by Chappy » Sat Sep 11, 2004 11:16 pm
Daffy,
Actually, they are pretty close in performance. My climb might be a little better, but speed a little slower. I spent a whole day back in 1981 cruising around Lake Eire and the town of Port Colborn with Dale. He flew a stock Series II. I didn't have too much trouble keeping up. Dale's a bigger guy than I am, but my Lazair was heavier than his what with all the mods.
The big differences are noise (my engines run almost twice the speed of the Rotaxes), and reliability. The Pioneers start to get a little tired after only a hundred hours or so, and are shot by 200. I've flown about 450 hours in my Pioneer powered Lazair (#25), of which about 400 have been with my redrives. BTW, my homemade 3 layer pine props have held up just fine, even though they were glued together with polyester tacking resin ( I was out of Epoxy) and painted with model airplane paint! I love the way my Lazair looks with the big red props, whether it's flying or parked.
Did you make your own castings? I've never tried that. Keep this thread up and I'll have to build my own set for my Rotaxes or Solos.
Chappy