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LongEz Limitations

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ventura(at)brandeis.edu
Guest

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:55 am Post subject: LongEz Limitations

Weav, since you have so much experience with LongEz's, I was hoping you 

would give me a little advice.  I have a 118 HP O-235 L2A powered LongEz 

which I bought from a friend's estate.  It is a heavy aircraft with an 

empty wt of 960lbs.  I have never flown this airplane, but eventually 

hope to make some very long flights with it, including a trip up to 

Alaska.  (I am presently making some repairs and minor modifications to 

the airplane.)



But with me and full fuel my takeoff wt would be 1472 lb,  well above 

the designed gross wt of the airplane, and I have not even added any 

baggage yet.  I have seen LongEzs placarded with gross wts of 1600lb, 

and when I asked the builders about that they said they set that as the 

gross wt of the airplane so they would never be bothered by the FAA. 



So my question is what kind of maximum takeoff wt would you consider 

safe in this kind of LongEz on a standard day, and what kind of runway 

length would I require?  What is the minimum runway length you feel 

comfortable with when flying at 1325lbs?



If anyone else has any experience in this area,  I would like to hear 

your comments as well.



Thanks for your help.



Joel Ventura

Andover, MA

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Mytyweav(at)earthlink.net
Guest

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 10:52 am Post subject: LongEz Limitations

Joel....   The Long EZ has evolved quite a bit over the years from the 

simple "lightweight" Long that Burt loved so much. Without going into 

the archives to locate all the weights that these airplanes have been 

flown at, I'd just like to say that Dick Rutan and Mike Melville both 

changed to 0-360's and lots of extra fuel etc etc and still carried 

baggage. They tried never to "land" with all that weight but even that 

was sorta tested a time or two as I recall. The difference between an 

0-235 and an 0-320 is enormous in the Long. The 0-320 should have been 

the engine of choice right in the beginning. (just my opinion after 

flying them both quite a bit.) You can still load it up with all your 

stuff and plenty of gas and fly quite fast AND comfortable for hours. 

The POH for the Long specifies the max landing weight and that's what 

I'd continue to try and do. You can take off a lot heavier and fly just 

fine as long as you obey the CG limitations. Just don't land it heavy 

unless you can very smoothly "roll it on"...  Working on the gear leg 

attachments after the plane has been built and flown is not really a fun 

chore.

I'm sure there are other email lists that the Canard guys are on and I'd 

recommend you post to them and get their opinions too. The Long EZ is a 

very strong and capable airplane. Put a Lycoming 0-320 with 160 hp on 

the back and go enjoy what the plane can really do.

Good Luck,

Fred Weaver



Joel Ventura wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   



 Weav, since you have so much experience with LongEz's, I was hoping 

 you would give me a little advice.  I have a 118 HP O-235 L2A powered 

 LongEz which I bought from a friend's estate.  It is a heavy aircraft 

 with an empty wt of 960lbs.  I have never flown this airplane, but 

 eventually hope to make some very long flights with it, including a 

 trip up to Alaska.  (I am presently making some repairs and minor 

 modifications to the airplane.)



 But with me and full fuel my takeoff wt would be 1472 lb,  well above 

 the designed gross wt of the airplane, and I have not even added any 

 baggage yet.  I have seen LongEzs placarded with gross wts of 1600lb, 

 and when I asked the builders about that they said they set that as 

 the gross wt of the airplane so they would never be bothered by the FAA.

 So my question is what kind of maximum takeoff wt would you consider 

 safe in this kind of LongEz on a standard day, and what kind of runway 

 length would I require?  What is the minimum runway length you feel 

 comfortable with when flying at 1325lbs?



 If anyone else has any experience in this area,  I would like to hear 

 your comments as well.



 Thanks for your help.



 Joel Ventura

 Andover, MA

- The Matronics EZ-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?EZ-List

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