Stagger EZ  Progress With All the parts finished, we Load the EZ on to the plane hauler and off to the airport we go. January 2002

We off load the EZ in my hanger at MQY.

The main gear is my design and is mounted on it’s own structure so the main spar does not see landing loads

By March I have most of the the surfaces in Smooth Prime. This shot shows the unique wheel pants which are a structural part of the gear strut. Note the small door in front of the nose gear fairing that closes and the gear is retracted. Our EAA group built a large hangar complex. My hangar is one of 24 hangars under one roof. They are heated and have all utilities. We have a 20 year lease with the airport authority.

June 2002-Interior details finished and painted with Zolatone. Exterior now in second coat of final PPG Primer getting ready for PPG Concept paint.

This photo shows the canopy size and the head room I wanted to have. If you sit under a Cozy MK-3 canopy you will understand the need for more room. I can move around freely under this canopy.

Here we are in the fall of 2003. I now have the Stagger EZ signed off for first flight. This photo was taken during pre-flight before sunrise on the morning of the first flight.  After 14 years of design and construction. Stagger EZ will take to the sky for the first time.

I just taxied up to my hangar after my first flight. The plane flew well but my CHTs went to 450 degrees F. Will begin to rethink my down draft cooling (see scoops on top of cowl) to improve this problem. Oil temp reached red line as well. I may need to relocate my oil cooler

As I sit in my hangar looking out at the plane the day after the first flight, I wonder what's ahead of me to solve the overheating problems.

Here is my first attempt at improving the high CHT  problem. The NACA inlets were removed and the large ram-air inlets were glassed in place. The inlets were designed to allow ram air enter the opening on top of the cowl, enter a expansion chamber then the air enters the plenum over the engine and cool the cylinders. After test flying I find NO JOY.....The overheating problem still exist. Now what?

After many phone calls to several of the knowledgeable folks in the Central States group, I became convinced that the shape of the aft portion of the fuselage allows for a deeper boundary layer that I thought possible resulting in poor pressurization of the plenum over the engine. I concluded that downdraft cooling was not possible and elected to build an updraft system with "arm pit" inlets. The next step is to remove the top ram air inlets, redesign and rebuild the internal baffles and begin construction on a new bottom cowl. The photo below shows the beginning of the modification. 120 hours of work later the final form is complete.

Fast forward to the spring of 2008-The upper and lower cowl has been redesigned with internal air-ramps and expanding plenums. Thanks to Terry Schubert, Gary Hertzler and my hangar mate and good friend Mike Boden.

The oil cooler was moved from the top of the cowel to the back baffle and it has its own cooling inlet on the bottom of the fuselage. the arm-pit air inlets were reduced to 14 square inches per side (2 inches high and 7 wide)

 cooling is good and with the cowl mod a 7 knot speed increase resulted from the reduced cooling drag. 

14 years to build it and 5 years to make it work well. This project taught me to be a very patient and persistent engineer.