COBA CanardCast

Lochie Ferrier is a young test pilot who lives in Oakland, CA with his lady friend Cassidy, an accomplished pilot in her own right, as well as their Canard type-rated Labrador, Kane. His Cozy Mark IV N656TE built by Dr. Thane Ostroth is based at Hayward Municipal KHWD.

Born in Armidale, Australia, Lochie moved to Canberra (Kan-brugh) Australia when he was 12, and then later to the United States in 2014 to attend college at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned an Aerospace Engineering Degree. He received his undergraduate in 2019 and is presently working towards his Masters in the area of flight testing.

Lochie’s flown prototypes for the electric aircraft company Beta based in Burlington, Vermont including their electric design “Alia” for over 100 hours. He is presently working at Magpie Aviation in Hayward, CA.

Although Lochie is new to the Canard Community and only recently began operating a Cozy Mark IV, his reach for the sky began in his youth where he learned to fly gliders back in Canberra.

Long EZ builder and canard driver Ken Miller chats about his experiences with host David Williford. Ken is an A&P with an I/A and has extensive experience with Canard aircraft. Ken was born in Glenwood Springs, Colorado in May of 1951 but considers himself a Texan having moved to Hartley, Texas in the Panhandle with his family when he was just a baby.

Ken is a middle kid with two older brothers and one younger sister. The oldest brother earned his pilot’s license. Ken worked at his fathers tractor dealership in Hartley, and overhauled irrigation well engines in their spare time.

In his senior year at Hartley High, Ken was the starting center in basketball, made all district and ranked very high in scoring and rebounds aided by his 6’ 5” frame. Ken went on to Texas Tech College in Lubbock until the summer of 1972 when he struck out for Dallas.

There he shared a home in the Dallas suburb of Arlington with his older brother where he started flight lessons at Arlington Municipal Airport (KGKY). He flew both Cessna 150’s and 172’s and soloed with just six hours of total flight time. In 1980, with a fresh pilot license in hand, Ken started searching for his own airplane and was inspired by a friend who had just completed a Vari Eze. It was then he was bitten by the canard bug quickly partnering with an engineering friend to complete Long Eze plans #35 in just three years; FIRST fight on July 5th, 1984.

Ken flew that Long EZ for 5 years before moving to Florida with his fiancé, Diane. Diane and Ken met at Addison airport where she was taking flight lessons.

Once in Florida, Ken and Diane built their own Long EZ (N6KD), incorporating many enhancements. They flew N6KD all over the US., landing in most of the 48 states and with many wonderful flying adventures. Let’s listen to a few!

Today we have a special interview. We were able to record some conversations immediately following a pilot’s debriefing immediately following his first flight in a Cozy at Mojave Air and Spaceport. We will also get to listen in to his report home to his wife after is successful solo.

Antonio Becerra is a Director and Cinematographer from Oregon. Antonio fell in love with photography as a 12-year-old who learned the art of developing photos from his father. He later earned a Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in the areas of Photography, Film Studies, and Education from Oregon State. This former adjunct professor of photography at Oregon State University follows his passion for visual storytelling all over the country and his work appears in countless publications including The New York Times and Time Magazine.

An accomplished director and cinematographer, Antonio has created dozens of TV commercials in 9 states, and photographed the ad campaigns for 15 current members of Congress. His company is Alteza Films. https://www.altezafilms.com/

Today Antonio enjoys capturing aerial images and traveling to work sites in his Cozy IV N48AD formerly known as N287R. Antonio is new to Canards and Aviation with 100 hours and is currently pursuing his instrument rating.

Antonio speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese, and currently resides in Corvallis Oregon.

Good Day and thank you for joining us for CanardCast, Episode 2 of Season 3!

This is an interview from a different perspective in which we get to see a little of the canard experience from the viewpoint of our kids. In this interview, 24 year old Sarah Williford and her Father David Williford reminisce over some past father-daughter canard moments with the StaggerEZ N909EZ including memories of past flying lessons, animal runway incursions, "turns around a point" lessons, weight and balance vs minimum equipment list for her college dorm, instrument flying....well, sort of...if you count waking up in clouds.

Sarah is the youngest of two, her older brother Ryan is a student pilot. She is a Graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University. She is an elementary teacher of music and is the kind of daughter every father can be proud of. Let's listen in!

In this episode, we will get to know your CanardCast host David Williford and his aircraft N909EZ a little better. David Willford joined the Canard Owners and Builders CanardCast team as Host last season. David is now the care taker, pilot and restorer of a very special three place pusher canard with unique staggered seating arrangement as well as a dizzying array of builder enhancements based at McKinney National KTKI.

StaggerEze, built by Steve Wright, won Grand Champion Plans Built at Sun and Fun in 2005. Steve Wright also earned the Rutan Designer’s Award for his, Built “to the plans” Vari-Eze N9091A in 1986.

David and his wife Ginger of 32 years live in a Dallas suburb called "The Colony" and have two adult kids, 27 yr old son Ryan and his daughter 24 year old Sarah who teaches elementary school music in the DFW area. David is retired from a successful career in Information Technology.

