Mary here - one day a couple weeks ago I was skimming the Canard Yahoo group messages and noticed a link that had been posted by someone to a blog by a couple that is traveling around the world in their Long EZ. Since we both love travel, my curiosity was piqued and I went to have a look. Turns out they are British. British-owned Long EZs in the US are quite rare - there are only three right now (soon back to two), so I was excited and made contact with the couple via their blog. Several email later, we made a plan to meet up with them for lunch. Unfortunately, due to work demands, it had to be on the Saturday they were leaving for a recharging trip back to the UK. Patrick & Linda will be returning to their round-the-world adventure on July 22nd when they leave Texas for Oshkosh. Turned out being British was not the only similarity: the two pilots were born in the exact maternity hospital in the same town - Margate - though 15 months apart! (photo credit to their blog)

This is N131JF with the pods fitted prior to the first test flight, Cleburne TX, September 2010. I think Jesse's military background showed through here with the primer color...
I made an initial test flight with the pods, cycling up and down the rpm range. A quick test at 3500 feet showed an average top speed of around 173 knots, which is a 8 knot drop from the top speed without the pods. This is a little high for a speed penalty, but I need to run more speed tests. Surprisingly the top rpm drop was only around 30 rpm.
We flew to Rough River to use the pods for the first time. The flight was longer than I expected due to headwinds, which forced us to make an additional stop at Kennett MS for fuel. We could have made it all the way to Rough River on the fuel onboard, but that would have left us with no fuel for local flying or a return to Kennett.
The pods make the plane a lot more stable in roll. The pylons act as a flow fence, making the plane a lot less responsive to aileron inputs. When I removed the pods and handed them back to Jesse for finishing, the plane suddenly felt a lot more roll-sensitive without the pods. Of course it was also faster...

I found a new site PureGas, that purports to list ethanol-free filling stations in the USA.

As some of you may know, the CAF B-29 "Fifi", still the only flying B-29 in the world, has been grounded since 2006 due to engine problems.
"Fifi" was rescued from China Lake in 1971 to become a CAF flying museum exhibit. With the plane came its original WW II-vintage Wright R-3350-57 radial engines. These engines were unreliable and problematic in field operations, due to design weaknesses (many to do with inadequate cooling) and lack of proper debugging caused by the B-29 being rushed into service in 1944. As a result, "Fifi" has always been a PITA to operate because of engine problems. The problems are fundamental with the design specification of the engines. When metal was found in the oil of the engines in the Fall of 2006, "Fifi" was grounded, and a big and financially mind-boggling decision was made to not put any more flying time on what was clearly a dangerously worn set of fundamentally unreliable engines. The decision was to re-engine the plane with a brand new hybrid specification of R-3350. The main challenge for the project was folding green, the final cost will probably exceed $4m.
The progress of the re-engine project has been documented here. The good news is that all four engines have been replaced with the brand new hybrid specification models, and "Fifi" is awaiting the right moment to begin its flight test program with the new engines.

Note the very long displaced threshold on the West end of the runway. There is no 100LL for sale at Hawks Nest, so you need to have more than enough fuel for local flying needs and return to an airport with fuel when you land there.