Sonerai practicality hot and high ?

[Ratdog]

Im trying to gauge the practicality of owning an s2 over say a varieze with a standard aircraft engine at my 5500ft altitude airport in utah . Im mainly interested in economical cross country. I live in richfield utah which has a long runway but hot and high altitude . Im looking at maybe getting a varieze with an 0290 engine or a S2 . It seems like sonerai aircraft sell for a pretty cheap price generally below 10k whereas the low end on a varieze is 20k . So is the S2 with a vw engine less reliable and require more tinkering than the workhorse 0200 etc that are in a rutan bird . Why the big difference in price ? I guess i might be able to work on or overhaul the vw engine myself but not sure if thats important given the reliablity of the 0290 to last 2000 hours between overhauls . What are your opinions of all this .

 

[Aviacs]

If i had the first cost, Varieze for "mainly interested in economical cross country " seems like a no brainer.

Personally, Sonerais have interested me since 1975 when i bought plans instead of paying the rent one month. Attended builder school in Elgin '76-ish. Now, into the twilight years, S2 is what i can afford; but the planes are cool in their own right. Designed as sportplanes, people use them for travel, i intend to. The varieze and family, OTOH, were designed for long distance, fast, economical travel.

smt

 

[Ratdog]

If i had the first cost, Varieze for "mainly interested in economical cross country " seems like a no brainer.

Personally, Sonerais have interested me since 1975 when i bought plans instead of paying the rent one month. Attended builder school in Elgin '76-ish. Now, into the twilight years, S2 is what i can afford; but the planes are cool in their own right. Designed as sportplanes, people use them for travel, i intend to. The varieze and family, OTOH, were designed for long distance, fast, economical travel.

smt

one advantage of the s2 over varieze is that its a lot less hassle to take of or fold the wings for storage or trailering . The varieze is meant for that but enough of a hassle apparently that it would be a deterrent to do regularly

 

[John B]

Low aspect ratio wings (Short) are a detriment to high altitude performance. The Varieze doesn't suffer from this. Also, for Utah and high altitude, consider weather. Sonerais are not the best for cold weather flying. A varieze is basically a styrofoam cooler, so would also keep heat it. Not sure if many Varieze have cabin heat but most Sonerais sure don't. If it were me, I'd go Varieze, but I still love my Sonerai. Just not as good for that mission.

 

[vhbill]

I carefully investigated the Sonerai and Eze aircraft before committing to the Sonerai, these are my notes:

Vari Eze, Long Eze or Cozy

• very efficient design
• very comfortable for long trips
• rely on curvature of the earth to get airborne so need long runways
• laminar flow canard susceptible to contamination from insects or rain
• durability is hard to tell, depends on how well it was constructed
• embedded fibreglass fuel tanks can leak
• usually a Lycoming or Continential engine so fairly straight forward
• susceptible to propeller damage due to rocks being thrown up from the nosewheel
• few if any corrosion problems
• large fuel capacity = long range
• fast
• large hangars space

Plans Sonerai II LS

• main weak point is the VW engine - underpowered at MAUW or high density altitude, but cheap to operate
• durability will depend on how well the fuselage was welded
• Strong possibility of corrosion in the airframe and wings if not properly treated
• small cockpit, may be difficult to get out in an emergency
• no rollover protection
• rear seat for the pilot, instruments in the front seat
• taildragger ground handling issues, but good propeller clearance on gravel strips
• good takeoff and landing performance
• potential for 150 kt cruising speed
• Few reported flight vices
• small fuel capacity = short range
• wings can fold, but not so easy unless carefully made.

The most important requirement for me was the ability to operate from gravel strips, so I chose to modify a Sonerai.

 

[Ratdog]

I carefully investigated the Sonerai and Eze aircraft before committing to the Sonerai, these are my notes:

Vari Eze, Long Eze or Cozy

• very efficient design
• very comfortable for long trips
• rely on curvature of the earth to get airborne so need long runways
• laminar flow canard susceptible to contamination from insects or rain
• durability is hard to tell, depends on how well it was constructed
• embedded fibreglass fuel tanks can leak
• usually a Lycoming or Continential engine so fairly straight forward
• susceptible to propeller damage due to rocks being thrown up from the nosewheel
• few if any corrosion problems
• large fuel capacity = long range
• fast
• large hangars space

Plans Sonerai II LS

• main weak point is the VW engine - underpowered at MAUW or high density altitude, but cheap to operate
• durability will depend on how well the fuselage was welded
• Strong possibility of corrosion in the airframe and wings if not properly treated
• small cockpit, may be difficult to get out in an emergency
• no rollover protection
• rear seat for the pilot, instruments in the front seat
• taildragger ground handling issues, but good propeller clearance on gravel strips
• good takeoff and landing performance
• potential for 150 kt cruising speed
• Few reported flight vices
• small fuel capacity = short range
• wings can fold, but not so easy unless carefully made.

The most important requirement for me was the ability to operate from gravel strips, so I chose to modify a Sonerai.

Thanks good info . Im curious about the wing folding being a issue if they didnt build it perfectly. Never thought about the fuel tank issues . It seems there are a lot of eze for sale that once flew, often with less than 100 hours , the engine sold off and the airframe in pieces selling as a project . Lots of sonerai like that also but maybe not the engine out because its not as easy to sell a vw engine .

 

[vhbill]

Thanks good info . Im curious about the wing folding being a issue if they didnt build it perfectly. Never thought about the fuel tank issues . It seems there are a lot of eze for sale that once flew, often with less than 100 hours , the engine sold off and the airframe in pieces selling as a project . Lots of sonerai like that also but maybe not the engine out because its not as easy to sell a vw engine .

Ask the seller to demonstrate the wing fold if you are buying a Sonerai. If it requires two people then it is not going to be very useful as most of us fly solo most of the time.

There are 6 taper pins to be removed for the wing to slide out for folding. The 4 main spar taper pins are easily accessible, but the two rear spar taper pin nuts are not. One way to solve the rear spar taper pin nut is to attach a plate nut to the rear spar support frame for the taper pin during construction.

The wing tip needs a handle that can be used to pull the wing out of the fuselage, rotate it and then walked to the side of the fuselage to be held by the pin through the fuselage. Wing tanks may make the wing too heavy to fold.

There is a lot of weight on the tailwheel spring when the wings are folded and the tailwheel spring stress may exceed the spring limit and also the rear fuselage frame limit. You will know if the tailwheel spring has exceeded its yield strength, but damage in the fuselage may not be so obvious. Fuel in the rear fuselage tank and the wing fuel tanks will add to the stress on the tail area with the wings folded.

I suspect that very few Sonerai owners regularly fold the wings because it is not a simple task. Anyone building a Sonerai should look very closely at the wing folding system before they close the wing or fuselage. However, the wing fold system can be made easy to use with a bit of careful planning at the construction stage .

 

[Ratdog]

Interesting there is always a caveat . Folding wings and towing behind a car to your house sounds wonderful on paper .