Scotty

Correct. The stop pins are effective, but must have the small locking 'clip' itself locked correctly to prevent the stop pin from sliding out. Reckon it's very unlikely that a 206 being maintained by a LAME would not be very carefully checked for the seat rail AD, as well as the stops being located and locked.

There is an AD for single engine cessnas that has been out for ages about replacing seat rails and seat roller components that are out of specific measurements. This AD also requires that seat stops are put at precise spots to stop the seat moving too far back on take off if it is not latched properly. The last part of the AD is quite often not carried out as it makes getting in and out of the aircraft difficult.

Looks like it was a good day! I was there last year flying my big model but couldn't make it this year. I was planning on flying there but could find a plane to borrow in time. Bugger, next year it is for me then. Few more hours under my belt by then.

Not a nice thing to watch happen, wishing a speedy recovery to those injured.

They are a good thing. I bought the one in WA. It is a gem to fly but I am having trouble adjusting to the higher landing speeds. It climbs well and the cruise speed of 110 kts is conservative.

Well it was a four seater then if its 182. Best you can get in them is 3 kids across the back seat.

A 6 seater 182??????? It was a cessna 210

The most critical part of that a/c is the cunnard and possible flutter. It has had extensive windtunnel testing and redesign. It has to be the right weight, size, balance, shape, profile and angle of incidence. Your life depends on some cowboy getting it right in his home workshop maybe after a late night out.

I get bogged down with the continual changes. Some a/c are 600kg and ultralights, I think, but don't know if it applies to that a/c. Stall speeeds can be fudged. If one gets through, it's a piece of cake for the rest. See if any were ultralights. Don't know if you worked on Contiental 0-200. Has new and older cyl. heads shown by shape of fins. Three oversizes for pistons which means 4 lives. Want to buy on the first life. Price wise depends a lot on demand. If you are the only one interested then theoretically you can name the price. Once looked at an a/c at a salvage yard and asking about 7 grand. The engine was thrown into one room. Bits of the tail were in another room and the rest dumped on a farm. He said if he didn't sell it he would bury it into a hole in the ground. A lot of a/c sit stored away for a lifetime because they are too much work for the owner to fix up-especially req. fabric recover. Should give it away on the hope someone will fix it up.

Scotty, can't be registered RAAus as stall speed is well over 50kts. The DA-2A does not have flaps. Empty weight of these aircraft is around 350kgs and design MTOW is 1200lbs / 544kgs. With a fuel capacity of 90 ltrs then can't carry two 80kgs people and full fuel.Cheers

What are they wanting for it and what engine does it have Scotty?

Does anyone out know much about these little V-tail machines? Has anyone owned one or flown one?

I have seen there is one for sale in w.a. and thought I might check it out if they are a good thing.

Yeah i reckon its a bit of a lemon. There is just too much money to spend when you have noproof that it is a good flying example to start with. If only it had flown a few more hundred hours it would be a different story. There is that big risk that after you have spent your 20000 plus on the engine and the other expenses to get it on the VH register it might fly like a pig!

excuse my ignorance but how do you determine if a composite plane has been damaged and repaired? and if the repair is sound

You still seem keen-guess now it's a matter price. I just had a look at some of it's performance figures. Fifteen hours endurance on 52 gal. petrol flying economy cruise at 130 kts giving nearly 2000 mile range. Thats the approx endurance of a 747. If you like to cruise, that's your plane [if you can sit that long]. I did not look much at the Long Eze in Jandakot. It was pushed up to a wall with lots of misc. stuff. The plus side is you can do certified work on the engine but you don't want to give your time away. Say you pay $30000 for the plane and do $45000 work on the engine[in value] the plane would cost you $75000[including your tiime] Calculating what it's resale value is at that point is hard to determine since there are few around here. Those a/c are not so popular here because of the runway requirements. People phoned me up if they can fly it off their 600 foot grass farm strip. In the USA they have lots of long paved runways. Finding a buyer can be very hard but lot's of dreamers. Also, pilots are importing a/c from USA because of their cheap price and big choice over there. If that Long Ezy at Jandakot was advertised for $15000 I would still be looking at knocking him down further. That's if it even passed further inspection on the airframe which is another story. They are all home make a/c and vary a lot in quality of workmanship. If the wings, canard etc are not accurately made and set up you can have a plane that has serious flight problems. If it was hardly flown, I would have concern on that fact alone.

Amazing, and I visualized you being at some lonely spot thousands of miles away. I have seen the fuselage at his premises-live within walking distance. The Narrogin Gliding Club overhauled their Pawnee Lycoming and cost about $45000. Even the 447 and 503 Rotax cost thousands in parts and last only 300 hrs. The converted Vw engine is supposed to be cheap to overhaul and has a tbo of about 1200 hrs. Another option is to import one from the USA like I did with the Varieze. At Oshkosh there were long rows of Long Ezes but only counted 3 Variezes. Though, its pretty expensive if you go over to have a look and it's no good. Guys do up these engine with cheap old parts then sell them as being zero time overhauled. Lucky to last 200 hrs. Well Scotty, buying or selling a/c needs a lot of patience-like years. I am looking around for another one, but in the meantime bought a sailboat for thrills. Going from 150 kts to 6 kts will take some getting used to.

