A Special Case

[Shannon]

[daffy1029]

Hi Shannon,
I think the difference is there is no push rods going up the struts to work the ailerons. I still have the overhead stick which is why I noticed this right away. I though this design would have "stuck" because for tearing down and setting up, you would have fewer linkages to worry about and you have more ground clearance between the wheels.

[Shannon]

That's absolutely correct. If you look closely you will see the plane in Lazairs "famous" brochure has this early set-up. If I'm not wrong Dave Herron now owns this same plane.

[JPXman]

It must be a special case, because if you look closely in the little inset picture, there is a triangular gusset under the seat that is for running the ailerons up the struts... for sure dave owns a piece of history...

[Shannon]

Look closely at the paint scheme on Daves plane. Spot on match to the Lazair brochure.

[Guest]

Hi Shannon. Very interesting! When I owne my first LAZAIR ,the C-IEAU,serrie II I wanted to do some upgrads on it , only stuff that was permited by ulraflight, as wide landing gear. I had noticed that the picture on the blue sheet showing a low stick configuration.I called the company to ask for the up grade and they said that it was not available and that they did not recomand any instalation of this type because it was a prototype at the time and that they where not happy with it .
Couple of years later ,I cam across a LAZAIR with this very same instalation. I realy liked the fact that there was nothing hanging under the seat so very good ground clearance and very simple to take wings apart.
As for that paint paturn, that plane with the low stick I am telling you about had exacly the same color and paturn and their was a second LAZAIR with this paturn on that same airport. The airport was cooper airport in St Lazare Quebec MTL. I still don't understand why they did not want me to make the upgard on my machine as there are some flying with this set up out there.
If your friend's LAZAIR is equiped with this low stick set up I would be interested in somme pictures. I now own an elite III and would love to install that set up for ground clearence.
Thank for your time
Jean-Marc
DATUM inc
wwwdatumair.com

[Shannon]

You are correct, evidently the original low stick assembly did not meet Ultraflights satisfaction.

[JPXman]

Dave's lazair was actually based at St. Lazare for a long time until purchased by a nice gentleman and it was moved to his private strip in Winchester, Ontario. Dave bought it from this man and now it lives near Carp, Ont. Dave's got a shiny new license now and just needs for the snow to disappear to get off the ground keep us informed dave!

That instrument cluster though, if anyone knows anyone who is making these (Karl, Mike?) I'd love to get my hands on one! I love the tri-instrument layout like this in the image above.

[Shannon]

Tyler the Tri-Instrument set-up was custom made for Ultraflight. A guy connected with Orbit instruments who was a Lazair dealer put together a package of custom Lazair instruments. The instruments were easily recognizable as they had the "Lazair " logo inside on the face. The cases were ABS plastic. The down-side for this arrangement was usage of a dual needle "single" tach for both engines. These were hard to read and often inaccurate. As far as I know there is currently no similar Inst. pod being made.

[Shannon]

Lazair ASI