Guys,
My intent was not to try to get everyone to use Mylar, but all I hear is 'Oh whoa is me, I can't cover and fly my Lazair because I can't get any Tedlar." Everyone seems to think Mylar is totally unsuitable for use on a Lazair because the factory switched to Tedlar. The fact is that many people had good luck with it. Also consider this: one of the first two Lazairs built by the factory was covered in Mylar, the second one covered in painted fabric. The fabric covered one's higher weight, higher cost, lower performance, and increased work to assemble and complexity persuaded Dale and Peter to go with the Mylar. The switch to Tedlar (at a pretty hefty premium) kept most of Mylar's advantages over fabric, while solving the only real problem encountered with Mylar - it's short life WHEN LEFT EXPOSED TO UV. For those of us Lazair owners that virtually always kept our planes hangared or trailered when not being flown, Mylar gave/gives us good life, and therefore, great value. I keep my Lazair protected from the weather for lots of reason in addition to protecting the Mylar. And because I always have to trailer to my flying sites, my trailer is my hanger.
I thought I made it very clear that if you don't/can't keep your Lazair out of the weather and sun, don't consider using Mylar. If you can, it may be a viable option for you to use as a covering system on your Lazair.
The picture below was taken just recently of my wings. I last recovered them in 1984 (!) for an outside display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum that summer (after my daughter broke out an upper panel by hitting it with her fist as hard as she could). Even though I could walk on the wings without the panels breaking, I decided to recover. I just now went out to my trailer and slapped the stuffings out of the wings, and nothing popped.
Although I keep it trailered, it has spent many hours flying in the sun, and many weeks tied down and exposed to the weather over the years, much of it in the Florida summer sun. Pretty good for crap, I'd say.
Chappy