My Long-EZ build moved under its own power for the first time, November 1st 2024. It has been 12 years and 11 months since this marathon began and over 16,000 hours of logged build time.

We had finally found the cause of the latest engine problem which was the fuel mapping and with a little difficulty the engine started.

Here’s a link on my YouTube channel with slightly better resolution.

Since then I’ve done 4 runs in total of around 18 minutes each. The steering was quite stiff which was a concern but that only needed some lubrication on the nose gear and now it really turns well and feels much better in the taxi. It is extremely sensitive so I need to be on my game on the runway.

I also found that with about 2mm off the nose gear cover and one AN size shorter bolt down there with a washer removed I can now rotate the nose wheel 360 degrees on the ground. This makes pushing it backwards where the nose must rotate 180 degrees much easier.

The cowls are not on yet so that will effect the temperatures in a negative way. We are starting on a cut and shut for the exhaust pipes today. The ends are too near the top cowl for my liking and I have found a gun welder to do the job.

The temperatures hasn’t reach maximum at low RPM after 20 minutes so that’s going in the right direction. However the Delta T is only 6 degrees. I need this higher. That’s the difference between the coolant temp from the engine and then measured after the radiators before it returns to the engine.