Still building! working on the cannard and avionics. Avionics is chewing up a lot of time but happy to do it. Will post a progress soon hopefully.

​@@AusVelocitylooking forward to it

Yeah sorry, next one will be the cannard wing. Working on that now.

Yeah the prices went a bit nuts after covid. But at least it's still the cheapest and best option for the SE.

You're probably right about that. It's usually for the initial stall location on the wing but since the wing is not designed to ever stall, it's probably not for that reason. The best I can do is just follow the guidance of the factory and the manual. The manual wants both wings straight so I'll run with that. I'm about half way through the canard wing, that looks nice and straight and I'll make a video on that soon, time permitting. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes you're right. Everything about aircraft building that I've seen is precise and perfect, up to the point of needing an autistic level of OCD or everybody dies. That's a good attitude to have. If building a Vans or a Sling, yeah, things cant be bent or it will collapse, holes exact size and need to be deburred, every part needs to be prepared. A miss-drilled hole means you need to order a replacement part. Just build like you're working for NASA. Vans meant for you to be really meticulous. Look at their laser cut holes saga, their engineers proved the holes are good to go, but they want to encourage builder perfection so offered replacement parts anyway. perfection = confidence. Velocity, It's mostly just glass, epoxy, foam and marine ply keeping it together. Simple, Strong and effective. They encourage you to do the right thing and follow good build practices, but I get the impression they know it won't kill you if you followed the instructions. You'll probably just have to make a few adjustments. Everyone in the velocity community has a hard time coping with the fact that the plane is not that precise. There is no level of machine precision on this plane, the molds were molded by hand in the 80's before CAD and CNC were the standard. It's built like a tank so the builder doesn't have to be expert. Look at the g-loading, +10 -7. A modern aerobatic RV14 is +6/-3g. If something is important, it's highlighted in the manual. Things like wing angle of incidence. Or it's been pre-engineered for you so you can't mess up something important, like the shape of the wings. Almost everything important is adjustable after the epoxy has set. I guess if you do the right amount of glass layups for strength, it looks straight for aerodynamics and you didn't miss anything, then it's probably going to be ok. Yes I try to be precise, but going for NASA levels of perfect is a waste of time. Thanks for the comment! I really should make a video out of that.

@@AusVelocity, Thanks for your response and honesty about your experience and thoughts on the process. The velocity is an absolutely incredible-looking plane. I am a very handy person and completely capable of building something like this, but I think my perfectionism would be my downfall in a process like this. I'm not sure I could sleep at night, knowing my drilled holes were not exactly in the right place. I'm impressed with your ability to work with the given process. But on a side note, those who build the velocity seem to have great success, and the results are incredibly beautiful, so... what do I know? :) I can't wait to see more of your adventure and the final roll out!!

Going slowly. Will have the canard wing finished soon, will make a video when that is done.

The Kit was US$40,000 The engine was US$24,410 Of course the prices have risen from when I bought it.

@@AusVelocity that’s not a bad deal at all. Congrats on your purchaser man. How is the build coming along?

@@Never_quit Working on the canard wing at the moment, as well as designing/programming the aircraft electronics such as the engine sensors, trims, speed brake, safety systems, etc. display. I wont show that until its done though. It's unfortunate since it's a big time killer, but I think its necessary, and way cooler than anything else I've seen.

Ok sorry about that.

Yes, Still going forward with the build!

Yes I should make another one, where I'm up to. Working on the electronics and instruments at the moment.

Yeah, It was the only car I had with a tow ball. It was just a short 10 minute trip. I used it to pull small trees down and out of the ground to make room for my workshop.

Sent you an email Dave.

I see your point. Yes between the 2 spars will need some thin steel shims to get the correct wing pitch angle. Only use shims at the bolt holes in the spars to angle the wings? I didn't consider that because the manual didn't mention that. I also didn't consider how much shim I would need between the center spar and the two wing spars, probably 1/8th inch, same as the tongue depressor. There is ample amount of construction adhesive to fill the void left by the wood shim and I'm confident that the spar is bonded to the firewall. I feel like trying to un-bond (cut the adhesive and everything else) from the spar and firewall now would probable lead to a worse situation than what I have now. There's a lot of bonding points holding the firewall to the fuselage including the 1/2" bolts with more to come when the top shell goes on. Knowing that there could be a weak point in that position I'll add some more layers of glass around that area in the future. Perhaps from the engine side of the firewall to the spar. Thanks for raising issues that you see need attention, I have alarm bells that ring too when I see things that seem dodgy but I don't see everything.

