New Canopy Arrives!

Today I went down to a freight terminal 40 miles south of my house to pick up my new canopy that Todd Silver sent out last week.  Todd had shipped out the canopy in hopes of getting a look at the canopy mocked up on my fuselage when he stopped through town as part of a multi-state canopy install tour that he was on.  Unfortunately, Todd stopped by last night (Tuesday evening), but since I had originally received an estimated delivery for Wednesday (today), that’s when I picked up the canopy.

New Canopy

Canopy - SecuredCanopy - with plate!Canopy Overhead Shot

Here’s a shot of the new canopy that Todd had hoped to see!

New Canopy Profile

As you can see by the pic above, the new canopy’s profile is excellent and the dimensions are spot on.  I am VERY happy with this canopy!

 

 

Main Landing Gear Fairings

Today I received my Main Landing Gear Fairings from Steve at Eureka CNC.  Although I got a delivery confirmation from FedEX an hour before I got home, the box was nowhere to be found.  Apparently FedEx delivered them to the wrong house, requiring me to go on a 45-minute goose chase for my box.  My neighbors let me know that was a common occurrence so I eventually found them at the house at the end of the street!

These gear fairings are often called “Wortmann” gear fairings, and as I’m sure most of you know they solve a big drag problem on the Long-EZ by streamlining the main gear in two ways:  First, it takes the oval shape of the main gear and converts it into an airfoil shape, which is exponentially more aerodynamic than virtually any other shape.  Second, it twists the  gear’s angle of incidence so that it meets the oncoming air straight on and fixes the stock gear’s offset profile (read “dirty”) which creates a lot of drag.

After the delivery drama was over I opened the box to find some very precisely (of course!) hot-wired gear fairings!

Gear Fairings

Eureka CNC Gear Fairings

I can’t wait to get these babies glassed onto the main gear.  Thanks Steve!