2025 saw approximately 150 hours of flight time on the Cozy. Tach 339.4 Hobbs 421.3 on December 31st. Total number of flights since new at the end of 2025 is 485. A few operational and mechanical events were notable. Trips to Oshkosh, Rough River, St. Louis and multiple to Nebraska were made.
On a trip back from the midwest over St. Francis KS, the belt driven Plainpower alternator failed. I was at 9500' and saw the pad mount alternator pick up the electrical load as the buss voltage decayed to 13.7. The essential buss has diode isolation feeds from both alternators and the battery. The critical EI/EFI had reliable power from two sources rather than 3. Since I was solo and my planned route took me within airports no more than 15 to 20 minutes off the course on the way home, continued without any more issues. The Vans forums have many entries about this alternator failing at about 300 hours and mine had just over that. I replaced it with a newer internally regulated B&C. It required a new mount and baffle. It was also less than half the price of the Plainpower. Coincidentally, a neighbor with an RV8 was having trouble with his but was able to replace the brushes to get his charging again. The case on mine was shelled out despite the bearing still spins quietly. And apparently due to it's manufacture date (2017?) is not repairable or useful as a core. Plainpower used to be owned and operated locally but was purchased by Hartzel. I asked Aircraft Spruce if Hartzel had made any improvements to that alternator and got a reply that they hadn't. Easy choice to switch to B&C although the pivot bolt is a different size so the mount had to be changed and a new baffle around it was made.
Another event was when returning to my home airport, immediately after touching down, the left side tire went soft, then completely flat resulting in a hard pull to the left. I had to use maximum right brake to stay on the runway and quickly made a radio call to the RV8 landing behind me. He touched down short, taxieed around and parked nearby. Several locals came to the rescue and helped lift the left wing and push the Cozy off the first taxiway to a lot near one of the maintenance shops parking areas. I went back to my hangar, got the tools I needed and stole a wheel and tire assembly off my other Cozy project. The nylaflow got pulled out of the fitting that connected to the stainless steal line so the left brake was inop. After getting a good tire and wheel on, got the plane back to the hangar with the help of a friend guiding the left wing. The flat tire had hit a bolt and punched a circular hole through the tread and tube. I put new Flight Custom III tires on and really like them. They don't seem to be as harsh taxiing and landing. A durometer shows the sidewalls are softer than the older tire's sidewalls. They are a bit more expensive but claimed to last longer. The wheel pant had some minor damage that was easily repaired. In hind sight, if I have a flat and there isn't anyone around, it seems pulling the wheel pant off and rolling on the flat would be an option. It would also be nice to have a better option to jack the wheel up rather than a wing jack.
N724 ran several SARL races but was the only competitor in the FX Blue class, finishing with average speeds over 200 mph. In the 2025 Airventure Cup, fully loaded with fuel and camping gear, finished 3rd in the Cozy class. A mistake on a turn (I'd put the wrong airport code in for one of the turns) caused me to go an extra mile or so, but did result in being in cleaner air, so that may have helped. There were around 125 aircraft in the event. Afterwards, a LongEZ and I flew formation and used the Warbird arrival at OSH. Visibility was poor due to the fires in Canada. On final, I couldn't slow down as much as the LEZ so went around. Had a Cessna cut in front of me so I asked ATC for the left runway and was cleared.
I havn't tallied up how many rides and hours were given in 2025 yet, but it was over 10 hours.
During the 2025 CI, I'd found the engine was sagging a little. The #2 & #4 cylinder exhaust pipes were lower in the cowl. I consulted with the engineer at Lord who recommended the same mount the Extra 200 or Lake used. ACS had the Extra200 mounts in stock locally for about $900. Ouch. I've heard others are using a less expensive but possibly harder.
I've had this draft setting here for quite awhile so decided I'd post it rather than procrastinate more.