@@AusVelocity My concern is that the firewall is taped in correctly. I doubt that the main Spar is off 1 degree. After I finished my Velocity, I flew down to Sebastian. They use a mold for those spars. If your firewall is off, you can also shim the motor mounts with a washer. I was fortunate. I had a fellow that had just finished and RV 4 helping me. He had a lot of tips to solve problems. I'm sure everybody's wings aren't perfect. We have aileron trim. I remember on my early flights. I trimmed my ailerons. The next flight, I tried to trim them again, and they ended up in the same spot as before. I flew that Velocity for 450 hours after that, and never had to trim them again.

@@Alumni6042 Yes, It's likely that the firewall is not exactly square, very hard to get that right when the nose is off the centerline. I'll just have to shim where I can. Thanks for the input.

Now you may be right about your nose being off. When I was at Velocity, I noticed the original plug built by Dan hanging up, and I asked what is that, and they told me it was the original plug. They also admitted that it was off a little bit, which means the original mold was off, which my plane came out of. I don't know if they used that mold for your plane, but it's quite possible that your nose is off a little bit. Having said that, I never could see it, and it didn't affect the flight any.

Working on that now, a slip mechanism for safety to ensure it cant jam the cable. I've replaced the servo with a feedback servo for position. It'll be 2nd throttle position in the cabin, and maybe later down the track a cruise control for lower speeds.

How do mean more? More money, time, research, noise, vibration, maintenance, oil consumption, fuel cost? Maybe you mean more bang per buck?

Hey Thanks. I'm working on the canard wing at the moment and I've come to realise all the foam cores aren't perfect. I think the issue is with the foam and not the cut. The issue is there are stresses in the foam block as it's made and when cut, the foam relaxes and slightly reshapes itself. I just assume you just fill in the missing bits with filler and sand down the high bits until they look good then glass over it. In hindsight, I'm not sure any practice is needed, the foam and filler sand down easily, and mistakes are easy to fix. It's like icing a cake, just keep going until you're happy with the result. I don't really see myself as working with "composite materials", I watch those wizards on youtube with carbon fiber, cnc cut molds and vacuum systems and I think, I'm just playing with adult paper mashe.

@@AusVelocity don’t underrate what you are doing :) my personal knowhow is quite extensive and my comments were honest. Regarding the foam cores : some defects that I saw were solely due to poor hot wire cutting. FYI I made moulded parts with foam cores. I had to reach precision better than 3/10mm in order to be able to close the mold. I still have 30 years old parts that look as strait and well shaped as new. Regarding the foam : there are always internal tensions. The more you sand the foam the more you release these tensions. A good foam core is the one that needs nothing more than a good brushing to remove the filaments, then a very slight sanding, to remove the superficial hot wire cuts residues. Don’t forget to blow some air to remove the dust as it sucks a lot of epoxy. I wonder which filler you use since, according to my own experience, sanding epoxy based filler (hard material) and foam (soft material) at the same time makes things only worse ... The key to overcome the tension issue resides in the quality of the negative foam elements. If the initial block is strait, all the building should simply be done using the negative core as a jig. I use to glue (foam contact glue) the negative core to the working table (massive and strait. The best working table consists on a marble plate. Steel tubes reinforced wood plate can do too). Just protect the negative core’s inside (concave form) with a plastic sheet (the one used for greenhouses is perfect), place the foam core and tape it, lay your fiberglass etc, and your wing will never have any unwanted twist.

@@tn1509 Wow all good Information. The filler is the recommended one from the factory, They call it Velocipoxy and it comes supplied with the kit. Epoxy, It's DER-324 and some sort of non-structural hardener all mixed with plenty of micro. My only gripe is it takes overnight to fully harden. Car body filler (American brand bondo) is good to sand in minutes. bondo is mentioned in the manual but used more as a removeable glue. Not much I can do about the foam I'm supplied with, they are pre-cut from the factory and It's on the other side of the world so replacements are a major hassle. Yes trying to sand foam along side of epoxy filler is a problem and you can continually make the job worse the more you try to make it better. I notice that if the foam pores are well impregnated with epoxy then that helps keep the surrounding foam intact during sanding. But you need a runnier (less micro) filler to do that. The curse is, that the runnier the filler is, the harder it is to sand so I don't bother. I just take care to sand the filler more or with more pressure than the foam.

@@AusVelocity Thank you for your feedback Clint. Bottom line is that there are no miracles regarding epoxy filler sanding on foam :)) I use to heat the epoxy (without the hardener!) a little bit (30°c-40°c) then leave it to cool down to room temperature. Curing should be a little faster. I may have other shortcuts to share. Feel free to ask.

