First Flight in a Cozy MKIV 4 Seat Canard Aircraft

you have autopilots on and you got your C your heading selected you're at 2100 RPM and your straight level flight at 137 knots true but um that's there slight in accuracy only at 39% power that's incredible I mean you're not going to be doing that with a [Music] 172 [Music] [Music] [Music] Pull It Forward of all the stones are here which is going to be repa fixed Bo it's looking more like next year than this year always delayed aren't they yeah they doing a lot of road work so's good all right so we got bill here and you tell us a little bit about your Airport okay this airplane is a cozy markv it's a plans built airplane they give you two books of uh plans and um I think there were 33 different drawings and there's always been an issue of the drawings are changing in size but uh let's face it we aren't perfect it's um a very capable airplane it's uh the structure is is um fiberglass mostly in eass the um uh let's see there are a few parts that you can buy um like the plexiglass some people have made the uh the canopy but um um you get the plexiglass and then you uh follow the plans and it's not easy but uh it works what what made you want to build a cozy um I was living in in uh Northern Ohio in my my family was in Wisconsin and driving through Chicago was just inspiration to build an airplane it's understandable now it'd be a lot easier to buy an airplane at the time but uh I was an air traffic controller and quite a few um quite a few uh buddies were had plans and I was reading those and getting excited about it and I hadn't flown for quite a few years um especially after getting out of the Air Force um the advantage of the of the Canard design is um is that a lot of about 25% of the fatalities were uh maneuvering in the pattern when you don't have enough room to recover before you hit the ground so they would uh get a little bit slow they kick some Rudder in and theyd come around on Final still do it myself probably but in this airplane um the incidence angle on the Canard is higher than the incidence on the wing I've got the uh uh Vortex generators added a couple years ago and they reduced the overall stall speed by how many knots would you say uh about five or six knots and um it doesn't really take anything off the top end either so um if the Canard stalls then your nose will dip and it'll regain speed um unless you try to if you just hold the stick back and you could probably screw it up but if the Canard stalls um it will drop and the main Wing will not stall so they're inherently safer than like a typical aircraft in the same right configuration um the disadvantages is that we don't have flaps um constant speed uh propellers are extra weight they're in the back um the prop has to go through the um the shadow of the um of the fuselage and the stakes and that can bend the uh metal props and you have an 030 on this that you've converted over to fuel injection yes an 0360 I followed the plans initially and used a Ellison throttle body injector Elison thrott and you're about 180 um yes it's rated at 180 horsepower at 2700 RPM which I don't usually get um at this elevation yeah altitude and what would you say your burn rate your at Cruise would be about at cruise I I burn about 7.3 gallons per hour 7.3 okay and some people burn more and they probably get a little bit more power out of it for whatever reason I could uh you can I go lean of peak and uh it's something you can do um with uh fuel injection and you started building this plane in 96 96 and when did it take us first flight first flight was in November um November 3rd of 2003 wow so that's a labor of love right there yeah so the building you're really excited and uh um that first flight is interesting what what was that like it was uh you know actually as a controller and federal employee I could I guess at 50 or 51 I could have um I could get a medical retirement so I I tested it when I was uh just over 49 so built from like 42 to age 49 you're a little bit sharper but um anyway um if I really screwed it up I don't want to screw my whole family financially but it's been a a pretty safe airplane and you know fuel quantity wise what this SC has Wing tanks yeah the uh tanks are in these Stakes okay and um they're kind of interesting to build but each side carries 25 gallons um I only put in what I need for the trip that trip um and an extra 10 gallons so that'd be plenty to get anywhere else and what kind of separates the Cozy from like a typical lawn easy is obviously this is a four passenger plane versus an inlines two passenger it's uh it's essentially based on the long easy design by ber ran okay which is a a two seat tandem this is a four seat um originally went from uh the designer natth puffer um he his wife wanted to sit next to him I think he had a very easy that he had built and then his wife wanted a um a side by side um and so they just widened it well the so their um the uh lingons the