Here's another source of info and pictures of Vari Ezes.

VariEze N70VE
800 TTAF, SMOH, 0-200; Cruise 145kts w/out pants.
Flies great, but needs much cosmetic work.
(Was) Located CRQ (Carlsbad, California; near San Diego)

It's gone now (sold), but here's the original description for the curious:

My EZ is well built, but needs alot of tlc right now to really make it right. It's strong and safe--it flies great, and the engine is in great shape--but it's not very pretty. Mostly needs a new paint job, and a little cosmetic fiber repair here and there. I fly it often to San Fransisco from here (San Diego), and it makes the trip in two to three hours depending on the winds. It seems to cruise about 165 mph TAS, with no wheel pants or engine mods, so it would probably be a really fast plane if it were spiffed up. -Brandyn

Features:

	Airframe/engine:
		800 TTAF, <700 lbs.
		0-200, 800 SMOH, compression 68-70;
			metal floats, one-peice venturi; all new plugs,
			iridiums on bottom.  New intake hoses and clamps.
			New ignition harness; mag filters.
		Cruise 160->165mph, w/out wheelpants.
	
	Panel:
		Tera xpdr/encoder (both new)
		Wag Aero ICS+ nav/com/vor/glideslope (new; all digital)
		Manifold pressure
		amps, volts, cyl-head temp (one), oil pressure & temp.
		Electric turn and bank (switched).
		Ack ELT with remote (new)

	Misc:
		24 amp-hour battery, solar charged. (The whole panel only
			takes a couple of amps, due to low-power Tera and digital
			nav/com/vor/gs).
	
		No generator.
		No nav lights.
		No starter (but starts on third pull, cold, every time!)

The original airframe was very well made. If this lends any objectivity to that claim, Bob Truax, who I bought it from, claims Rutan picked it out for him personally (Rutan and Jeana Yeager are both on the logs; Jeana kept and flew it for many months). Normally I would have been skeptical of such claims, myself--I bought it based entirely on my own inspection--but as I learned more about Bob later, everything adds up. The pertinent consequence of the good underlying construction is that it flies wonderfully -- all controls give immediate positive response at virtually any speed or orientation, which is not always true of Vari Ezes. (One, in particular, that I looked at myself before, was a very fast plane -- top speed over 200mph -- but the canard had a delayed and mushy response which was very disconcerting...)

The engine has about 800 hours on it, and is in great shape. The compression is average for an engine of that age -- about 68-70 all the way around. It has the required carb mods -- metal floats, and one-peice venturi. And it starts reliably on the third pull cold, and often on the first pull hot. People often comment that the engine "sounds really good" when its running.

The prop is a Great American, which is good or bad depending on who you ask. It is dynamically balanced, and runs pretty smooth and quiet, but you could probably get more boost out of something like a Prince P-Tip.

I had my father up in it the other day, out of Oceano (length 2200'), and for giggles and grins I pulled the power back and held the nose up as high as I could. It slowed to about 65kts, and then just stayed at that speed, descending about 500fpm -- I couldn't get the nose any higher, or the plane any slower, and the ailerons were still quite effective in this configuration. I also discovered the other day that it will do consecutive barrell rolls without loosing any notable altitude. :)

I recently flew from Watsonville to CRQ (over 300 N.M., I don't recall the exact distance) in two hours, take-off to touch-down. :) I had a tailwind, of course, but still... :) I had about 10 gal fuel left when I landed.

So, that's most of the good stuff. Now the down sides:

Bob left it out in the sun for a year or so, which wasn't too good for the paintjob. When the paint started blisterring up in places, he sanded the blisters out and sprayed over it. That's good, because it protected the fiber, which still taps firm everywhere, but it looks really ugly. Bottom line: it will need a new paintjob if you want it to look good. If you don't care about that, it just needs a little touchup here and there to keep the fiber protected (I've had it hangered since I bought it).

Likewise, pretty much all around cosmetically it needs help -- lots of things to touch up and paint, weather stripping to reseat, interior uphostry is old and ugly, etc... I would micro-mesh the canopy -- it isn't bad at all during the day, but landing into the sun brings out the haze. I have the micromesh materials and will include them.

Also, the electrical still needs a tad more work -- I pretty much rewired the entire panel, pulling out a HUGE bag of wires that had accumulated over the years, and putting in mostly new, along with new avionics -- new alt encoder, Tera xpdr, and Wag Aero ICS+ nav/com/ vor/glide-slope. However, I think the mag wires should be re-run, and I would put a new tach in -- both minor tasks, but I just haven't had the time. And the xpdr antenna should probably have a swatch of glass layed over it from the top, as the backside is currently exposed to the passenger's feet. I'm sure there are other nits, but that's what I can think of off hand.

It has manifold pressure (for what that's worth), oil temp, cyl-head temp (the hottest cyl only), amps, volts, etc... None of those gagues are calibrated, as best I can tell, but they're quite consistent and thus serve their function once you know where "normal" is.

I sold the plane ~9/97. You wouldn't believe how many inquiries started pouring in immediately after that... Murphy's law, I guess.

-Brandyn