Big John wrote:

See the step but don't remember ever seeing on the original
plan/birds????? which I looked at years ago for possibility of
building. May have missed that minor detail.

The step on my Long EZ is per plans. I don't know what kind of step
the Varieze plans called for, if any. Maybe someone with a Varieze
could chime in. I'd like to know.

The EZ had a carnard/rain problem. Is that fixed now or do you have to
fly around the problem?

Well, it's not fixed on my airplane. If I want to fix it, I have to
build a new canard. The effect can be trimmed out. Variable rain
requires frequent re-trimming, of course. I largely avoid flying in
the rain because of my wood prop. Interestingly, the canard will let
me know it's raining even when the rain is so light that I can't see
it. It's my drizzle/virga detection system. g On several occasions
it has clued me in to virga that I would have been oblivious to
otherwise.

Have seen lots of figures. What's your HONEST cruise at say 8K?

I get 162 kt TAS at 8,500 full throttle leaned for best power. The
engine is a 150 hp O-320. I have wheel pants in the hangar that would
give me another 5 kt or so if I would only install them. g Plus
there are a number of other things I could do to clean it up
aerodynamically. Interestingly, the boarding step alone knocks close
to 1 kt off the top end.

Regards,

David O -- http://www.AirplaneZone.com