Hello Everybody...
With respect... There seems to be a lot of confusion over Long EZ, VariEze, VariViggen, Defiant and Solitaire plans and the associated Canard Pusher Newsletters.
This is all very simple. Burt Rutan personally entered into a contract with us at TERF Inc. after winning the bid against 13 other companies for the Sole Authority for the Copyrights to the information. We pay him a royalty when they sell. There is no ambiguity here, it is not "free", "share ware" or up for grabs and we do defend our copyright against anyone who tries to "give the material away" or sell it. RAF (Rutan Aircraft Factory) supported us for years in disseminating the information we have carefully published in adobe .PDF format.
Having said this. If someone needs "just a page" or some such, I always try to help them out without the need to purchase the whole set. I have often offered whole sets to folks at a HUGE discount if the situation warrants it.
Regarding the price... Keep in mind, this body of work is more than 2100 documents that (at the time) were individually and painstakingly hand placed and scanned into the database. The "high speed feed hoppers" of today didn't exist then. It took 4 people more than a man year to enter all of this data, catalog it and publish the CD set on very early computer equipment. Believe me, it was no small task to be sure. Each page is bright, clear and high enough resolution you can see the original staple holes.
We are a very small company keeping this information safe from disappearing and available to all at a significant cost to us. Soon we will need to go back into publication (to get more CDs) as we have exhausted most of our 1000 sets sold over the last 16 years of continuous service to the Experimental Aviation Community. This will be expensive. When you call... I answer the phone personally! Every time.
The price we ask for this valuable set is less than any ONE instrument you will buy to put on the instrument panel.
Remember! This is for all 5 planes and the Canard Pusher Newsletters in searchable format AS WELL AS the "Moldless Sandwich Construction Manual". This Construction Manual is used in the Cozi Plans (as I understand things) and a royalty is paid for this inclusion as well.
AS far as building any of the planes goes (INCLUDING THE LONG EZ); at a tent seminar at Oshkosh, that I attended personally, Burt Rutan laid it out very clearly like this.
Burt: "I don't care if you build "Xerox EZs" (my planes). You are welcome to do so, just don't call them "Long EZs". Call them "John EZs" or "Frank EZs". After all, no two of them are ever the same. Have fun just don't make me liable."
I hope this clears up any confusion. Please consider purchasing the Rutan Aircraft Factory CD ROM Encyclopedia from us as the legitimate source and support our efforts to keep this valuable resource available for everybody, our kids and generations to come.
I look forward to hearing about your projects.
Sincerely
Matthew Tait
President & Chief Engineer
TERF Inc.
mtait@terf.com www.terf.com 800 ** 975 ** 1445 Phone
248 ** 210 ** 8009 Phone
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