Chapter Index
Status
Soap Box
Chapters 1-3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Pictures
Chapters 1-3

I started by building a 4 foot by 12 foot construction table.  After researching the archives, and based upon previous experience, I went with the engineered beams for the primary stringers.  1/4" plywood on the bottom, 3/4" plywood on the top.  After sealing this, I covered the top with 1/4" tempered masonite.  This gives me a nice smooth, hard, replaceable surface.

This is a cut-off section of TJI.  The composite construction keeps the beams nice and strong, and straight.  I used the 13.5 inch tall beams.

This is a view of the fiberglass cloth cabinet before hanging it on the wall.  I used 1x12 for the top, bottom, and sides.  The back is 1/8 inch masonite.  The door is also 1/8 inch masonite framed with 1x4 pine.  The basic cabinet is 2 foot high, 4 foot wide.

So what do you do with some extra time, a CAD program, and a laser cutter?  You start knocking out parts!  You can see some of the control linkage parts, blanks for the rudder horn, canopy latches, NC2s, parts for the MKNG12s, control stick pieces, and such.  I love my laser cutters!  Next step for most of these, a little jigging, & a trip to the welding shop.

This is what a complete set of Cozy MKIV parts looks like.  This is all of the foam, cloth, wood, steel, and hardware.  Basically, everything except for the wheels, brakes, tires, and seatbelts.  One big pallet from Wicks, 17 boxes, about 900 pounds.  I am using Aeropoxy in the 5 gallon kits, (5 gallons resin, 2 gallons hardner).  Very cost effective and I find it works great.

This is the resin box that I use to keep the resin warm.  I keep the room about 85 degrees when I am making layups, about 70 otherwise.  My shop has no outside doors or windows, the only door opens to the inside of the garage.  It takes very little energy to keep it warm.  A 15 watt lightbulb keeps the resin around 120 degrees.  Wets out like a charm, using a hair drier to squegee extra resin out only results in dry layups.  I find that it works very well. 

Three 13B Mazda rotary engines.  I wonder what I might be able to use one of those for...

Plans were to put a 13B rotary engine in this beast.  These engines are so cheap, and so easy to work on compared to a Lycoming.  If they do not work out, I am not out anything.  Compared to the costs associated with a Lycoming, this stuff is free.  And with proper design, they should be reliable and not hand you any surprises at annual inspection like the Lycomings tend to do.

The challenge is that not all of the installation and operation systems are available yet.  Tracy Crook's redrive system is just coming on line.  But we are still short a good intake system and exhaust system.  There are a lot of questions about things like water pump capacity, oil pump capacity, and things like that.  The Internet makes it easy to find lots of other peoples opinions about many things, unfortunately it is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction when there are hundreds of people talking and very few flying.  A great example of this was a posting that I made in frustration one night:

We have people who can look at this 13B engine, and just by looking at it know that it is good for 200 HP.  Then we also have people who can look at it and 'know' that the waterpump isn't going to work, but that they can cobble something together that will out perform what Mazda has speant a lot of time developing.  I think Tracy Crook has it right.  Quit talking and fly.  But he also has put the system together, and has worked the bugs out of his system. 

As long as we are willing to accept on gut feel that the engine is strong enough for 200 HP, but the waterpump won't work, let me throw in my opinions.  Opinions like this without testing or data mean less than the paper they are printed on.  They do not forward the cause, and they make it difficult to move forward.  On the engine, I believe that it is a very nice match for a 160 hp engine.  It may work well at 180 hp if you do a nice job on the intake and exhaust system.  I think that 200 hp is probably going to be a big challenge for intake system, cooling system, and possibly for reliability of the exhaust system.  Too many variables for me to deal with on my frst Cozy.

I found the Lycoming IO360A3B6D in the picture on the right, details are in Chapter 23.  The nice thing is you can order most of the parts with a credit card.  The cowls (Aerocad IO360 cowls) don't fit, but it looks like the fix is not too bad.