Thread | Brutkey

Hello Friends & soon-to-be Friends! New instance, new #introduction!

I’m a software engineer and electric airplane manufacturer. And I guess creator now that I’ve started publishing videos about my airplane build.

I post almost entirely about aviation, Apple technologies (swift and the like), and a little bit about ebikes and other topics.

I’m an instrument-rated private pilot, most of my hours so far have been in a Cessna 172

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Rachel Brindle
@younata@hachyderm.io

I’m building an electric Cozy (the "Coz-E"). The Cozy is a single-engine, propeller-driven canard airplane, derived from the Rutan VariEze and Long-EZ. See image, from the cover of the Cozy plans.

Canard means that it looks like a backwards airplane. The small wing (horizontal stabilizer) is up front. This allows for very efficient cruise flight with very favorable stall characteristics.

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Grayscale image of a Cozy MK IV in flight

Rachel Brindle
@younata@hachyderm.io

A brief FAQ about the Electric Cozy:

Why electric?

I don’t want a gas-powered airplane. I’d rather put up with the hassles of owning an electric airplane (mostly dealing with charging on long trips).

Why a Cozy?

I'm trying to maximize cruise efficiency, something canards already excel at. I also want something with a high max gross weight to accommodate the batteries. The Cozy matches both of those. It also has a fairly large network of builders I can draw experience from.

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Rachel Brindle
@younata@hachyderm.io

What kind of modifications are you making?

The main one is that I’m replacing the rear seat with a battery compartment. For serviceability reasons, I’m not going to place the batteries in the same place as the fuel tanks. Instead, the fuel tanks will be empty, unused compartments.

There’s also more standard modifications - electric nose gear, electric air brake (though I don’t foresee ever needing to use that, given that I’ll be able to utilize regenerative braking).

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Rachel Brindle
@younata@hachyderm.io

What kind of range are you expecting?

Something on the order of 400-500 nautical miles. Roughly 3-4 hours of endurance. For reference, a gas-powered cozy can expect 1200-1300 nautical miles of range, or ~10 hours endurance.

Why build? Why not wait for certified electric airplanes to be more available?

Because I can. Building is fun in itself. Yeah, sanding sucks, but everything else is quite fun and surprisingly relaxing.

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Rachel Brindle
@younata@hachyderm.io

self promotion

When will you be finished?

At the rate I’m going, maybe mid-2027 at the earliest? There are so many factors going into this that I’ll be happy if this thing flies before 2030.

That’s awesome, keep it up!

Thanks!

Feel free to reach out, I love interacting with folks.

Oh, as mentioned, I have a YouTube channel for the build: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHD_BBvvB_sCnC5BOLVGaYQ

There's also a text build log at https://coz-e.rachelbrindle.com!

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