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(Complete Rainier flight photos posted!) |
Flying & Home-Built Aircraft |
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(Complete Rainier flight photos posted!) |
Preparing for a flight |
"Yes... it does feel as incredible as it looks!" |
Big Bird from above... flying at altitude |
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| High Flight
by: John Gillespie Magee, Jr. |
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And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds... and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of... wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there. I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space... put out my hand, and touched the face of God! |
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A Long-EZ is a home-built aircraft that was designed by Burt Rutan. I believe he was heard describing where the name came from at one time: the plane can fly a VERY long way (2000+ miles on a single tank of gas!) and is [ed. relatively]  easy to build. This incredible flying machine is built from "scratch" by following the instructions in a set of plans about 200+ pages long. The material of construction are predominantly fiber glass and foam composite. The plane is essentially a "stealth" design! Building time can range from several months to... well, whenever, determined by the builder's experience, amount of free time, degree of financial independence, intensity of the obsession to fly this beauty, and a number of other variables (like how much you want to  keep your family intact!). Some folks never finish. Some folks finish and never fly their plane. Some folks build more than one!? Most of the EZ owners built their own planes, and in doing so became members of a very special group of individuals. To be a builder/pilot is to understand a great deal about what all the other builders went through to catch their dream, and to form an immediate respect and friendship that can only come from walking the same path and going through the same trials. It is hard to describe the feeling one gets when flying this plane, looking out over the wings of your own creation, and seeing the world as the backdrop!! The performance alone is awesome: moving along at 200 mph and "playing" with clouds to pass your time away! For more information on the Rutan aircraft, and about other homebuilt aircraft, try visiting the internet links/sites listed below.
The plane shown at the top of the page was built by me and my husband, Ken. The project took approximately 23 months (2200+ hours) to complete (8-12 hours a day, no days off). The total cost was about $24,000, which also includes the cost of setting up the garage for the project and getting the necessary (and very few) tools needed. First flight was October 30, 1982. N455EZ, "Big Bird", as she was named, was the 36th Rutan Long-EZ to fly (Serial No. 455). There are now several hundred completed Long-EZ aircraft flying in countries all over the world. The largest concentration is in California, US. Long-EZ aircraft have flown around the world (not non-stop of course... only Voyager has done that!). Long-EZs have set several significant aviation records for their class including non-stop flight from Alaska to the Bahamas, and reaching an altitude of 36,000 ft with a stock plane and unmodified engine. The Long EZ has a glide ratio of about 11:1 (in the right |
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During May 1999 I had a chance to fly with two good friends over to Mt. Rainier. I was the passenger in a Long EZ, and our formation friend was in a Lancair 360. What a great flight, with CAVU conditions all the way. I got a chance to take photos and enjoy the flight. Check it out! |
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A collection of modification tips and alternate installation ideas for builders of the Rutan-designed LONG-EZ and VARI-EZE aircraft.
In 1985 I prepared a booklet describing several functional and cosmetic modifications that we made to our Long EZ, Big Bird. These were found useful by many builders over the years and I was constantly getting copies made up of the plans and sending them out. The plans have literally been distributed all over the world ever since then.
These plans are in no way linked to the folks at Rutan Aircraft.
These tips are offered to EZ builders as something that they can consider for their own planes. I make no claims or assertions whatsoever about the usefulness, results, or problems that might develop from using these ideas. These modifications proved useful to us in our plane and are offered to others, in this booklet, to document how we performed them.
The EZ mods booklet includes the following modifications:
- Forward-mounted brake cylinders modification
- Nose-mounted air vent installation
- Alternate roll trim handles/controls (2)
- Instrument access cover
- Canopy latch modification
- Rear-mounted air [exit] vent installation
I still make the tips booklet available to builders, and after all of these years I still get a request for one about every other month or so. If you're a builder, and you're interested in my mods, check out the topics through the links above, where I briefly describe each of the topics/tips in the booklet. If you'd like to get a copy just send me an eMail message and I'll set it up with you. All I ask for is enough to cover the shipping and the printing/binding. I don't keep many of them on hand, but it doesn't take but a couple of weeks to get them printed, bound, and mailed off.
A question that I've been asked quite a few times regarding the EZ tips booklet: "Can I make these modifications to an existing/already built EZ?" Yes, you can, and many have done so... however, I would immediately ask you, "Did you build the plane yourself?" This is important, because the essential skills of working with epoxy, fiberglass, and forming the parts, and installing the mods, are developed during the "experience" of building an EZ, or equivalent project using the same materials. If you don't have these skills you should at least have access to someone who does, to help you, to coach you, perhaps to do it for you. I won't even get into a discussion about whether or not you should be making changes of any kind to a plane for which you are not registered as the FAA Repairman (as an EZ builder who builds their own plane is recognized). And even if you can muddle through the process of making the mods (they aren't THAT difficult to do!) you would want to be sure that you can tackle the job of getting the painting and finish tasks completed so that your plane looks good again after any cutting-up and glassing work. By the way, as far as I know these mods/tips will work equally as well for the Vari-EZE as for the Long-EZ, even though they were prepared primarily with the Long-EZ in mind. I also have personally seen some of them installed into a Cozy aircraft and they worked very well for that builder without altering the plans/descriptions.
If you have any ideas (proven and with some history), and would like to share them with the EZ world, I would love to hear from you. It was a lot of fun putting the booklet together and I would enjoy trying to assemble another one (gives me yet another reason to play at my computer!). What I would need is basic directions, pretty good descriptions... or drawings if dimensions and scale are critical, and photos are always a big help.
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