you did a wonderful job.
John ‘Gimp’ Knolla
