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Materials and modifications

Building a plane in Norway gives me some challenges in finding the right materials. The plans calls out for foam and epoxy-types not so available in Norway, so I have to substitute to other brands and materials in some cases. The important thing here is to change to something that is approved. By approved it means that other builders have used them and successfully flown with it for some time. There are many besserwissers out there and there can be quite a challenge to sort out the information I get from various builders around. I have learned by reading the forums what persons to trust and what persons not to trust so much.

Suppliers and materials:

Glass: I managed to get the right type of glass from Wilh. Willumsen AS in Oslo. They also delivers the peel-ply.
Epoxy: Epoxy are rated as Hazardous material hence the freight-cost is huge. I was initially going to use MGS-epoxy but that was not available in Norway - at least not in less quantities than barrels of 200 litres (!). I could import from Denmark but again - the freight-cost turned out to be way to expensive. Instead I found that an other canard-builder in Norway had used Ampreg-20 from SP Systems. I contacted the distributor in Oslo - DIAB AS - and they turned out to be very helpful. I have bought resin in 20 litre cans and I am using the slow hardener wich comes in 2,5-litres cans. The epoxy wets out the glass very easy and it's ok to work with.
Foam: There are several types of foam in the plane - of various densities and thickness. The plans calls out for PVC (Divinycell), Urethane, Last-a-foam (Clark Foam) and polystyrene. After some investigations I found that Last-a-foam or Clark Foam (same foam - different names) was unavailable in Norway and I didn't even find it in Europe. It's a urethane-type of foam and very brittle. Some builders have changed it for PVC and I chose to do the same, even though PVC is much more expensive. I have not yet been able to find a substitute for the Polysterene-foam wich is a "large-cell"-type. It's a type called Styrofoam and this foam IS available in Norway but the cell-structure is much smaller. This foam is to be used as the core-material in the canard and wings. I will be looking more for this, but I have more or less decided to buy CNC-cut cores directly from Eureka CNC in USA. It will cost me some $$$ - especially in freight - but I will be guaranteed perfect wings!
I ended up buying the urethane-foam from Inotan AS in Våle and the Divinycell from Diab AS.
Prefab-parts: Many of the metal-parts can be bought prefabricated. I use Aircraftspruce and not to mention CG Products (Cozygirrrl) here. The landing-gear will be bought from Featherlite as well as the nose-strut, electric nosegear-lift from Wilhelmson or Wright/EZ-Jets and canopy from Todd's Canopies. There will be many more suppliers, I will try to mention them here if it is of any significance.
Engine: This is a difficult part. There are not so many options that are safe and flying, but things are changing rapidly since Avgas 100LL is disappearing. The obvious choice is a Lycoming IO-360, but there are also several other interesting options on the market. I find the auto-conversion of a Subaru 3.0L appealing. Quite a few are flying, and I can buy a firewall-forward (or backward!) engine from Eggenfellner, or buy a stock enginge and start working on it. I am also looking into the Jabiru 5100A wich is a flat 8-cylindered aircraft-engine. The advantage with this is less vibrations and less noise. The disadvantage is pr. aug 2009 that it's not rated for Mogas. One Cozy in Canada is flying with this engine.
Instruments: I will go for a glass-cockpit from Dynon Avionics together with a mini-laptop-solution to monitor engine and other things. The advantage with Dynon is that I can start with a VFR-solution and expand to a more advanced IFR if I like.

Modifications:

I will mainly stick to the plans, but I have more or less decided for some modifications. I will definately not do any modification that has not been tested by others.

Electric landing brake: As many others have done I will skip the manual landing-brake-handle and use an electric actuator instead. Makes the installation easier than the manual and saving some space between the front-seats. I will use Wilhelmson's product here (http://www.eznoselift.com/).

Electric nose-lift: Again - as many others have done - I will skip the manual nose-lift system and use an electric actuator instead. The installation is almost identic as with the manual solution since the electric noselift is designed as a retrofit to the manual. I will use Wilhelmson's product here as well (http://www.eznoselift.com/).

Forward hinged canopy: The canopy is pr. plans designed to be opened sideways. For one I think it looks much more cool to open the canopy forward. There is also an issue of security here as the canopy hinged forward never will come open during flight. The plans canopy can come open in flight and will then swing up making a possible dangerous situation. The third reason is that the co-pilot can climb directly into the right seat without climbing over the left seat. Many builders have done this mod. The Cozy Classic / Cozy III (European Cozy) has a design for this. This design is still available as plans from Germany. I have bought these plans and they can easily be used on the Mark IV as well. I guess the adaption will be rather easy.

CozyGirrrls strakes: This mod has two functions. The first is that it gives the plane a better look (in my eyes). The main reason however is that it gives the persons in the front seat more elbow-room and more storage space. The strakes is stretched much more forward then the stock Cozy. Even though the strakes has some lifting-force, this mod is safe aerodynamically since the area is so small and so close to the fuselage.

Elongated nose: This is a mod only to enhance the visual appeal of the Cozy. I plan to stretch the nose by 4-6" (10-15 cm) just to get a more "pointy" nose than the stock nose. Many builders have dones this as well. It's a personal matter, but I don't like the nose of the plane as it is designed.

Consequences: Every modification will lead to longer building-time. Especially the forward hinged canopy, but I like to build and are willing to spend the time neccessary to do this.