Saw a Long EZ for the first time in the flesh on Friday at the Ardmore Pilot Exbo:


Very weird aircraft- couldn't figure out how it taxied around and took off whilst observing parked up at that crazy angle.
Then, a while later, we watched a similar VariEze join the circuit and whizz past on a low speed flyby over the runway. That was impressive stuff- hitting the 150 knots mark apparently, according to the American owner from Tauranga who I was talking too afterwards. I didn't see it land, so I asked him what sort of angle he had to come in at to lay the nose down, and he picked up the front of the aircraft (It's obviously surprisingly light) and a long landing gear leg dropped out, keeping it level like an ordinary tricycle geared craft- must have been really weird to see it taxing around!
He also said, despite the EZ's appearance- they are very easy to transition to from the likes of the C152 he had trained in previously. I thought all the systems work work in a backwards fashion, having the elevators at the front and engine at the back- but apparently not. Are they are decent freeware models of this for FS9 that people know of?