Years ago I put away my lazair due to engine cranks being cracked. I parted out the parts and pieces. I was just wondering if anybody has plans on how to install a 277 rotax on the lazair and I was wondering how did it perform? (I heard it doubled it's climb rate)
Thanks,
Paul
Possibly installing new 277 rotax on lazair
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by Paul » Tue May 31, 2005 7:52 pm
Shannon,
I'm located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont, Canada. I have an old series 2 lazair which I had over 600 hours of flying on it. When it came time for recovering I made new ribs so that in between the original ribs so that I could use dacron and I rib stitched the fabric on the wing. It turned out great. I also reinforced the trailing edge to take the stress of the shrinking process of the fabric. When my engines were starting to give me a little bit of trouble, I tore them down and then found out that there were slight cracks in the cranks. The previous owner had flipped it twice onto it's nose, breaking the props and I made a mistake of lending my aircraft to a hanglider friend of mine who told me that he could handle it but as it turned out, he flipped it also. I parted out the parts after finding out about these cracks and put away the lazair up in my garage. I had just bought a new two place airplane to fly around 13 years ago. I guess I'm starting to miss flying and soaring and would consider putting it back together. I'm including a couple pictures. I was under the impression that you could install a 277 rotax engine in place of the other two engines and not have to worry about the CG issue.
Paul
P.S. I don't have the time tonight but I was reading the other gentleman's request about soaring the lazair but I have many hours of non-powered flight and it's been a real blast. Longest flight was over an hour, got the thermal at 700 feet, shut engines off at air field, and continued to ride the thermal until I reached cloud base at about 5000 feet. Played there for an hour and then had to work back against the wind back to the airfield which was maybe was approximately 4-5 miles away. Once I made it to the airfield, I was still about 2000 feet above and actually had do wingovers to get down since there seemed to be so much uprising air. It sounds crazy but what a blast and it's true.
I'm located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont, Canada. I have an old series 2 lazair which I had over 600 hours of flying on it. When it came time for recovering I made new ribs so that in between the original ribs so that I could use dacron and I rib stitched the fabric on the wing. It turned out great. I also reinforced the trailing edge to take the stress of the shrinking process of the fabric. When my engines were starting to give me a little bit of trouble, I tore them down and then found out that there were slight cracks in the cranks. The previous owner had flipped it twice onto it's nose, breaking the props and I made a mistake of lending my aircraft to a hanglider friend of mine who told me that he could handle it but as it turned out, he flipped it also. I parted out the parts after finding out about these cracks and put away the lazair up in my garage. I had just bought a new two place airplane to fly around 13 years ago. I guess I'm starting to miss flying and soaring and would consider putting it back together. I'm including a couple pictures. I was under the impression that you could install a 277 rotax engine in place of the other two engines and not have to worry about the CG issue.
Paul
P.S. I don't have the time tonight but I was reading the other gentleman's request about soaring the lazair but I have many hours of non-powered flight and it's been a real blast. Longest flight was over an hour, got the thermal at 700 feet, shut engines off at air field, and continued to ride the thermal until I reached cloud base at about 5000 feet. Played there for an hour and then had to work back against the wind back to the airfield which was maybe was approximately 4-5 miles away. Once I made it to the airfield, I was still about 2000 feet above and actually had do wingovers to get down since there seemed to be so much uprising air. It sounds crazy but what a blast and it's true.
- Paul
- Lazair.com Member
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- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 5:56 pm
by Guest » Wed Jun 01, 2005 9:01 am
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the bit of history, thermal story, and pictures of your plane. Always good to see people with Lazair experience join the forum.
You experience with crank failure is very similar to others I've heard of. Evidently a prop strike imposes great load of the crankshafts and adds to the chance for failure.
As I mentioned previously I do not have any experience with adding a single Rotax engine to a Lazair. Based on my experience with the planes I would speculate it would not be a simple easy conversion.
C-IBXH looks like a nice plane. I noticed in one picture the plane does not have a nosewheel. That is odd for a Series 2. Also were the front fuselage tubes extended at some point a bit ?
S
Thanks for the bit of history, thermal story, and pictures of your plane. Always good to see people with Lazair experience join the forum.
You experience with crank failure is very similar to others I've heard of. Evidently a prop strike imposes great load of the crankshafts and adds to the chance for failure.
As I mentioned previously I do not have any experience with adding a single Rotax engine to a Lazair. Based on my experience with the planes I would speculate it would not be a simple easy conversion.
C-IBXH looks like a nice plane. I noticed in one picture the plane does not have a nosewheel. That is odd for a Series 2. Also were the front fuselage tubes extended at some point a bit ?
S
- Guest
by Paul » Thu Jun 02, 2005 4:26 pm
Shannon
Thanks for posting the pictures of the tri-moter lazair and the other single engine lazair. I sent an e-mail to Dave Loveman, the Canadian ultralight guru who has done several 277 mods on the lazair but he couldn't give me details due to he just had gotten two 912 4 stroke engines stolen right off his airplanes , probably worth approx. 12 thousand each. OUCH, THATS GOTTA HURT! Well , needless to say I haven't pressured him for more details.
After finding my registration, the serial number of the lazair is A702, and was purchased on the 23 Jan/84 when I was 22. That is why I have so many hours of flying time,being single and all. To the unregistered guest, the one picture that didn't have the '' nose wheel'' which is actually a hang gliding training wheel
was due to I was replacing the slightly bent tube that supports the wheel. Good eye because I forgot about that. I'm the 2nd owner and I think he changed the downtubes after one of his nose-overs. I assume the downtubes are stock length.
Thanks for posting the pictures of the tri-moter lazair and the other single engine lazair. I sent an e-mail to Dave Loveman, the Canadian ultralight guru who has done several 277 mods on the lazair but he couldn't give me details due to he just had gotten two 912 4 stroke engines stolen right off his airplanes , probably worth approx. 12 thousand each. OUCH, THATS GOTTA HURT! Well , needless to say I haven't pressured him for more details.
After finding my registration, the serial number of the lazair is A702, and was purchased on the 23 Jan/84 when I was 22. That is why I have so many hours of flying time,being single and all. To the unregistered guest, the one picture that didn't have the '' nose wheel'' which is actually a hang gliding training wheel
was due to I was replacing the slightly bent tube that supports the wheel. Good eye because I forgot about that. I'm the 2nd owner and I think he changed the downtubes after one of his nose-overs. I assume the downtubes are stock length.
- Paul
- Lazair.com Member
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 5:56 pm
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