Yeah, I used to overhaul lycomings when I was working at jandakot airport. That engine has the potential to be very expensive as they corrode up the cranks and camshaft. This will bump the overhaul cost up by about 10 000. Have you had a close look at the aircraft at all? I'm coming down to jandakot next week so I'm going to try and have a look at it then.

Is that Long Eze the one advertised in Jandakot? Rutan has years of newsletters on the development of the Varieze some where on the internet? I learned some time ago to be patient in buying anything. Buy in haste and repent in leisure. Plenty of a/c sitting in sheds for decades but not economical to fix. Even a 0 hour 20 year old engine will leak like a seive and have internal rust. Wait for him to go down with the price. if you want a high labour project.

Like ou said i might have to wait it out and see if he drops his price......a lot!

http://www.cozy1200.com/geeklog/filemgmt_data/files/Long-EZ POH.pdfAbove is the manual for the Long Eze. The lyco 0-320 is not a recommened engine for this a/c. It would not have been extensively flight tested with this engine. When you say "mods" do you mean directives? There is a Long- Eze for sale in Aust. asking $70000 plus. In USA they can vary 20 to 40 thousand asking depending a lot on engine hours. Since parity of the AUD and USD, value of planes here have dropped a lot.

Scotty, you'll be learning till you hang up your head phones. The plane is forgiving and if it were any safer it would be boring. I would do high speed taxiing down the runway time after time raising the cunnard. Then when you think you are ready on a nice cool morning with a light wind straight down the strip, lift it off. When I did, I was taken back by the apparent high nose attitude, but even with that was maintaining only 500 feet but travelling over 130 knots. The normal climb attitude puts the canard and nose so high all you can see are the helecopters hovering above you [you're getting your first flight on video?] Do your circuit as planned and plan to go around. You'll know when you have enough experience. When the a/c you are flying is getting boring and you are looking for some more hot action, then its time. A note on the high speed taxi bit. If you have wheel fairings, the temperature inside can get so hot as to disintegrate the composite strut and the wheel falls off. Take your fairings off for the high speed taxi practice. I wrapped the strut with heat insulating material and drilled some holes in the bottom of the fairing as recommended in one of Rutans newsletters. Also, Continental engines are notorious for icing. Install a carby temp guage.

If you are planning not to use it for a while you can pull the spark plugs out and spray some LPS 3 or similar inhibiting oil in the cylinders and then put some desicant plugs in it. ( they look like a spark plug but have the silica moisture absorbing beads in them.) This is what we do with all our Lycoming and Continental engines at work if we are not going to use them for a few months. Hope this helps.

I owned a Varieze for two years but only did one flight in someone elses Long Eze which has more storage space. I would have more nasty habits than those two a/c. Do big circuits, especially in the beginning. They have large turning radius so turn onto final with plenty of space and moderate angle of bank. To reduce landing distance, round out over the gravel and hold off till you are over the bitumen. A lot of pilots dont use the air brake. It makes for about 20% less landing distance and protects your prop when taxiiing. I deployed the airbrake on early final. My circuit procedure differed from the Varieze manual. I would desend on crosswind doing 150 kts for better visibility downwards. Turn downwind and reduce speed to 120 kts. Turn base and reduce speed to 100 kts. Turn final and reduce speed to 80 kts and deploy airbrake. The manual has you apply airbrake on downwind. The catch is the airbrake is designed to retract automatically at speeds over about 90 kts. so your circuit would be slow, lack downward visibility, and not have as good contol turning. You will have to adjust the airbrake by trial and error so it retracts at the right speed. Make sure you have enough runway to do a landing without airbrake. When first I got my Varieze, the air brake retracted at 60 knots and was impossible to use untill re adjusted. The first time you fly, you will be test pilot and it will be your first solo. You'll have your hands full.

I've done 30knot plus cross wind landings in a Varieze with the recommended reduced rudder travel and plenty of rudder control. However, the wing lightly scraped the ground on one of them. Good luck with the project Scotty. I've flown both and the Long Eze is the most popular.The Varieze is very weight limited depending on it's empty weight when built. Mine could take full fuel. one average weight pilot and a a small kid for passenger with no starter motor. The Long Eze addressed that with a bigger plane and engine.

To add, they are the easiest a/c I have ever flown, especially on landing. Because of the long strips in the USA they land them at 100 mph [statute] for better visibility. Another aircraft I am investigating is the humble Hummel Bird and it does around 100 kts on a half Volkswagen engine [converted]. Has no struts and as well quite low drag.

Its in a hangar at Jandakot W.A. Theres a few things that im concerned about; He built it 20 years ago, It only flew once for an our after he built it then he moved from the US to AUS and it hasnt flown since, and the engine he put in already had heaps of hours on it when he got it 20 years ago.

Maybe it might be best to avoid it?

Hi,

Im looking at a "project" Long EZ to return to flying condition. It was built in the US and imported here but has not flown in 20 years and has never been on the Australian register. Who out there has one or has owned/flown one? Any info on the good and bad points would be greatly appreciated.

Im a LAME with a group 7 ( composite) rating so the work required does not worry me but i was wanting to here from owners or anyone with info on if they are a good aircraft and what problems they have. It is fitted with a Lycoming 0-320 E2d engine that is running but I would be overhauling it.

Cheers Scott

Welcome, Scotty. I've heard it said that every second shed in Australia has a partly-built plane in it. Quite a few projects from deceased estates go on sale, and plenty more are quietly forgotten. Your main problem will be choosing which one to buy. Metal, composite or wood?