I am Robert Harris, founder and owner of The Jet Guys in Covington TN, and all of my airplanes have names. This one is Purple. I think the paint had something to do with it.
Purple started out as 0-235 powered Long Eze. It was equipped with the latest of 1980 technology. We flew it for a couple of years, and had alot of fun with it.
But everything on Purple was getting tired. The paint liked to be on the floor more than on the Eze. So I decided it was time to restore it and do every mod I thought would make it better. Over the years of building and restoring planes, I have found the fastest way to start a project is with a Sawsall.
I put the fuselage in a fixture to hold it straight. Next I cut the nose off at FS22. Then I cut the top longerons, and some of the top strakes off. From that point it was pretty simple to put back together.
On a Long Eze the reason for the long nose is to balance the engine. I have worked on a lot of Eze’s over the years, and anything on the Acc. Case and the firewall is a pain to work on. A blood sacrifice is always required. To prevent this problem, I moved the engine back four inches and down three inches.
The whole purpose of the project was to make an above average Eze that is easy to work on. The nose is removable as are the arm rests front and back. The reason for the canopy to tilt aft is, well... it just looks cool.
The forward top deck is one piece and removable. To do this requires the F28 bulk head be structural. Another very cool feature is the canopy and retractable step are keyed together, so they open and close together. The canopy is an over blown Long Eze one. It is installed backwards which adds to the cool design.
The engine is a 0-360 with cold air induction electronic ignition, fuel injected with a four pipe exhaust, driving a really big Catto prop.
Purple’s performance is pretty good. It can do 190kts with little effort, however I tend to put around at 160kts at 2400rpm most of the time. Approach speeds between 68 to 80kts works.
The biggest problem I have with Purple is bugs… they seem to love the leading edges.
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