Yes that's an issue. For the moment avgas is everywhere, mogas not so much. Hopefully the 100LL will be replaced by 100UL as planned and everything will be sweet. Unil then, It's jerry cans from your home aerodrome or 100LL with the TCP/Decalin additive when out and about. I know I'd rather not use straight avgas and I have no experience with the additive. Hopefully it does what it says on the bottle. I know some aerodromes that have a sizable rotax fleet like if a resident flight school use rotax powered aircraft or a large light sport population, may have mogas. Let's just hope 100UL isn't just wishful thinking.

Thanks Dmitry, I've studied your videos several times for some good ideas and methods that I'll use later on. It was good seeing the cowling since It's hard to get an idea what it should all look like while you're building. Yes, the strakes and the fuel tanks. That'll be interesting, at least I won't have wheel wells to worry about. Playing it cautious here, getting a replacement part from the factory would not be quick or cheap.

Yes speed and efficiency, but needs paved... well there are velocities using grass, very few. A lot of the weakness in the pusher for non-paved runways is the prop. The prop often takes a beating from FOD. Catto and MT props are popular on the velocitys, and they are known to not handle FOD well, Catto apparently better than MT, with their core made of wood. They just aren't durable for off pavement use. If they have a nickel leading edge, they are better, but the chips and damage often occur on the flat side near the weak trailing edge. Pusher's tend to have broader and more blades so that exacerbates the problem. That being said, there isn't a wide range of options for pusher blades, a few more if you don't want a variable pitch. However with no variable pitch, you're probably going to choose to lose takeoff thrust for a higher cruise speed. Lower takeoff thrust means a longer takeoff roll that is exacerbated by a non-paved or soft runway. I'm still looking at options for a variable pitch pusher prop. It wont be an MT or Catto prop. If i could get carbon blades with a larger nickel/inconel outer layer, that would perfect, but I don't know who is willing to make that yet.

but cant use for time building?

@@burakaskin27 Unlikely when building time for a commercial. if you can convince the right people your platform is suitable, then maybe. I could be wrong on the matter. If you want to trade avgas for hours on a budget, then buy the slowest flying, smallest engine thing you can, then pull the throttle half way back and count clouds all day.

@@burakaskin27 building time is definitely something to consider few people can take off a couple of months to build an airplane

Using the 195Hp. This was my first time with epoxy too. It's not hard. All the epoxy and glass is supplied. The tricky bit will be measuring twice and cutting once, then letting the glue dry. But remember it's not just 195Hp as compared to the 180-200HP Lycombing that's intended for the SE. the 195T maintains power at altitude. So 195HP turbo is comparable to up to 245 Hp at cruise RPM at 10,000 ft, given the loss of power at altitude for normally aspirated engines.

Or straight down through the cowl is ok. Out the back gets tricky since you need to time the exhaust pulses so they miss the prop. Usually the way with a horizontally opposed engine. I'm thinking, a bit more distance between the exhaust pipe and the prop is the way to go. Might be a little messy with a small amount of pipe protruding. But we'll see how that turns out.

@@AusVelocity By turned I mean angled back and down, yes. If you have an email, I can send you a picture of my exhaust (TSIO550-C Continental) just being finished up at the factory.

@@speedomars ok. That would be great. Clint.chenoweth gmail

Keep it up!!

Thanks, you're probably right. Without testing them out, I'm guessing the pros of cutting them off is less weight and better visibility for the backseat passengers. The cons are when passenger's lean back for resting/sleeping there is no head support. Given that the plane is intended for long trips, I think I'll leave them for now. Open to changing my mind before I upholster them.

Hmm. Good question, don't know. But im guessing pretty good. It's a low drag aircraft and I'll be able to feather the prop. I'm wondering if installing fuel dump valves in the tanks would increase the ratio.

yeah...like swiftarrow9 wrote, i saw several videos where you could see the vertical rudder on the wings are flexing rearly big ALL the time ! tecnical wise, this must get a fatikque by time ! thats why i wondert about the gliding ratio, you need at least 20-1 incase an engine fails, and better a parachut !@@AusVelocity

​@@KuschallRacing Well I don't know about the flexing of the rudders, maybe you mean the winglets. As far I know none have ever failed in flight. They get 9 layers of glass to bond them on to the wings. I've heard of someone flying around in a velocity that used only 1 layer. Once someone caught the mistake, they fixed it. If it's rudders moving, then you're defiantly not going to tolerate the peddles constantly moving and there is a major problem. Fibreglass is actually pretty good at flexing and not getting fatigued. Aluminium, not so good. I've looked at a parachute, there's not enough room for 1 of the correct size. I thought about using 2, large in the back and small in the nose, but it's too hard balancing the load. Glide Ratio, I'm sure every velocity owner has a good idea what theirs is. I'm not sure what it is.

thank you for your time to chat....YESSS, i ment the lateral movement of the vertical rudder fin.......parashut...still, would be good to have...wish you goood continueing of project !!@@AusVelocity

Well, it can seem shoddy from obsevation, but it's well tested, i think 200 IAS is the limit. I think the weakness is in the ailerons and rudders if they start to flutter. The strength with the G loading is way up there, tested at 6 but designed to 12, i think. Don't know about the twins. A guy in my local area will be building one with ul-power engines soon, I'll have to learn some more about it from him.

