Hangar Flying

What is the source, and specifications of the pink foam?  I'd stick with similar properties of the specified foam.  I know the proper foams have changed colors at times over the years without significant changes to the physical properties of the foam.  When I built my Long, the fuselage foam was neither pink nor blue.  I wouldn't recommend deviating on the foam from what's recommended.

Reb,

You have me curious.  Are you saying that you supported the plane by the wings somehow and then loaded weights into the fuse?

It's very hard to do a proper static load test unless you understand the lift distribution on the wings.  One of the things you could do would be to look at the pictures in the Canard Pusher newsletters of how weights were distributed on the wings in Burt's static load tests in the early days.  Burt discouraged doing a static load test.  He did offer help on doing them properly to those building in other countries where the test was required.

If you're saying that you have left the plane on the gear and then added weight to the fuse, that would be hard to evaluate.  I won't eleborate until you care to give further details of your test.

If I only had confidence that my airframe was good for 2 Gs, I'd never fly.  I'm not saying this to be critical, I'm trying to help and I may have totally misunderstood your post.

My understanding of the way that fiberglass deteriorates is that the epoxy sublimates and leaves the 'dusting' that Rick mentioned.  I would inspect closely for that as a minimum.

Please keep us posted.

When you deflect the rudder, it increases both lift and drag of the foil.  This causes the aircraft to yaw.  Since the wings are highly swept, there is a strong dihedral effect, that is...yawing causes it to roll.  The wing on the side where the rudder is deflected becomes more "swept" and therefore produces less lift.  The other wing likewise produces more lift, therefore you get roll.

I enjoyed it too Larry.  Glad you had a good time.  It's a good group and they're fantastic aircraft.

Good luck on selling your bird.  I'm not looking to buy.  Just curious, if you don't mind, why you are hanging it up?  I dread the day I have to hang it up.  To a great extent, my Long and my job define my life.

flameout,

Please tell us more so that we can better help you.  Do you have original Rutan plans?  Are you building an Open EZ?  What is your background (optional)?

FWIW, I built all of my Long EZ major components (wings, winglets, fuse, spar, canard) in a spare 10 x 12' bedroom.  Those components were then assembled in the garage.

Good luck.....it's worth it!

I'm mostly happy with my O-235 Long.  I have the 9.7:1 CR Lycoming pistons that are for the -J or -F models.  With the high CR pistons, Hal Hunt 4 into 4 headers and ram air box, K&N air filter, and Lightspeed Plasma III EI, it does well.  I get around 2280 to 2300 RPM when I hit full throttle on take off and 2900 or a little less when racing full out with my Lightspeed prop.

I will admit that I often think about what it would be like to have more HP.  Even with the thoughts of more HP, I'm not even close to considering the down time it would take me to convert to an O-320. 

Email Gary at hertzler at yahoo dot com.  Please tell him I recommended his props.