fuselage comes to the to the back and they use they used a um use an 0320 okay and that those are pretty fast airplanes still really some good ones out there um and then he sold that design to a f in in Germany who adapted it and changed it and put a forward opening canopy and then um uh people were pushing Nat puffer to design a for forl okay not that you really want four people in the airplane it's like other airplanes it's um you might it's more of a two plus two yeah I've had four a couple of times and I've had three fulls siiz normaliz adults and some baggage in the back can travel north to south across the country but and that's worked out pretty well but uh and what's what's the farthest the distance that you've flown in this plane personally what' you say um on one trip yeah or um I guess I've flown from Northern Ohio to uh just south of lake yie is at the luran County Airport down to Fair Hope was about four 4 hours and 15 minutes but um it's it's very extremely variable yeah which is understandable yeah and on the uh a cockpit and the avionics it's whatever you put into it if you um I've flown IFR in this but it's really a little bit weak at this time I only have one radio I've got a Garmin 430 that no longer is um really supported by Garmin the um I do have um um adsb out and I get adsb in through the stratus uh 2s and I I read that on a um on a foreflight on an iPad you can put on your phone or and that's a pretty good setup really and is this relatively easy to work on with cow you know cing to get the cing off and to do basic maintenance versus like your techical assessment 172 um hard to compare to a 172 I know um a lot of planes the everything's packed in there really tight yeah and so at least building your own airplane it's your own fault if you make it too I like that um this fuselage cover comes off and then you've got all your instruments and everything is um right there in front of you so that's relatively easy to access yes okay Y and uh it's got some safety features um if your throttle is forward like you're going to take off and your canopy I've got a little U micro switches um um if that's not locked which you could fake yourself out but um there's a a micro switch there and one on the throttle and one on two of them actually on the uh on the nose gear okay and so if you're if you go Full Throttle forward and this isn't latched then the this alarm will set off you can you can defeat it by pushing the uh defeat button there um and on these there's no flap systems no flap to U give you a a lower stall speed so that's why I've got the vortex generators it's got a belly board on the bottom which increases your rate of descent um and that's electric I um the plans are a manual but I don't want any anything uh really going to um bumping into the passenger passenger yeah it's usually usually not a pilot it's usually your wife or I don't think you want your dog up here but yeah yeah so that that um was a Johnson bar type lever which was a good thing but uh I've actually had enough room to put in a glove box glove compartment there and um this is a uh um switch panel that Wayne lonza composite design had built years ago and it's got circuit breakers and so you can see those in the front I probably would have been better off with all bat switches but U I've got an engine monitor system from Grand Rapids technology and uh Trio avionics um Wing leveler and autopilot connected to the Garmin so I can I can track whatever plate plan I put in there there um or I can just put it on course mode or intercept mode and so it'll either intercept your track uh you can Offset you can do a whole bunch of things with that you just don't want to come into the pattern and forget that you have it connected which is our sample it's like oh some something's fighting trying fight the altitude hold I've got a a switch for on and off and then these two controls here um and that works uh the newer propilot that they came out with probably 10 years ago is all in one unit but uh I went from a six-pack for instruments to this I got this used it's a Grand Rapids and characteristics of this such as like you know you're doing a cross country you have to deal with a fairly good crosswind how does this handle Crosswinds I think it handles Crosswinds really well you get down to land um you fly it just like any other airplane you know you correct into the wind you can slip um especially if you practice it more um it I've taken off in probably 28 knot direct crosswind wow alone yeah where I can you just get off the ground then you correct but um Landing it always seems like you're waiting for the speed to bleed off when you when you come in and then all of a sudden it's it's fine you can reach your limits at times and I have reached the very limit of won't go any farther wow the Rudders um both Rudders go out you would think it would give you more um slowing power but it doesn't and that's kind of like but both Rudder pedals push