Lazair.com

Hello all,

I've been busy this winter doing some final touches on the plane trying to get it ready for spring. One of the things I always wanted on my first Lazair but never had was a shoulder harness. So I worked closely with a great company in Arizona USA called AM-Safe. These guys make aircraft seatbelts and harnesses of all kinds...and they were not afraid of the word Ultralight. I worked closely with a fine gentlemen named Cameron Elmer who walked me through many aspects of this project. They have developed a super nice setup that can be retrofitted to your Lazair. This 4-Point retractable shoulder harness set-up is extremely nice and very affordable too. I will post a series of pics here, but if you would like them send directly to you just email me off line and I'll shoot you over some pics.

George Curtis
Utah, USA

If you are interested in purchasing these, you may do so directly from AM-Safe by calling:

Cameron Elmer
AMSAFE Aviation
Ph: 602-850-2701
Fx: 602-850-2812

The part number you want to reference will be : 4072-2-121-2396 and the price is $199.99 each. Payment can be by Visa/MasterCard or COD.

Another pic

Another...

Yet another...

And finally...

There are more but this shoudl give you an idea of how nice these are.

Oh, and by the way, I do not finacially benefit by any of this, I just get a very nice restraint system to use.

George

Shannon,

I really don't have any problems with the factory upgrades - if they are appropriate to the particular model. You can put wide gear and brakes, factory floats, pod, and Rotax engines on a series one, for instance, but since they didn't authorize jury struts, you would end up with even poorer g ratings and a rather fragile plane.

I saw a highly modified Lazair at the Canadian EAA's Orillia fly-in one year that was way over done. It had very heavy amphibian floats, flaps AND spoilers (neither of which is needed AT ALL on a Lazair), steerable tailwheels, large wheels and brakes, fiberglass seat, large instrument panel, ballistic chute, extra bits and pieces everywhere and of course three Rotax engines so it could get off the ground. I suspect it was so over weight that it had maybe a 2 g positive and less that 1.5 g negative ultimate capability. I bet it flew more like a Teratorn or StarFlight (bag 'O rocks) than a Lazair. That's probably the worst case I've seen in a Lazair.

I can't tell anyone what to do, and was not trying to. I just wanted to get people THINKING about what the actual results will be of adding goodies to their planes. Many time we don't look at the overall picture when we get the inspiration to make "improvements" to our planes. It's too bad we can't just pick up the phone and call Dale and ask his opinion when ever we have an idea to improve or personalize our planes.

Look at the lengths that Rutan went to in designing the GlobalFlyer (from a description on their website): "All control surfaces are extremely light: 8 ounces per aileron, for example. The hinges were composite; as are the pushrods and bellcranks. Each one saves a few ounces over a metal part." This was a designer on a mission!

Chappy

PS. Tech Update 3.15 is important info for "modifiers". I think Dale wrote it after the first time he saw my first Lazair! He made me go home and make new lift struts after he saw all the rivits that I used to attach folded aluminum streamlining to them.