• Mossberg Owners is in the process of upgrading the software. Please bear with us while we transition to the new look and new upgraded software.

Giving Up the Gas

So what became of the Varieze?

I've never been close to one, but I did get to touch a Vari-vigen (sp?) at the airshow. I can't imagine what it's like to land a tricycle gear pusher prop canard.

What end is the heavy end on those things?
 
HBA_Feb81_026_001.jpg

This is the VariViggen. It was designed by Burt Rutan of Mojave CA and made its first flight in 1972. The last flight was in 1988 when he donated it to the EAA museum in Oshkosh WI. This made a lot of appearances at airshows during those years and may very well been the one touched by you. Only about 20 others were built from plans, so it a a relatively rare bird.

Klausbanking2.jpg

The VariEze [pronounced Very Easy] was developed as simple construction "kit" for home builders. Also a Burt Rutan design.
The innovation obvious in both planes is the short span canard in font of the plane. The design was to make the plane stall-proof. Both wings are lifting surfaces and the canard is used for pitch changes. If the the pilot pulls too far back on the stick the canard will stall and automatically pitch the VariEze nose down which unstalls it.

You asked "So what became of the Varieze?"
If you meant the design in general, it became [along w/ the slightly larger LongEze] the most popular homebuilt aircraft design ever. Over 2000 kits were sold.

If you meant my Eze in particular it was like this.
I bought my kit, which included gallons of epoxy, 3 different types of foam, hardware, glass cloth, and some tools, and metal pieces. The kit was somewhere around $2000. Engine not included.
For an engine I found a used Continental O-200 for $1000.
I started building it in my basement of my home in Jackson TN. Then I transferred to Memphis and had no place in my apartment to build. My optometrist friend let me use his garage for building and storage, much to his wife's chagrin.
I decided to stop the project. I found that I wanted to fly more than build, and I had a side business selling aircraft and teaching.
So I put the VariEze up for sale.
I sold the kit for just what I paid for it. By that time the new kits had risen in price.
I sold the engine to a different guy for $2000. So I made some money on that. [BTW, O-200 engines go for over $20,000 today.]
About 10 years later I got a letter in the mail from some oil company based in CA that said they would buy my unused registration number, N4TJ, for $200. I told them "yes" and sent them the paper work.

You asked, "What end is the heavy end on those things?"
images

This is how a VariEze is parked.
The nose gear is retracted and the CG of the empty plane moves just forward of main gear. If the pilot gets out of the plane w/o retracting the nose gear, the plane will tip nose-up and damage the wing tips. With the crew in the plane the CG about center of the rear [co-pilot's] seat.
 
Yes, Scoop, I meant your particular plane. I was just kidding about the heavy end thing. You remember the old saw about pointing the heavy end at the ground? The one I saw was almost perfectly balanced. If you didn't tie the nose down I'm sure it would blow right over in the slightest wind.

The Vari I saw was at Castle AFB, back about 1998. The fellow who flew it was not part of the air show. I got to see his plane parked on the flight line and then I got to watch him fly it off, but I didn't get to speak to him much about it.

Remember the stir that was caused when those planes first came about. As I recalled, the big downside was high takeoff and landing speed. I would have paid good money to fly in that one but I never got the chance.
 
Well I'm putting a casting deck in the front of the boat, and of course all this boat work has kept me away from the shooting range.

20170610_083336_resized.jpg

I used ordinary Fir plywood and poplar, knowing that it will rot out in 20 years but in 20 years I won't have this boat anymore.
 
20170610_080432_resized.jpg
Under the deck will be storage for flotation devices and the batteries for the front motor. Moving those batteries forward will improve the balance of the boat and shorten the cables required.
 
Well the deck has about 10 pounds of paint on it, plus I gripped the top with white aquarium sand and then shot grey over the whole thing.

20170614_150808_resized.jpg

I got this commercial window sash for about 5% of the normal price at some junk shop. Basically it's manufactured plastic-wood cast with thick vinyl skin. The stuff is so excellent to work with, & cuts and shapes well, and it doesn't make me itch & sneeze like some wood.

I will paint this gray to match the boat but this is going to be the deck edge & the sliding door frame.

Those are not the actual sliding doors but just some panels I'm using for setup.
 
Well the boat was not 100% complete by Father's day but it was good enough to take to the water. I'd intended to go to an Alpine Lake but it was late by the time my wife got ready and we ended up going to a much warmer low altitude Lake.

It was in fact 104 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, and we stayed out in it too long. Nevertheless, we had a good time & caught some bass and bluegill. There were large trout jumping at darning needles but we could never catch a single one.

I'll bet if I went back today with some blue flies I could catch them, but that's not gonna happen. I've been working too hard and I need a recovery day.
7518.jpeg
This was a 13-inch bass & unfortunately it was the biggest we caught.

7519.jpeg

This is Judy yelling at those trout which keep jumping around our boat but don't seem to be taking her bait.
 
Thanks DJ.

Some time before I was too old for it to matter, I discovered that working harder than I thought I should was the only way to be healthier than I was.

So it's a struggle but it is one I invite on myself. If I tapped into my savings I could go pay cash for brand new boat, but all that would get me was a nicer boat. The time and money I've spent on this boat has returned me something else as well.

The case of exhaustion!

