Bill,
You're going to scare the poor boy with info overload ! ! But to sum it all up . . most of your answers are a derivative of " Doesn't matter ". . . .which is usually mostly true.
Lemme tell you 'bout my first flight in a long ez.
I had purchased mine (sight unseen (very foolishly, . and against advice from others) ) from a chap who shall remain nameless, in Arizona. I live in Wisconsin. . .actually about 30 miles due East of OSH. The seller would not let me fly out and fly the bird home. - something about no canard experience. Baloney ! ! He was afraid of the bird. He wanted me to rent an SUV and trailer the thing all the way to Wis. I said why ? If it's a flying bird, . .why in the world would I trailer it home. ( thinking of all the damage that might occur bouncing all the way home. ) Dr. Schubert came to the rescue with a ferry pilot, (with canard experience). He agreed to fly it to Wis. for an agreed upon fee. But, . when he went to pick it up, . it hadn't been flown for quite some time and the seller was not available. Actually was in Mississippi ! ! So he coaxed it to life and flew it to his FBO where much conditional work and inspection was done on it. The ferry pilot was nervous, but brave and flew it out to WI for me. 1/2 way there he called and said it was running fine and he would be there at sunset. ( Oh yeah , . .this was supposed to be about my first flight ) ! ! So . .when the plane arrived, I saw that it was much rougher than advertised. (surprise surprise ). It also had no paint. Surprisingly, the gyros somehow disappeared somewhere between the pictures and the flight here ! ! Cylinder temps were very high. Over 420 before even reaching the runway. The engine was an O-235 with an Ellison TB. The starter was an early version of the Sky tech and would barely turn over the engine. I attributed this to the 9.5 pistons, but this wasn't the case. Anyway, . .after starting, . .I thought a good idea to do some high speed taxi tests. I was amazed at how quickly it lifted off. (didn't have a lot of fuel on board and I was alone). Troubling was the TB. Every time I adjusted the throttle on taxi, .the engine would quit ! ! I was quite disturbed. How could I give rides or fly this thing if the engine keeps quitting. I was sure it would be ok in the air, as the air fluid would keep the prop turning and the engine would resume, but on the ground this was not good. So . . .one time, . .I was doing a high speed taxi test and I was enjoying the flight in ground effect and realized that I was running out of runway. Since the engine was developing power and all was working well, . I decided to continue once around the pattern. I remembered being told to keep the canard on the horizon. I WAS pretty scared though. I was worried the engine might quit so I kept my hands away from the throttle. DON'T TOUCH ! ! I got up to pattern, .and flew once around the patch. I made a long down wind because I knew I had to keep the speed up over the fence. I came in at a very shallow decent, and pulled the power over the numbers, holding the canard up until the mains screetched on the rwy. Whew ! ! was I glad to be back on terra firma ! ! That was the first and last flight. Pulled the wings off and trailered the bird home to my garage, to fix all the screwed up stuff. Actually, . .that was the day I enrolled in EZ building 101. That was 6 1/2 years ago ! ! I have refinished and painted both wings, (they came out beautiful ) and I am now finishing the underside of the fuselage. I did not want a project, .but that's what I got. My flying has been severely curtailed, except for renting to stay current. It's not that I don't enjoy building, it's that I really had planned on flying ! ! =)
Many things have interrupted my work too. Heating the garage in the winter, . my work taking many hours, but I think I may finish this summer, if I can stay at it.
So . .if you wanna fly quickly, . .buy a finished, tried and true bird with several hundred hrs on it ! ! Mine is still new.
Glennbob
