Lazair II

[huronflyer]

Dave,

You are in Florida now - Is that correct?

I was in FL this winter the first time in years.

Dave (north)
C-IIII, CYEL

[uscgairdale]

Almost, I'm in Mobile, Alabama which is just about 1/2 hour drive from the Florida state line.

My Lazair 2 is now 100 percent ready to go now. All that I need is to get the local DAR (designated airworthiness representative) to inspect it and I am ready to begin some flight testing. I have spent the last few mornings out at the airfield dialing in my carbs and doing some high power runs with the plane tied down. Man, 50 HP is no joke on a Lazair!

I am drooling at the chance to take her up into the air, but at the same time I'm going to try and restrain myself to wait for some prime conditions. Any thoughts, concerns, or tidbits to pass on to me before I take up a two-place. I have a 100+ hours in a series III so I'm using that as my baseline for getting started.

Dave

[JPXman]

fly 40mph. climb, cruise, approach. fly fast, thats all i can say. from my 10 hours in a single seat series III and 10 hours in a 2-seater. watch for the pitch up tendency on flare with engines at idle - be ready to counteract with burst of throttle. keep an eye on the fuel lines for bubbles.

other than that, take a video and post it as soon as possible - good luck dave!

Tyler
Edmonton, AB

[Bill]

Dave... just checking in on you and my plane. It looks great...

Flying...

very slow roll rate...

very very slow roll rate at idle or dead stick..

flys good with power... needs power/speed for controls to do their thing.

power off... I would keep it flying faster than you even think is cruise... the tail is not really big enough along with the v tail... to give good control slow... and the v tail is not a good rudder at slow speed and or when large pitch inputs are needed.

Same idea with pitch... you will not be able to pitch the nose down easily when you have full rudder input... so if you need to gain speed pronto, then get the rudder to neutral.

lastly... if you lose an engine or whatever at less than 1000 feet... say 500 feet.. you need to get your speed up right away... and if dead stick... do not attempt to turn more than a few degrees... a 180 would be pushing it.

altitude is your friend... twice as much needed compared to single seaters. Treat the two seater more like a Cessna... I happily flew single seaters inches from the ground... 20 feet up... 100 feet... of most anything... The two seater... no... fly it from long runways... aborts can be straight to runway... or altutude will be good by the time you need to turn back...

other than the above... she flys nice... lots of fun being slower and in an open cockpit compared to closed into a 172 at 3000'

Bill

[uscgairdale]

It's official now.....chalk up another flying Lazair II!

B034 made it's first flight tonight after 23 years of neglect and abandonment. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that has offered up their knowledge, advise, and two cents over the past two and a half years. I could never have ended up with such a nice Lazair without the support of "the guys" especially the ones here on this site.

Thanks again.....hopefully I'll be the one helping out from now on. Oh yea, I might be rebuilding a series III soon.

Dave
B034

[lazairiii]

Congratulations Dave!!! Nothing like the payoff of long hours of TLC on such a worthy plane.

George

[russell]

Yeah, congratulations from me also. I can relate to the effort that goes into it. How about some flying photos? Any idea on the amount of time you put into it?



Russell

[russell]

Don G. has his Lazair back together and air worthy but he wants to keep it all to himself...Don?

Russell

[yankeflyer]

Well Dave these are sure going to be some great pics-video

[uscgairdale]

Well, I hit a snag yesterday morning. I was going out to do some flight testing and to get some video of flying and.....

My brakes were bit sluggish and/or loose the other day so I adjusted the tension on the springs and also found that my pucks were not all that close to the discs. I tightened up the pucks and then backed them out very slightly. The brakes seemed better, but not perfect. In my opinion they're just used for stopping an d very slow speeds so I decided to go fly. The taxiway to the runway in use is about 3000' long. I taxied to the runway, stopped to hook up my shoulder harness, and do a high power run up. Next I released the brakes and started to take the runway when I felt a grinding sensation through the airframe. I immediately shutdown the engines to investigate and found out that something was up with my wheels. Here is what I found:

Apparently I had over adjusted the pucks on my brakes. Either they were to tight or the disc was "out of round" and the pucks dragged enough to produce heat while I was taxiing to the runway. The heated discs in turn heated up the wheel bearing which then proceded to melt my plastic wheel halves during my high power run up! Lucky for me I stopped before just taking off and finding all of this out instead of during a landing. I could bearly move the Lazair, but was able to use my dollie that I use move it sideways into my hangar. I was the opposite of fun to push it the 1/2 back to the hangar. That sucked, but I was greatfull that I had it.

I really do take my maintenance and restoration work seriously despite how all this may sound. Maybe I was just a dumb@$$, but I tell this story so that others can learn from it....hey that's what I think that this site is all about. In my defense, there was no dynamic indication that anything was wrong untill after my run up.

What next? I need to take off the main wheels. No easy task on Laziar II which means disconnecting the wings....Tyler knows what I mean. Anyway I think that the damage is only to one wheel, but I'll check both for safety's sake. I'm considering different wheels, but that means modifications to the main axle and I would prefer not to go there. I'm also put off by the original brake system and have bought some mountain bike disc brake assemblies. I've seen them put on a Falcon UL and yankeeflyer's Lazair. They look real nice, but they may be a bit of a challenge for the installation. I'll keep you all posted since the brake system on my Lazair is the same as a series III.

No flying for now, back to work......
Dave
B034 with wheels that don't turn.