Oh the number of interruptions I get while in the workshop !!! Family comes first, project second. The project happens when nothing else is really happening on the home front. I "loose" a few weekends and leave days to camping trips and outings to the beach etc. But all good.

So much to do and never enough time. Unfortunately, the videos don't get the priority I need to give them. Working on that.

Will definitely get more technical on the more technical things to come. But on the airframe, It's just cutting, drilling, sanding, measuring and painting glass with epoxy. I'll try and make it more detailed.

Ahh, yes makes sense. I use Dmitry Spasibenko's hair dryer trick sometimes with the epoxy pump. I'll do that next time I need to refill the pump. Thanks.

You are perfectly correct! Also, keep in mind that epoxy sucks moisture in. Heating it up helps removing some of it (better not to exceed 40c-50c as it may alter its properties. Some enzymes are pretty sensitive). Let the epoxy/hardener to cool down prior to use. Don’t heat the epoxy+hardener mixture, but if room temperature is less than 15c, you can heat it up VERY gently to 20c-25c (adjustable hair dryer) Pour the epoxy into a large recipient. It will better dissipate the heat produced by the chemical reaction and will extend the available working time. Avoid working epoxy during rainy days. A hygrometer is a cheap useful asset in the workshop : moisture degrades the final mechanical properties by a lot.

Hey, good questions. I wanted the engine in my possession from the start. The whole project was only desirable and economically viable with that engine. I was a little worried the price would rise or it might become unavailable near the end of the build and the project would be left in limbo. If the extra money was there, then yes, quick build kit. That's not to say I didn't enjoy building those parts, the extra time building has given me time to think about the direction of the project. The project has also become a bit of a leisure activity. There's no problem staying motivated, things are really starting to get interesting now I am starting to put some really innovative technology into the aircraft.

I'm probably making it more involved than it needs to be, but that's just me.

Haha, so many videos in the works, so little time.

Thanks.

Build 06 video coming out tomorrow I hope, wanted to get it finished today but got called away.

Thanks for the comment and adding to the discussion. It's not as bad as you're thinking. Takeoff distance - Depends on engine, prop, turbo (power and thrust). Same power to weight ratio (at gross) as a cirrus SR22. Same rotation speed as a cirrus. Approach speed - Same as a cirrus. Landing distance - A little longer, some velocity's have reverse thrust. Stall speed is around 5-10 knots higher than a cirrus, less with VGs. The nose on the Velocity is actually lower than if it had an engine and prop in front. No Stall, No spin. Just like a regular plane, you know when you stall the front wing. No Prop wash on the windscreen, noise behind you, depends on the engine and number of blades. Cooling is engine specific. Air cooling needs a lot more air than liquid cooling.

Ignore him he is simply hating on the aircraft. They all have pluses and minuses.

@@speedbird7976 sorry, I was about the first European who bought Cozy plans. But the cockpit was much to small. I only hate fanboys not canards

You forgot very fast cruise and the long range plus the jet like ifr performance. Most of the things you listed can be solved with training and a conservative approach

@@cartmanrlsusall compare the size of the cabin and engine, a canard is allways behind.

Yep all valid concerns. I guess it show the strength of the internal components. I guess the parts don't fail under greater than maximum torque. As for continual power, well that is up to the engine's ability to deal with the constant load and heat by keeping the internal components cool and well lubricated. Interestingly the honda engine has it's own inbuilt oil and exhaust gas cooling system, you just need a bit more radiator. Even the 540 needs to externally cool it's oil. While bigger displacement does make more power in the GA world, it's not necessarily the case for modern engines. 1.6L formula 1 car engines get up to 1000HP for at least a couple of hours. Engine failures during the race cost millions and damage reputations. Yes f1 technology is wildly different to the honda and lycombing engines, but it makes the point modern technology has come a long way since the 50s. With modern engines and ECU's governing the cam, spark, mixture and boost, the engine is protecting itself from detonation. Thanks for interest.

Yes, making plenty of progress, will try and find time to put the footage together and get something worth watching.

Yes, I'm keeping track of the spending and to my surprise, I've spent very little (in comparison) after the initial purchase. Any Vans kit builder would be in utter disbelief. I still have to buy avionics and propeller, so when I get a good estimate on those numbers I'll do a video on the complete purchase price. Thanks, I'll add that video to the list.