On May 22, 10:34*am, Sliker wrote:
On Wed, 21 May 2008 14:20:50 -0700 (PDT), BobR

wrote:

Get a good carbon filter mask, some gloves, and good ventilation.

GOOD LUCK and try to have fun anyway.

I've made peace with the stuff for now. I've got a fan pointed up at
the ceiling above where I'm working. It pushes the air downward over
my work area, carrying away the fumes, and me being upwind of it, I'm
not smelling anything.

I can tell the cured epoxy has more toughness than vinyl ester resin
does. Messing around with some leftover, cured epoxy, it kind of
reminds me of stainless steel. Not the brittle type of hardness some
cured resins have, but it feels very strong. And it does wet out
better when the temperature is warmer. It was up into the high 70's in
my shop yesterday, and it flows a lot better at that temp.


The temperature issue would also explain you problems with cure time
as well. Room temperature means warm, not cold. However, when the
temps rise into the 90's which was not uncommon for my working
environment, the slow cure epoxy was really really appreciated. When
I took the builders class on composites one of the demos performed by
the instructor was to use a hammer on cured blocks of both epoxy and
Vinyl Ester. The Vinyl Ester shattered into a thousand pieces while
there was no effect on the epoxy except for a small chip where the
hammer hit. Not sure if that is the same with all epoxy formulations.

I got my pods from Gary Hunter, but noticed he doesn't respond to
emails. I've read other posts on the Canard Zone blog, and at least
one other EZ owner reported the same thing. Do you know if he's out of
the baggage pod business? If so, when I sell my plane, I may keep the
pod, since they aren't available anymore. Not sure if any other
company is making them.


I know Gary but didn't know he was making pods. Haven't talked with
him in a very long time and haven't any idea what he is upto now.

Researching those pods, I ran across something interesting. It seems
if one wanted to build a Long EZ, the plans are available. By first
downloading the "openEZ" file, then purchasing the TERFCD, a complete
set of Long EZ plans is then aquired. The plans have to be taken to a
printer to get the full sized plans, but at least they are available.
I'd be inclinded to build a Cozy MK IV if a canard was in my future,
just to have the extra room. Although, with todays fuel prices, the
Long EZ, with it's smaller engine requirement might get popular again.
There was also a shareware version of the Aerocanard floating around
for a while, but it's been removed from the sites that had it. It
might be still out there somewhere, but from what I've read, it's not
a complete set of plans you could build one from. It's just to let
prospective builders look it over.

I looked at the Velocity and the Cozy a long time ago before I started
on my project. I loved the look of the planes but after getting an
opportunity to flying in a Velocity once, I am glad I decided on a
more traditional tractor design. Nothing concrete to say against the
canards other than my personal preference. I just didn't like the
ground handling and the transition to and from flight mode of the
canards.