First flight- Breezy N1879B

After nearly nine years, thousands of hours and more than a few cubic kilodollars, on Saturday Aug. 26 I took the Breezy up for the first flight. The airplane performed well with no major squawks save for a minor oil leak and some intercom adjustments.

I built N1879B from the standard Breezy plans with only a couple small modifications including larger tail area and modifications to the front seat to accommodate my 6'3 frame. All work was done by me. Wings are Wag Aero Sportsman 2+2 wood rib/ spar. Covering and painting is Stewart Systems. Motor is an O-200 from a wrecked homebuilt, major overhauled by me with some performance mods (Lycon 9:1 pistons, C90 cam, electronic ignition.) Prop is by Ed Sterba. Empty weight is 801 lbs, not bad for a Breezy with starter, battery and alternator.

Attachment 6650

I also put together a video that covers the building and first flight. Nine years condensed into 15 minutes. I hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/sa3mx3gzQGY

Congrats, Jeff! That's a great accomplishment!

Awesome Jeff!!!!! Congrats!!!!! Glenn

Well done, Jeff! Congratulations!

I spent the day with Rob Unger yesterday, looking at his Breezy and and then got to fly another one on the field. Great fun!

Now hurry up and write me the story of the build for the "What Our Members are Building" section of the magazine! :)

I'll work on that Hal. You just had a Breezy featured a few months ago- people will start thinking they are taking the RVs over if we have two in one year!

Congrats!

Truly in the original spirit of EAA, Jeff! Well done on both the airplane and the video!

Jim

One quick 'uneducated' question (formerly known as a stupid one - lol) the purpose/use of ballast in the passenger seat?

I missed the video the first time, really cool!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CHICAGORANDY

One quick 'uneducated' question (formerly known as a stupid one - lol) the purpose/use of ballast in the passenger seat?

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The ballast is used to place the CG in a specific location. During phase 1 flight testing there are all sorts of corners of the envelope to be explored and CG adjustment is part of that.

For a first flight- the CG is placed smack in the middle of the envelope. It is then slowly expanded during testing by adding/ removing balast.

Fantastic job, Jeff. Watching the YouTube video makes me want to build one. :thumbsup:

Thanks a million Jeff - makes perfect sense.

"For a first flight- the CG is placed smack in the middle of the envelope." I am helping a friend who purchased a BREEZY and has made an engine/prop modification. We have weighed the plane and I made a spreadsheet to calculate the CG, but I can find no information on what the Forward and Aft limits should be, so I don't know what the envelope is. Are the limits in the plans information? The new owner might have that.
Thanks.

Bert Shivers
Former Tandem Airbike owner
ASMEL, CFII, A&P

Bert,

What you really need is the CG range of the wing that your Breezy uses. There have been a variety of wings used over the years so if you could find that out it would be a good start. Mine uses a Cub wing (from Wag Aero plans) and I used the CG range from those plans. Start in the middle of the range and work your way out. I ultimately did the entire test sequence from the EAA manual at both the fore and aft limits. I could have pushed it even farther but there was no need.