Death Trap with Wings!? Lazair Walk-around.

For the record, my wife calls it a death trap with wings. I call it hours of fun! First video in my journey through an ultralight aircraft restoration.

[@rdaystrom4540]

The "Deathtrap" title does no service to the Lazair. One of the best ultralight ever built.

[@kodimaki5771]

I 100% agree with you. As stated in the description my wife is the one who calls it a death trap haha. Since I've started flying ultralights 2 years ago, I've always loved and wanted a lazair. Now I have one. Stay tuned, some great content coming!

[@olsonspeed]

Our experience is that the crank seals will leak on old engines when they reach operating temp. The Lazair is a great U/L, one of the best from the Golden Era.

[@toddfleury7324]

Learnt to fly on a two place in the 80’s Rotax Powered. Great memories. Great little airplane!

[@FroggyFrog9000]

gutsy project😀

[@flyingcameracompany6698]

I built a series 2 in 1980 and put more than 250 hours on it mostly on floats and before a licence was required. The easiest thing to fly (did 7 hours on a 150 so I didn't kill myself) and I sure do miss it. A friend covered his with dacron. Highly recommended.

[@keithschneider6348]

Put a new skin on the right wing. When you put the leading edge skin on a wing, it's a big part of the wings strength along with the main spar. Look out be safe .

[@schirmeyerb]

A dream.....how not to be passion 😢

[@Lazairgeorge]

Add the rudder pedals, swivel tail wheels, larger push rods for the rudders, brakes, wide landing gear, Tygon fuel lines, Prince P-Tip Props and if you want some aesthetics you can add prop spinners and wheel pants to the tires. There are Lazair folks with spare parts, Tedlar and wide Tedlar tapes if you look around. Best of luck on your restoration.

[@Lazairgeorge]

Interested in original Tedlar TUT20BG3 exact stuff with 2.6" wide Tedlar tape?

[@shivercanada]

Hey, I had a Lazair 2 and I got the marine heat shrink, but it didn’t stick well to any tape. After weeks it started peeling off so I scrapped the whole thing and recovered in Dakron then painted it with a metallic paint to deflect UV and Doped it on. turned out beautiful, never needs reskinning and very safe!

[@kodimaki5771]

Hey thanks for watching! What foam tape did you use? I've got 4 rolls of 3M double sided acrylic foam tape I planned on using, but may have to reconsider. Still gonna use the marine shrink tho

[@Armilite1]

Wing Coverings less than $1500. Engine Rebuilds are less than $500 each. Thosetotal 185's can make a whole lot more hp. The 450 lb MTOW = 204.1166 kg / 10 kg = 20.41166 kw needed to Fly Well = 27.372 hp / 2 = 13.686 hp each. That's why the Solo 210's at 15 hp each were the Best Engines used. Raise the CR, use a Bigger Carb, and use a Belt Drive, then you can use Bigger Props. I would upgrade the 185s to CDI also.

[@kodimaki5771]

Meh I'll fly it as intended for the time being. I plan on swapping engines eventually to higher power. And my wing covering won't even cost my $500. The hard part about rebuilding the 185s is there are no parts for them. I can find pistons that are similar, then upgrade to a 2 or 3 ring piston instead of just 1. But that will require a beefier crank, which doesn't exist unless I have one made, and at that point, what's the point when I can spend 1500/engine to re-engine the plane anyway.

[@jb92563]

I checked out MMATT's shock landing gear and they look Heavy. The Lazair does best when its kept light so try to reduce airframe weight as much as possible. Maybe you can use the concept but make it lighter. Looking forward to seeing your project evolve. I'm most curious about the boat covering and how taught it needs to be so as not to vibrate in flight. You will have to be very careful when shrinking the covering as it can distort the trailing edge if shrunk too much. I have old Tedlar on My Lazair series II but managed to buy the last "Falcon" sourced Tedlar to patch a couple panels that succumbed to hanger rash.. Mine is a zero hrs kit thats 95% ready to fly and got it with floats which is exciting because I live on a Lake making my runway a very convenient distance from my house (couple hundred feet). Cat clawed your wing...ugh! I had another aircraft, RF4D, that got the wing Taloned by a Hawk fortunately not in flight. A squirrel was sitting on the wing and the Hawk dive bombed it and missed, talons sliced right through the wing fabric.

[@kodimaki5771]

I've got the materials for landing gear, it weighs in total about 8 pounds. Other Lazair owners have used boat shrink to recover their lazairs with great success. So I'm looking forward to trying it. If I can ever find the time! Haha

[@19pete38]

@@kodimaki5771 ..l just acquired a sweet little ser2 and l've considered extending the gear too..l'd be interested in your design.!

[@comprasnashopee8660]

Show amigo, consegue me mostrar como funcionam os comandos manches e os cabos num vídeo completo , quero fabricar um lazair para mim, sou do Brasil.

[@bgfspeedshop]

Greetings from Toronto...just another newbie having purchased a lazair series 1 myself but yet to get it & myself airworthy. wondering how you're going to solve the rudder pedal problem cuz i also have the same delimma...

