‘Rutan Aircraft Factory’ (RAF) was the Rutan venture to distribute the Long-Ez plans to the homebuilder community. RAF made the plans available in the period 1980 to 1996. In 1982 RAF formed the background for ‘Scaled Composites’ (which was then again later bought by Northrop Grumman in 2007) and Burt Rutan withdrew from the homebuilder scene – and hence the original source for plans and building licenses is no more… (See also xxx for further details)
The original reference documentation for fabricating a Long-Ez consists of:
- Moldless Composite Homebuilt Sandwich Aircraft Construction
RAF, 3rd Edition September 1983. Covers the general work methods and acceptance criteria for the Rutan moldless construction as used in all RAF designs - Long-EZ Plans – Section I
RAF, 1st Edition Marts 1990. Chapter 1 through Chapter 26 covers the fabrication of all main parts of the Long-EZ (This includes the ‘full scale’ drawings of for templates for all critical parts) - Long-EZ Plans – Section II L
RAF, Januar 1981. Covers installation instructions for the Lycoming O-235 engine - Manufacturing Manual Section IV (Varieze) – Landing Brake
RAF, Covers speed brake on fuselage belly which a copycat from the Vari - Long-EZ High Performance Rudders (Optional)
RAF, A revised/updated rudder design for increased rudder authority (increased cross wind component) - Long-EZ – Internal Rudder Belhorns (Optional)
RAF, Plans for doing away with the exposed rudder horns - Long-EZ – Owners manual
RAF, 2nd Edition Oktober 1981. The POH of the Long-Ez - Long-EZ – Optional Special Performance Canard Plans (Optional)
RAF, April 1985. Details the construction of what has later been known as the ‘Roncz canard’ but officially designed ‘1145MS’ profiled canard. This replaces the original GU (Glassgow University) canard and provides greater trim tolerence towards contamintaed leading edge/surface
Despite the fact that the plans and construction notes was at the time setting a new standard for accessibility for non-technical builders, there were nonetheless (as will always be the case) mistakes, errrors and down right improvements along the poth of the many builders that tackled the constriction in the early eighties.
As a means of communicating such ammendments and to support the builders in general RAF published the ‘The Canard Pusher’ (CP) newsletter in the period 1980 to 1996. The CP’s from and including CP #24 (April 1980) up to and including CP #83 (Januar 1996) are consequently to be considered as madatory and an integral part of the reference documentation for any Long-Ez builder.
In those CP’s is contained in total 150 changes grouped as follows.
| DES | Desired – strongly recommended but not requiring grounding of the aircraft. |
| MAN-GRD | Mandatory. Ground the aircraft. Do not fly until the change has been accomplished. |
| MAN-XXHR | Mandatory. Accomplish the change at next convenient maintenance interval or within XX flight hours whichever comes first. |
| MEO | Minor error or omission. |
| OBS | Obsolete by a later change. |
| OPT | Optional – does not affect flight safety. |