“Let Us all go Flying, Today”

Long EZ Walkaround

Long-EZ builder Mike Sabourin provides a narrated walk-around of his award-winning airplane. Learn what makes the Burt Rutan-designed Long-EZ different from most homebuilt aircraft and what it’s like to fly. For more on the Long-EZ, check out our special Buying Used feature.

 

Over 40 years ago, Burt Rutan set the homebuilt airplane movement on its ear in 1976 with his unusual VariEze design. From its canard foreplane “tail” to its moldless fiberglass construction, the little Eze broke new ground in an age of staid tube-and-rag homebuilts.

Rutan wasn’t the first to build and fly a pusher-type airplane with the tail in front, but he did solve the inherent weaknesses in the concept, flaws that had bedeviled the similar WW-II era Curtiss XP-55 Ascender fighter plane. Rutan’s strength as a designer has always been to find innovative ways to successfully achieve a performance objective or limitation. For instance, when it was evident that the CG of an empty VariEze would cause the powerplant-heavy aft fuselage to drop to the ground, his solution was to make the nosewheel retractable. By cranking it up after disembarking, thereby parking the aircraft in a self-chocking, prayerful position, the awkward storage problem was solved

History

Burt Rutan’s Long-EZ, as the name implies, was introduced in 1980 as what appeared to be a lengthened version of the original VariEze, but in reality it was a complete redesign, not a simple scaling-up. The little VariEze began as a light Volkswagen-powered airplane, but it was soon optimized with the O-200 Continental pusher configuration. It didn’t take long for builders to want larger engines.

Designed around a Lycoming O-235 engine, the Long-EZ not only had a longer, sleeker fuselage but a larger main wing with less sweep angle. The wing-root strakes were bigger, giving more space for fuel and baggage, and the cockpit was wider. With 52 gallons of fuel, the Long-EZ could stay aloft for as much as 10 hours. The easiest way to discern the two EZs is to look at the wingtip; VariEzes have short protuberances below the wingtips, under the tip rudders, something not usually present on the Long-EZ.

Prefabricated kits for easy assembly were never part of the Rutan Aircraft Factory’s offerings. Plans and instructions were simply sold by RAF, and a bill-of-materials package was offered by major homebuilt supply houses. Thus, the builder is responsible for most all of the work seen in a Long-EZ offered for sale, and it is important to have a knowledgeable EZ builder/owner to help evaluate a purchase.


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