But when that's over with it will be physical fitness. :rolleyes:
 
I discovered something when I damaged one of my propellers a little bit. Minn Kota and Navigator spin in opposite directions.

I never noticed this before as they are on opposite ends of the boat and you can't see them both at the same time.

But I bought this replacement prop for the front motor and that's when I noticed it doesn't match the rear.

20170619_135341_resized.jpg
 
By the way, since these are DC motors I can just reverse the polarity and they will spin either direction.

I've had the boat out now twice with six batteries in it and never come close to running short of juice in four or five hours of Motoring. This means that I could either mount more powerful Motors, or remove a couple of batteries from the boat to lighten it.

Actually I intend to do both.
 
I've been looking online at more powerful electric outboard motors, but it appears that to replace what I have with something more powerful is actually going to cost over $3,000. It would be far cheaper just to add one more motor.

Also I determined that to replace my six group 29 lead-acid batteries with an equivalent amp hour capacity of lithium ion batteries will currently cost about $5000! This is compared to approximately $660 for the lead acid batteries. I don't know if my conventional battery chargers will work with those so I would probably end up spending $$$ for a battery charger too.

The lithium ion batteries would weigh about 200 pounds less than what I'm carrying now so that means I could put one more person plus their gear in the boat. If I want to put more than four adults in the boat currently, it will be somewhat overloaded for even calm water, and heavily overloaded in a stiff chop.

I could afford the cost, and it would be nice to lighten the boat 200 pounds, but the thing that bothers me the most right now is the fact that lithium ion batteries get hot when you use them and then get hot when you charge them. This means that they cannot be in direct contact with the plastic boat or wood parts, or anything flammable. There is a savings in volume as lithium ion batteries are much smaller than lead acid batteries, but I'm afraid most of that would be taken up by additional airspace and insulation, to prevent melting my boat.

Finally, if a lithium ion battery does catch fire, I'm not sure what type of fire extinguisher is required to put it out. I carry a small ABC in the boat, and I imagine that that would do it, but this is now another subject for research.
 
Lithium battery in close proximity to water definitely would requure some serious thought on keeping them dry.
As for fire suppression a class D extinguisher.
 
There are high-end custom guys doing lithium-ion boats, and there's one that claims that nobody else is doing it well enough to use them in a boat. He says everyone else is using automotive type components which are not substantial enough.

I hadn't thought about the water issue, but yeah that could be a quite a fireworks display huh?
 
Here is some advice for fire suppression involving Li-ion failures.

images


Welcome to Battery University! <-- link

Battery University™ is a free educational website offering hands-on battery information to engineers, educators, media, students and battery users alike. The tutorials evaluate the advantages and limitations of battery chemistries, advise on best battery choice and suggest ways to extend battery life.


What to Do When a Battery Overheats
If a Li-ion battery overheats, hisses or bulges, immediately move the device away from flammable materials and place it on a non-combustible surface. If at all possible, remove the battery and put it outdoors to burn out.

A small Li-ion fire can be handled like any other combustible fire. For best result use a foam extinguisher, CO2, ABC dry chemical, powdered graphite, copper powder or soda (sodium carbonate). If the fire occurs in an airplane cabin, the FAA instructs flight attendants to use water or soda pop. Water-based products are most readily available and are appropriate since Li-ion contains very little lithium metal that reacts with water. Water also cools the adjacent area and prevents the fire from spreading. Research laboratories and factories also use water to extinguish Li-ion battery fires. Halon is also used as fire suppressant, but this agent may not be sufficient to extinguish a large Li-ion fire in the cargo bay of an aircraft.

A large Li-ion fire, such as in an EV, may need to burn out as water is ineffective. Water with copper material can be used, but this may not be available and is costly for fire halls.

...​
 
"A large Li-ion fire, such as in an EV, may need to burn out as water is ineffective."

Maybe instead of concentrating all the batteries in one huge mass, they should be spread out like tiny cells over the whole surface.

I sure as hell don't want to jettison the batteries because of a fire, and they're sure as hell not going to be right there up on Deck where I can toss them over either.

But then I think most of the lithium ion battery failures that we've seen in the smart phones were because the batteries were just easily damaged -- the phones being so extremely thin that you could rupture the thing just by sitting on it.

I'm pretty sure a boat battery could be designed to be much safer. It could have reasonable dimensions.

Ooooooh...... its 2 a.m. and I just crawled out from under the boat trailer. I must want to go fishing really bad. I put in so many late nights.

I made 10 new brackets for my trailer so I could lengthen the rails plus add a second set of even longer rails. I'm replacing a damaged keel roller and adding two more rollers.

In addition I fixed the trailer so it does not tilt. The bow was sometomes running into the tilt mechanism, depending on how steep the loading ramp was. I have patched it at least three times in 17 years.
 
Well today I found out that submersible does not necessarily mean waterproof.

Look at the hole where the wires come out of the tail light...

7641.jpeg
 
I recently broke one of my tail lights on my trailer.

Thinking about installing an LED stop/turn/tail light.

Sealing the entire circuit board in silicone rubber/caulk. If it doesn't already come sealed in a thick layer of rubber.
 
My old ones were sealed with silicone glue but it's a pain when you have to change the bulbs and eventually it fails because the stuff doesn't really stick that well to certain Plastics.

I'm going to put these up on stalks so they stick out of the water and I won't have this problem.
 
It doesn't rain in California?
 
Back
Top