Following this interview, you can find CanardCast Episode 2 simultaneously released where David and his daughter share a conversation on the topic of canard flights. I conducted this interview with David in-person at his home studio and workshop in Texas. I hope you enjoy this episode and all the rest coming in Season 3!

On this edition of CanardCast, I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing not one, but two great canard drivers and canard instructors!

On this addition of CanardCast, we depart from our usual format of interviewing someone for you and instead, just present you with a conversation that took place the large comfortable guest area at the Fernandez Bay Resort on Cat Island with a cool breeze flowing thru and the white sand and surf just steps away.

Today’s guest is new to the Canard Community. Evan Winick is a cautious IFR pilot who bravely negotiates the legendary New York City Airspace regularly in IMC condition. Since he received his pilot license in 2005 out of Queen City KXLL, Evan flies 150 hours a year on business as well as making several trips to Florida. He hopes to reduce his flight time to 75 hours a year because his 2006 Thomas Brusehaver built Cozy MKVI is about twice as fast as the Piper Arrow he’s been slogging back and fourth with for many years. 

Evan and his wife Miriam call Allenstown Pennsylvania home where they raised two children, Tristan and Chelsea. Evan owns a business installing and configuring management systems and controls for industrial buildings. The technical skills required for that work makes him well suited to upgrade the base VFR plans built panel in his Cozy to a beautiful full Garmin based flight deck.

Evan is not entirely new to experimental aircraft. He is a past caretaker for N30ZA; a Zenair CH 2000 Zenith. Evan continues to develop his canard piloting skills and gaining confidence in his new canard N40TD based at Queen City in preparation for the new flying season. 

Bill James’ flies a highly refined example of Burt Rutan’s VariEze. He built the airframe per-plans, and his innovations enhance the efficiency and “operational friendliness” of his high-performance aircraft. He has owned a Cessna 120, a Berkut, and now flies the VariEze N95BJ and an Experimental Category Kolb M3X.

Bill grew up near San Antonio, Texas. He flew Marine helicopters, worked cattle with helicopters, did some commercial helicopter and fixed-wing work, and instructed on the Boeing 757 and 767. As a 15-year Northrop Grumman F-35 pilot-systems instructor Bill watched the first nut go on the first bolt on the first F-35, and after retiring watched the first F-35s employ into combat.

He holds an ATP Airplane and Helicopter rating, the Wright Brothers 50 Year Master Pilot Award, is a Society of Flight Test Engineers Member, has a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and an English degree from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Tx. Bill and Claudene have 4 children and 17 grandchildren.

He saw the 399 lb VariEze N7EZ on Air Progress magazine when he was flying Marine helicopters in Japan. He ordered the plans and immediately began absorbing everything about canards. He started building in 1992 and recounts the severe sacrifice of the build, giving up five years of Laverne and Shirley and The Simpsons. Once airborne he found himself in the middle of the EZ pack. As the internet developed, Bill was drawn into the inner sanctum of comments, emails, forums, private notes and opinions about canard airplanes, and began interacting on how or why canard airplanes did or didn’t do this or that. The notes developed into essays. At one point Bill agreed to write 40 EZ Chronicle stories in 40 weeks, published weekly on the ez.org canard site. This prompted responses and questions from near and far and Bill continued to post more essays and stories.

One of Bill’s favorite communications came from a pilot on layover in Shanghai. He wrote, “Bill, I’ve had my dinner and a shower and now there’s a glass of wine on my nightstand and two of your stories printed out. Cheers.”

Bill’s EZ Chronicles now span five decades of flight, from an apple-crate airplane in a pecan tree to building an airplane that would carry him to the airlines, aerospace -- and into the minds of some truly unique, gifted, and interesting people.

Bill has switched gears a little. His stories are now being loaded at http://ezchron.com. A couple of novels are in-work and are previewed there. That first book will be done in about . . .  two weeks.

On the third Saturday of each month, Mojave Spaceport Museum hosts the Plane Crazy Fly-In where we bumped into Rutan Defiant owner Mark Shinnick. In his early 60's Mark retired from a career in Financial management and now provides pediatric medical support as a registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) with a Neonatal/Pediatric Specialty (RRT-NPS). Mark is helping to stop Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) through his involvement in the systems development of a Benign Infant Stimulator,  a novel device to help all infants achieve normal development during their first year. 

For over 40 years, Mark has also spent a lot of time around the folks of RAF and Scaled as part of a variety of inspired projects including airframe construction of a Long-Eze and Q200 he built at the, Wings West hanger (now gone West) in Santa Monica. He participated in the WF-1 Global Hilton RoudTheWorld Balloon flight, a Rocket Long Eze project with XCOR and Glass Overcast. 

Mark and his young daughter Cara met Izzy and Mark agreed to show Izzy his Defiant and to provide an interview for CanardCast in Rosemond, about 12 miles south of Mojave.