This month has been a good learning month. I've finished reading the first 5 chapters of the plans and have made my first purchase from Aircraft Spruce. My first purchase is modest consisting of the info pack, Rutan Composite construction video and the Newsletters on CDROM. Everything seems to be available for online purchasing and the vendor has even created a chapter based materials package specifically for the Cozy.
I also made email contact with Marc J. Zeitlin and Rick Maddy so the canard community has become a little more real for me. They both had comments about the engines and the avionics questions from my last journal entry.
After reading the third chapter I started to have some mild anxiety about my ability to actually work with the materials and learn all the techniques I need to know. After completing the practice exercises, I may attempt to contact other builders and take a road trip out to meet them. It would be nice to actually see some of these parts and some of the lay-ups being done in real life. It might help me visualize the construction a little better. What’s cool is I actually know what Micro-Slurry and Lay-ups are. Among some of my concerns are the environmentals of the workshop. I would like to keep the shop at 74-78 degrees with less than 50% humidity. Based on what I read, this is the most desirable conditions for efficient buildings. I’m hoping that highly regulated air temp/humidity control will help me make more consistent lay-ups. This area of the country has some stifling humidity and heat in the summer and also can get quite cold in the winter so I’m probably going to build some sort of HVAC system to ensure the air is good for building.
On a side note, I was pleased to hear about Rutan’s and Pilot Mike Melvill’s success regarding the flight of SpaceShipOne reusable launch vehicle (RLV) and its carrier aircraft, White Knight. It’s encouraging to see us continuing to develop flight travel in this day with all the distractions in the world. I would very much like to go visit their shop and see this amazing machine in person. Maybe I’ll write them a letter and take a road trip if they’ll let me come visit. That would be worth the drive.
Speaking of road trips, my suspension work on the Beemer is almost complete. I need a
new muffler and right rear final drive axel (maybe). I should be able to
purchase the parts in about three or four weeks. Then I can finish putting the
car together and take that road trip to
Working on such a complex car has helped me better understand the unintended consequences of one small change on the entire system. I’ve added new spring that have lowered the car an inch and have noticed I have a different camber on the wheels. This is likely to subtly change the handling characteristics of the vehicle when I take it out to the track. Of course, this is a car and not an airplane. As I was exploring the Canard BBS sites and reading some of the discussions about other builder activities, I was horrified to read about one called the Big-Eze. I can understand the builder concern about cockpit size for folks with a large frame of 6’4”, 250 pounds or so. On my casual glance it appears one or more builders have embarked on an experiment to extend the length and width of the fuselage. What is so scary to me is the seemingly hap-hazard way the discussion around the modifications seems to be unfolding. There was talk of changing the Spar length, size of the various fuselage components and other things. I suppose to some I may seem overly conservative. But I don’t have any experience with designing systems beyond IT systems. The few projects I’ve observed seem to have a whole host of analysis, preparation and documentation that takes place long before the construction is started, all of which cost $$$$$$. Modifying the proportions of the cabin seems to be changing the whole plane. I honestly wish them the best with it and hope they invest in a good test pilot and at least 100 hours of solo testing before taking off the parachute.
Regarding chutes, I still have been unable to locate much info on a ballistic chute installed in a canard aircraft and have never heard of one being deployed. If you’ve heard of anything like this, please let me know where you read about it.
I’m hoping to have my academic education complete in the next week or so. I finished my Master Degree about two weeks ago so I’m no longer distracted with that. Once I finish the newsletters, I think I’ll jump in and screw up a bookend or two. I’m not sure what picture to put in it, but I’m thinking some version of my Snoopy logo would be appropriate.
I’m keeping my MS Project Plan up to date and updating the content with progresses and learning. It’s large and a pain to publish so if you’re interested in seeing my actual, just send me an email and I’ll send you the latest version.
Izzy