Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 07:21:28 -0800 From: Jim Cullen Subject: COZY: Rotisserie - style mount for Cozies Under Construction Hi All: Well, I probably spelled rotisserie wrong, but you get the idea. Has anyone drawn up plans for a mount that allows you to work on a Cozy airframe -- preferably with the centersection spar and strakes attached -- that will allow you to pivot the fuselage along the roll axis? I'd like to build such a thing (1) to allow me to work on the interior of my airframe a bit more and (2) to make finishing the bottom of the airframe easier. I'd rather flip the fusleage around the roll axis than end-for-end when it comes time to do the work on the bottom. If no one has invented such a doo--dad, I'll try to prototype one and let you know how it comes out. Many thanks, Jim Cullen From: Epplin John A Subject: RE: COZY: Rotisserie - style mount for Cozies Under Construction Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 10:28:52 -0600 I have turned mine over twice by rolling rather than looping, using only 3 people to do the job. I made a 4 legged attachment to the firewall, using the engine mount bolts to attach it. It protrudes about a foot aft of the firewall and ends up as a stub about 3 in long, maybe 3/4 in. diameter with a large washer welded to it. This stub is about centered between the bolt holes. I hook my hoist to this stub and raise the aft fuse enough for the strakes to clear as it is rolled over. I left the nose gear extended and made a stand on the top of the fuse by bolting 1 in angle iron pieces to the canard attach points, extending these about 2 foot above the fuselage. These were x braced sideways and braced back to the shoulder harness anchor points fore & aft. A 1x4 across these provided a base to sit the nose on and hold it solid in the roll axis. I have some legs attached to the firewall for the aft to sit on also. This works pretty good, if you have a hoist that will lift over 6 ft high. You will need about that to clear the strakes. The fuselage will sit about 45 deg nose down when you do this. It looked a bit scary, but not as bad as doing a loop over a couple of saw horses, my opinion anyway. I have a 10 ft ceiling in my shop so must push this out the door to rotate. John Epplin Mk 4 #467 > From: Jim Cullen [SMTP:jimculle@vegasnet.net] > Has anyone drawn up plans for a mount that allows you to work on a Cozy > airframe -- preferably with the centersection spar and strakes attached -- > that will allow you to pivot the fuselage along the roll axis? Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 20:40:34 -0400 From: Baine G Whipkey Subject: COZY: Rotisserie - style mount for Cozies Under Construction If you have a conical engine mount it is easy to flip the airplane over with the canard and wings removed. Make a plate out of 3/4 inch plywood which will bolt to the 4 mount points of the conical mount. Purchase a heavy duty eye bolt from your local hardware store and two each nuts for the bolt. Make two large washers from 1/4 inch 2024. The ID of the washer should match the eye bolt and the OD should be at least five inches. With the plywood bolted tightly to the conical mount, place an mark at the diagonal of the 4 mount points. Drill a hole for the eye bolt through the mark. Place the large washers on each side of the plywood. Using lock tight on the nut, run one nut down near the bottom of the threads. Place large washer onto eyebolt, and slide through plywood. Place other large washer on eye bole. Using lock tight again, tighten last nut onto eyebolt until finger tight. Let lock tight cure. Now to rotate the aircraft. Retract the nose landing gear, and place nose on a large piece of blue foam. Hook an engine hoist to the eye bolt and jack the airplane up until it is high enough to clear the strakes when rotated. Pivot the airplane on the nose. It sort of like a top on laying on its side. Once upside down place saw horses under the longerons at the rear, and lower the airplane. Lift the nose and place another saw horse at the front of the longerons just aft of the instrument panel. I have used this set up to flip my Long EZ over many times, and the guy who showed me this trick used it to flip his Cozy III. One person can do it, but it is much easier with two. Paul Krasa Long EZ 214LP Paul, I like your method of turning the fuselage and would like to add a trick I learned in the C/P newsletter to turn my long EZ which I was able to turn by myself but took every ounce in strength I had to tip it over. so I would suggest two people also. The only thing I would do different which I think is easy, is to use a 1" x10" board long enough to span across the rear of the spar so that the holes for the wing mount are used to attach three bolts through the 1" x 10" to make it rigid. Extend the board far enough past the spar tip to make a support for it to rest on when the airplane is rolled over so that the spar doesn't hit the ground. Worked for me. Baine Whipkey Long EZ 327MB From: cdenk@ix.netcom.com Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 20:21:31 -0600 (CST) Subject: Re: COZY: Rotisserie - style mount for Cozies Under Construction I would suggest that instead of 1 x 10 use a 2 x 10, and let the ends project beyond the ends of the strakes/spar and rounded ends, to protect the ends if you can't quite get high enough, or the unthinkable happens.