[@kodimaki5771]

I may not even solve it, but rather embrace it. Many lazair pilots fly without them. Also with the use of differential thrust we can compensate for crosswind and yaw

[@bgfspeedshop]

@@kodimaki5771 perfect! lines up with my electric conversion plans. pioneers are iffy & want to lean on the safe side especially during my learning stage of flying. the smooth & on demand power transition from off to full for each electric motor circuit is the most ideal, in my opinion, in crosswind landing\takeoff issues for twin engined flight. any other opinions\ideas out there? thanks Kodi...Bob

[@SunilSundar]

How thick is the mylar on the lazair's wings? Why don't you change it to dacron? Thanks

[@kodimaki5771]

The Tedlar on the wings is about 2 or 3mil thick. Dacron is fairly heavy for what this needs. The wing tips are Dacron. The boat wrap I'm using is 7mil thick but still light

[@rayfletcher3683]

Are you considering the boat wrap used for storing and transporting that is white and not transparent ? It should work but probably as heavy a a light Dacron and paint. Latex on Dacron works quite well. Still prefer tedlar. The pioneer engine were great but underpowered . 185 rotary with the bi props worked reasonably well. But keep it simple and light . Rudder petals are nice. Lazair coordinates yaw through mixer. I wouldn’t consider differential throttle for yaw except for ground turns. If your flying in enough wind to be a problem land on on side and angle across . Think I still have a new rudder conversion kit that allows you to fly connected or separate rudder. I’d go for Lazair wide gear, gives more shoulder room At Lazair Landing speed suspension likely not worth the weight and complexity. I’ve never seen one that worked. That said they are an amazing aircraft. Do not learn in any wind. They are very light and require more understanding and finesse than conventional aircraft. Howerever they are more fun and safer than a mistress!😂

[@monkeycarz]

If you find any replacement engines, please let me know. My rotax 185s for my Lazair were stolen with the mounts and i need to replace

[@kodimaki5771]

I actually have another set. The ones that were seized. I’m doing a slight rebuild, and I will test compression. If it’s all good I’ll let you know and we can work out a deal. They even have props.

[@monkeycarz]

@@kodimaki5771 Hi kodi, Sounds good, please let me know how it goes. Worst comes to worst, I could use the mounts.

[@1FreeSelfGoverningAmericanMan]

Lazair is a cool ultralight, but dude, please hold your phone horizontally so we can see it all.

[@kodimaki5771]

Ya I'm new at the whole video thing haha. I'll do another walk-around once it's complete.

[@titikindah5504]

What is material of the wing ....

[@kodimaki5771]

Looking back through the build log, this covering is Tedlar. I mention it somewhere in the video.

[@PatrickHorvat-hi5uu]

What are the reg numbers. Look like my old plane.

[@kodimaki5771]

It has new Reg marks, it was unregistered for almost 30 years when it last flew.

[@fabiancontreras4242]

I have one with the motors wings and a 20 ft custom trailer. For sale !!!!!

[@MJ-td3ij]

What series? Where are you located?

[@lenBrill1971]

For sale?

[@kodimaki5771]

Nope

[@lenBrill1971]

@@kodimaki5771 . . . I had an 83. I wish I never got rid of it. If the feller you got the engines from is selling his broken Lazair . . . . I'm interested. I'm a structures AME and able to resurrect an old one😊

[@kodimaki5771]

@Len Brill noice! He just finished getting rid of everything. But I may pick your brain woth some things, especially my landing gear modification I plan on making! 😀

[@lenBrill1971]

@@kodimaki5771 to bad about the other airframe. And yes I don't mind you asking questions wanting to modify landing structure design. Beyond the air in the the tire and airframe flex. The Lazair has no real "landing gear" in a traditional sence. So there is room for improvement. Remind yourself that you have to keep weight in mind. Because of the old biplane prop design, the pitch on those blades try to flatten out as rpm's rise. They lose some pitch. That's why wooden props became the desirable prop. They better maintain pitch. They pull hard. Greater thrust. But with that there is more weight. With every engine pulse there is a strain put on the little rotax crank shaft. Belt redrives help alleviate that strain. It helps absorb the pulse. The original props are working hard to get you going. Weight is everything. Any changes to the original airframe design is cautioned. Weight and weight and balance is not to be messed with to much. 👍😊🇨🇦

[@kodimaki5771]

@Len Brill for sure. I have a pair of Xoar 32x12 props that will go on the 185s ut I am working on putting on different engines that produce more power, and about the same weight, and 4 stroke

[@terryboehler5752]

Built and flew two originals. 145-154 pounds empty. 5&1/2hp worked great. No nose wheel. All decisions you make will take on new meaning when you realize you are actually1000feet high sitting on a banana seat. Work on weight loss.

[@kodimaki5771]

Ya I'm thinking I miscalculated my empty weight. It doesnt make sense to me that it weighed 196, theres not a whole lot to it. Once the plane is complete I'll do a deep dive inspection of everything and do an empty weight. Stay tuned!

[@Simplexaero]

A series 2 with Rotax 185’s will weigh about 210 lbs empty. The series 1 was 50-60 lbs lighter.

[@josega6338]

Interesting, too much of speaker, not enough images about airplane

[@kodimaki5771]

Ya I agree with you. Not my proudest moment. Working on it. Should be getting the covering material today so I'll be making another video soon.

[@jb92563]

@@kodimaki5771 Looking forward to seeing your recover. I also have a Tedlar covered Series II with some damaged tedlar sections that need a fix. I like the idea of a fully wrapped wing vs taping the heck out of tedlar and relying a lot on Tape adhesives. I had a 2nd Series II that had a bay of tedlar come loose behind the engine in flight. Disconcerting but uneventfull. Could you provide details on you boat covering material, how much heat needed to shrink, thickness, price, sources etc when you do the covering video.

[@kodimaki5771]

@@jb92563 absolutely. Coming soon!

[@galacticaone9537]

test

[@kodimaki5771]

Coming soon. Stay tuned!

[@timturner3365]

I have 2 Lazairs in the same shape. One new role of Tedlar . I built three of them in California in the 80s best ultralight ever!!

[@kodimaki5771]

@@timturner3365 we'll have to communicate and exchange ideas.

[@jb92563]

@@timturner3365 Im in California with a Series II. You still out in CA?

[@bussi7859]

Crap

[@kodimaki5771]

What's crap? The video? Or the plane? I'll admit the video does suck a bit. But I'm learning.