forward is kind of like a quote unquote air brake per se or what yeah it's um I don't know they're just set they into they work separately and your uh your initial roll out on takeoff I mean these obviously take off and land faster than I use uh 65 knots for my uh just alone okay with with the bast weight and I use usually 70 knots for um two passengers in the front although I probably adjust that down about five knots since I put the vgs on these made a big difference a little bit Yeah and and if you don't want that little nose wheel to 10 by 35 or 3.5 [Music] um-4 um and it's got to go pretty fast so if you come in and and that thing is you know starting to spin up it's it's a lot it's a lot for it so in your typical Cruise speed what do you usually shoot for um I plan at 150 knots just for a round number and I use uh 165 knots I tell people okay um now that's true air knots true air speed um sric fullest tank about the same master switch on panel on loose pump on mixture Rich until a flow indication and then back to Lan you can see the fuel flow right there oh yeah on that page one so tack oil temp oil pressure will be right here none yet ignition switches both on two electronic [Music] ignitions and uh ready to go I don't see anybody the props in the back so you don't want to start it on anybody you don't see you're aren't going to see them so uh clear prop and it starts aligning got my mag Compass here which is rough but it works and it will say that [Applause] uh searching for uh satellites oh seat Bel short shoulder harness is all good passengers briefed enimal aircraft got numbers here with weights and stuff probably a little bit off now but passenger warning there that's amateur built aircraft got the accessory power on the radio Master on turn on the uh on the um AO audio and then I turn on the gears down okay over Center manual crank system that's the crank for the gear itself okay makes about 10 and a half 11 cranks now like when you're taxing this one are you doing brake differential yes to get it to turn being just using left brake or right brake okay and so if you have to taxi a long ways you could heat up pretty good since there's not much wind I'll point this dire okay access door and the fuel flow will once in a while I'll do this go to zero and it catches up okay and ify access door is this one has closed and lock fuel caps visually in place on your tank and they're both good uh control HS three elevator arounds buts check um with two of us in here um we want to keep it fairly there's really it's up is up and down is down bigger manual system land bigger with a phenolic uh washer I made for fr works for me that that's a pretty you have to use to where where you want to set circuit breakers are in lights are on nav lights strobe lights Landing light is off you don't need it and light light instruments are good 20 3013 Set uh showing about 58 that's pretty close if you were technically correct you you'd want to set it to um or at least know what the difference was all control uh sensitivity you on takeoff and landing and even just in Flight it's very little input on your you might not even see it wow and I got a cold hand here air blowing on it oh I'll power back just a little bit more tr get showed 700 ft nobody in front of him cool okay so it just sits at 404 oh there's some bumps great you might get today yep oh I think what we'll do is go down to 6,500 ft but that out here with NOCO you have to stay five miles away from like one box we're Le a peak 1 2 3 four cylinders okay the chts all come come down right away there's still some snow out there what would you say your burn rate right now would be about um well it's showing bouncing around quite a bit actually [Applause] probably 53% power that's probably pretty close 4 and A2 prob closer to [Music] four off okay it's not much you're glad range if you within that vicinity theoretically you could probably make it back to uh uh where is Long's further south I'd have to go higher and more power okay continue up be you want to hold the stick for a minute I have control when you get them in sight you can turn cross to follow I'm going to put on some heat on the right tank we got eight gallons on that okay I got it again you have control so the all the temperatures came down pretty far lean of peak so we don't have as much power at this point at any point actually if I use the mixture control number two theany of threshold it actually works as your throttle so more more gas uh less lean of peak fuel flow is really bouncing around there why using your mixture as if you need more power at this point or at any point you can go with more more fuel you can see the Devil's Backbone up here I definitely like the side by side aspect of this yeah I mean you know the L EAS is wonderful plane in itself as a different animal but having this side by side here and the field of view that you have as a passenger the lawn easy you're kind of in this little bubble and