Good dream turns ugly

[russell]

The time is drawing near. I am very close to finishing my reconstruction of my series I. I plan on posting some photos when complete if anyone would like to see it.

In the mean time all I can do is dream. Last night I dreamt I was flying along and suddenly a BE pulled out of the end of one of the aileron pushrod tubes. I don't recall what happened from there.

That is why I am curious to know if anyone out there has had a real life similar experience or would know if a Lazair could be controlled enough to get to a spot to land. What about a ruddervator pushrod mishap.

Can anyone have any input into this?

Russell Rewis

[ozzie]

i also wondered about this as i tapped the treads in my new pushrods as well

[daffy1029]

Hi ozzie and russellrewis,
I believe that the push-rod set-up is very good and reliable and don't forget, you can preflight every moving part before you fly on a Lazair. Not many planes have that capability!
I believe that if you loose one or both ailerons (as long as they are not stuck up or down) there is enough diehedral in the wings to keep the wing level and it would still be controllable with just the tail. There' a few ultralights that have this feature, (I can't remember the name off the top of my head) but there is a few flying without the need for ailerons. If you want I can find this out for you. My friend almost bought one.
As for the tail, as long as one ruddervator is working, I think you could still fly it in for a landing. It just wouldn't be as responsive.
I don't think there has ever been a case of push-rod failures in a Lazair while flying.
As long as you put your Lazairs together, according to the manual. you guys have nothing to worried about. Dale Kramer/Peter Corley put a lot of though into this plane and that is why they are still around after 25 years! The track record proves this! Daffy ;-)

[russell]

Yeah, Daffy, I agree. The plane is well designed and I am only consious of the fact that the bits and pieces that hold it together are rather lightweight for the first 5 or 10 minutes after liftoff and then I get into the fun and never consider it again. I work under the old premise of Murph's Law. After spending half my life as a mechanic and machinist I have seen a lot of things break. Some of these things were quite surprizing!
All my friends call me the most negative person they know, but I defend myself by saying that I am just a realist. I enjoy my plane and put a lot of trust in Dale's abilities.
I feel that the loss of one aileron would not be disastrous due to the fact that the aileron is so very, very light. If it were heavier gravity would force it down and therefore cause that wing to rise. Even then I think it could be easily overcome.

Oh yeah, I think one of those ultralights without ailerons was the EasyRiser. A friend of my (and dealer for these) didn't walk away from a crash in one.


Happy skies,
Russell

[Guest]

Lazairs have flown with one aileron unhooked.

[russell]

Guest, who are you? Where did you get that info?
Russell

[Don]

Hey Russell,
I've read somewhere in these forums of ruddervators or aelorons coming loose from either hinges or pushrods without a tragect end.
Don

[russell]

Hi Don, how's that "little" project coming? Been able to spend much time on it?

Russell

[Chappy]

Hi Russell,

You've really been busy, haven't you? Good to hear you're almost ready to go.

One year in the early 80's at Sun n' Fun, Dale lost an entire aileron on a factory Lazair while out cruising around. He chased it down to the ground, landed, picked it up and took it out to the road where he was able to flag someone down headed for the Fly-in. He then took off and flew back to the Ultralight area of the Fly-in. Soon after that, we saw a Lazair aileron being carried across the field while the good Samaritan walked around looking for Dale. By the way, that was the factory Lazair that was covered with super shiny silver metalized Mylar. That metalized Mylar didn't hold up as well as the clear Mylar, but it was really cool looking!

The cause of the wayward aileron was a lost aileron pivot bolt. The early Lazair's used Nyloc nuts on the pivot bolts - not a good idea. Soon after that, the bolts were changed to drilled, and castle nuts and cotter pins fitted. I didn't need to upgrade my series 1, as I built mine that way to begine with.

I have not heard of any failed push rods, but I don't have a lot of faith in the old, dried out nylon plugs in my early series 1's push rods, and plan on changing them all over to aluminum before getting back in the air with it. Old Nylon can become very brittle, and since the rod end plugs are held in with Pop rivets that expand within the Nylon, seems like a very potential problem area. I also don't like the 1/4" rods and Nylon guides to the tail either. I think an out of commission elevudder would be a not-so-good thing though...

Chappy

[Don]

Russell,
The fuselage has been ready for assembly for a few weeks. Space and the cold have been the major hold-ups. My wife moved her horses. Yeh!!! Know the wings are were I can work on them. Tedlar adhesive really tests a persons patients! So far I've made a new tip rib and D-Cell root cap. Very enjoyable to replace a crumpled part with a new one built with my own 2 hands. The only thing that could have been better would have been too have designed the part I copied! I'm hoping for a May or June finish date.
Don