Background
I have been interested in constructing my own home-built
airplane for a number of years. A
combination of factors has stopped me from looking into this any deeper.
These factors seem to be quite common among other
pre-builders also:
- Buying
a kit poses a high up-front cost.
- The
fear of not having the skills to complete the job.
- The
notion of building a very delicate piece of machinery that will travel
at 190kts (200mph).
Affliction
When I found out about the Cozy Mk IV (http://www.cozyaircraft.com/), I
realized that I could potentially fund a building project and work on it as
time allows. The end result would be
a 4-seat airplane (although it is really a 2+2 or 2 + baggage).
I started doing some research and found several websites,
message boards and a number of extremely friendly people from all over the
world. Everyone seems very happy to
lend a hand and provide some advice.
I ran across a local Cozy owner (and Long EZ builder) Kent
Ashton. Kent invited me to his house
to look at the Long EZ that he is building and to give me an overview of
“Experimental Built 101”. Kent also
invited me to come flying with him. I
could not believe it.
The Machine
The first thing one notices about Kent’s airplane is the
high level of craftsmanship. It is
really evident that Kent built this airplane to be a very safe flying
machine. Everything is placarded and
seems to be in the right place. At
6’2’’, I thought that I would have a problem with fitting in. It was snug, but I had no problem
whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I
fatigue quite quickly in the Cessna that I fly. No such problem here.
First Flight
I was quite interested in the handling characteristics of
the Cozy and how I would do on a side-stick.
The airplane handles like a dream.
There seems to be endless horsepower behind us and throwing all coals
causes immediate reaction. The
side-stick is very intuitive and the airplane is very responsive.
Pushing in full power gave us 165 kts (190 mph / 306 km/h)
very quickly. I mean really
quickly. Stall characteristics
were very benign. It happily slows
down and then develops an almost unnoticeable bob as the canard stalls and
then regains lift. The airplane then
starts sinking very slowly. Even held
in a 60 degree + bank, there was no problem; just a slight bob.
The one thing that I noticed is that things happen really
fast in the Cozy. The approach is
much shallower and much faster. One
gets behind the airplane very quickly and catching up is very hard. I had 3 landings. Ok, 1 attempted landing and two
“arrivals”. On the first landing, I
came in quite shallow and tried to “power it in” like with a Cessna. With the Cozy, at that does is make you
hurtle towards the ground faster.
What is needed is immediate pitch correction.
The second attempt cannot be classified as a landing. It was more of an “arrival”. I was chasing the airplane all the way to
the ground for a touch and go. When I
stepped on the gas though, the airplane took off again as if it was a rocket
ship.
The third attempt was a little better, but was still not
what I would like. I have some Cessna
habits that would need to be undone.
I now have some Cozy time in my logbook. Wonderful.
As soon as I can convince the CFO at home, I am ordering
the plans…….
Kent Ashton
Part of what is attracting me to the canard builders
realm, is the nice people that one will meet. Kent is certainly one such person. Kent also introduced me to
another canard builder (Velocity) and fellow EAA member Dean Unterreiner.
Me and the affliction embodied
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