then you have a wall right here this it's like and you could actually sit uh you could actually sit a little higher the higher you are the more you're going to see and your passengers even have a good field of view back there you know if they were which is pretty neat now those back windows in the canopy are actually ended up a little higher for the Curve [Music] this is a horse to Reservoir right below [Applause] us no boats in the the pier and the docks oh the water's a perfect temperature right [Applause] now okay so the ball is centered even though I'm not even using Rudder why is that because there's really no adverse are very little that's that's amazing cuz you do it in like a Cessna you'd have to definitely also when you take off there's no P factor or very little um so you're not using this uh Rudder correction to correct for it wow although the crosswind can force you to um use more um a more break which will slow your takeoff I guess I must have climbed in the uh so right now we're doing 160 knots across the ground now 163 well you can see we go up and down quite a bit 167 knots ground speed with uh little bit of Tailwind 7.4 yeah gallons per hour that's pretty efficient yeah we're going to hit these bumps again pretty low on the RPM here right now the autopilots on now the wing leveler or is Wing leveler I can turn the altitude hold on if it wants too much correction in one direction it'll say trim down or trim up or it'll just say I'm not climbing now on left downwind for Runway 11 for some touch and goes autopilots on and you got your C your heading selected you're at 2100 RPM and your straight level flight at 137 knots true but um that's they slight in accuracy only at 39% power that's incredible I mean you're not going to be doing that with a 172 I mean I guess that's the the appealing part about these is their Glide is and their uh efficiency and flight is pretty good isn't it it is it's very efficient okay I'm going punch elude hold off I'mma punch the servo off I'm hand flying it bra get into more bumps over here yeah there definitely is any traffic around it so I mean if you the had an engine out what would your best choice of a landing area be with this aircraft would you would you say uh other than the runway that's four miles away I'd head for the runway um uh I've looked at that before and um it's kind of difficult um because the the landing speed or the minimum speed is like 60 65 knots so you're better off on a road but you don't want to hit the wires and a field Landing would be pretty rough in this wouldn't it it could be yeah yeah so you probably better off going for a highway like 287 yep not too many wires across goes right through downtown [Music] there at this point I would throttle back a little bit for 90 knots long here and I'm usually end up too fast traffic 600 on the 45 left downwind Left 4 45 to the left down long what is the glide ratio on this uh I use 10 to one but it's really [Applause] more on traffic Co you9 whis Kil turning a left face full stop one one oh you see 90 knots and went out there nobody if you have Sun you would um be able to see your Shadow you're lined up so you always look for one Shadow not two here is down 85 knots nobody on Final nobody on Final might be all the way out over Lions to be on Final coming down heading to lower altitude F 90 dear down breakes coming down [Applause] breakdown traffic go on Final for 1 long Mon and it be a full stop really want 8580 down break down 600 left down1 tou and go lock if we can go lower see by these tree 82 AAR down power's off 79 now we just look outside I are outside you're just holding it level hold the wheels off nose wheel off traffic station e182 tang go 9 to the Northeast inbound for the 45 left down one 11 one full stop one fumbles a little bit that was a good Landing no better than I've done re I said I don't PR I don't practice bleeding I see why you want a long Runway comparatively to uh you do it but you know what do it 99% of the time and then you're in trouble okay we'll go to the end traffic cozy clearing Runway at alpha 1 I like to give him some sort of notice or even if what is the wind span on this 100 turning base one base one one long one okay here I would look around for traffic make sure temps are good turn off my autopilot boost pumps off now taxi with the uh Landing brake down and this is where if you taxi it Ash gosh for 45 minutes waiting for people and um that's when the oil temp heats up you I don't have a label on this I will whenever I sell it um pull out is uh open okay and the winter you probably never have that P back in [Music]

Channel: Sir Drifto

Views: 171,106

Keywords: cozy aircraft, long ez, canard aircraft, starship, cool aircraft, amazing airplanes, canard, aviation, vari ez, 4 seat, velocity aircraft, sir drifto, pilot, pilot channel, eaa, experimental aircraft

Id: 6z0m-69-UHc

Length: 32min 17sec (1937 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 06 2023