This weekend I had planned to go to cleveland to visit Tim Lumpp, a fellow Cozy builder. Tim is building a Great plane and is currently in the finishing stages. (sanding, sanding and sanding) I always enjoy visiting other builder's projects because you get to see their innovation and methods in solving problems that you may currently be encountering or will eventually. Anyway, Tim is loaning me a set of main-gear tires for my plane to use during the build process and the plan was to visit and pick them up. Fortunately for me Cozy IV flier, Bill Kastenholtz, was out exercising his plane and felt that the Columbus area wasn't too far to go to deliver Tim and his tires to me! According to Tim, it was a 40ish minute flight from Cleveland to Columbus and the weather was clear, cool winter weather and made for an enjoyable flight.

Upon arriving we enjoyed lunch together and talk of our projects. Both offered advice to me on ways around difficulties that I am encountering. We also spoke quite a bit about the finishing process currently being experienced by Tim on his project. It was a fun meeting and the fact that Tim's project looks great with superior craftsmanship and the fact that bill won an award for "Outstanding Craftsmanship" at Oshkosh 04 help me feel that I am really lucky to be among such an excellent group.

Upon our return to the airport, Bill offered me a ride in his beautiful aircraft and I was quite happy to take him up on his offer. We flew north of Columbus for about an hour with Bill allowing me to take control for a good portion of that time. This is only my second ride in a Cozy and it really energized me to touch and smell the thing that I am working toward. I couldn't wait to run home and get some work done.



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The aircraft performed better than I remembered. During taxi the aircraft was tame with little brake / rudder required. From my last ride in a Cozy III I expected some bounce from the front gear during taxi, but Bill's plane seemed to be void of this behavior the his and the aircraft's credit.

Acceleration on the runway was extremely solid, giving a solid push back in the seat and a feeling that there were more than enough horses behind us to do the job. Our climb out exceeded 1500 ft / minute with 2 of us in the plane and a bit under half fuel. (about 350 in people, 175ish in Fuel and probably another 100lbs in equipment/ ballast and misc = Total load of about 625lbs ) We climbed to about 4500' (3000 AGL) and leveled out. Bill pulled to power back to about 65% and we establised an indicated airspeed of about 160Kts.

Outside temperatures were around freezing at ground level and I expected to be cool in the cockpit, an expectation that I have garnered from reading mailing lists and hearing builders talk of difficulty heating the cockpit. Again, this aircraft exibited no heating issues and the only time I felt cool was durring final decent when the front landing gear was lowered. It was quite tolerable and probably would have gone largely unnoticed had it not been pointed out.

Once established in cruise I was able to take the controls and "play" a bit. The aircraft is VERY responsive to pitch input. aI was able to perform some steep turns and the aircraft was quite tame. I found it interesting that turns of 45 degrees require little or no back pressure on the stick initially. Old habits died hard in me and turns generally resulted in altitude gain. Only once the turn is well established was there any back pressure required.

Roll rates were snappy in comparison to the Cessnas that I am used to flying, and the lack of need for rudder input makes the overall fun and feel of this plane wonderful.

Visibility during cruise is excellent with the bubble cockpit. During takeoff and final flair there were brief periods that the horizon dissapeared but not uncomfortably.

During our transition back to the airport, we were in line behind 6 Cessnas and Bill pulled the power back to under 1900 RPMS to accommodate their speeds. This still resulted in an IAS of 110 - 115 kts. This was a great feeling knowing that a setting this low resulted in indicated airspeeds equivalent to those of a 172 a full throttle. The aircraft continued to be tame in the pattern and at the reduced RPM settings. Transition to the flair was flat compared to the high wings I am used to flying and the aircraft settled softly to the runway under Bill's command. Roll out was much quicker and longer than I am used to. We used about 2300' of runway in landing and roll out.

My sincerest thanks to Bill Kastenholtz for the pleasure, and to Tim Lumpp for the tires and time. It was an excellent day getting to see them again and the talk as usual was warm and informative. I am looking forward to visiting again...


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