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Posting from Oshkosh, Lazair is setup in the the ultralight area. I am on the east side of the north south road directly in line with the ultralight runway hiding behind a quicksilver. Here is a video from a month ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKMdZgV2IbA
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Aug 2, 2013 00:47
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Here is a bit of footage from my flights at Oshkosh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uE1If8ekBo I'll do a write up on what is involved later.
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Aug 7, 2013 12:24
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When did you leave? I was there on saturday.
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Aug 7, 2013 14:41
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I was there from Wednesday evening till Sunday morning. The Lazair was packed up on Saturday night for the drive home. Round trip was 2000 km. Met a lot of Lazair owners and got a lot of questions from the public. Unfortunately because of my late arrival I was placed slightly outside of the ultralight area so you would have had to be headed to the amphibian parking to see my plane.
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Aug 7, 2013 21:41
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How was it? I'd love to go one of these days. I'd heard that Stu at Aviat took in a gas powered husky.
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Aug 8, 2013 11:10
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Oshkosh was great. Flying there was very interesting. You can't see it in my videos but there were a ton of planes and helicopters moving around the area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVm6TMu2j2o That was from the second time I got to fly. I flew for just under an hour so I cut out quite a bit of the flight to keep it from being to monotonous. Getting down there was a very long drive. Had everything packed up the night before and was on the road at 5 am. The border crossing was far easier than I expected, just a simple whats in the trailer and where are you going. We drove the southern route which took us through Chicago and driving in traffic with a 20 foot trailer was interesting. The new axle and modified ride height really made the trailer to easily but we couldn't go much faster than about 105 km/hr before every passing truck would cause it to swing. Setup on Wednesday night was easy with lots of helpers. Finished getting the motors on Thursday morning after the long briefing. Met this guy Eric during the briefing he is a demo pilot for a powered parachute company. He has some good videos on youtube http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOFpNj8nH7WIJMdPRZj_1xQ . I had to be up bright and early every morning to attend a briefing so I could fly if the weather permitted. My old man got to sleep in and he did his own thing most days but we met up to go to the museum and float plane base together. The last time I was at Oshkosh was when I was a teenager in the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and I ran into a group of them who were on the same exchange that I had done back in 1999. My old man took some pictures of me flying but I am still waiting for them. Here are the photos I took while I was down there. http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/Helno/library/Flying/ Edit: here are the pictures my Dad took.       Packing up went very quick with lots of help. We stuck around a bit on Sunday morning and hit the border around 7 pm, the border guard asked me what this Oshkosh thing is that everyone had been to and he seemed quite excited to go next year. Overall the experience was great, I am glad I went midweek and would have liked to stay longer if only to do more flying. It is nice to see new things despite the fact that I can't afford most of what is there unless I win a lottery. helno fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Aug 26, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 22:51
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Did a bit of loose formation flying today. 
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Sep 23, 2013 20:10
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That looks like incredibly good fun. I'd like to do a bit of formation flying in the future, the only formation stuff i've done has been pretty informal with someone formating on me.
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Sep 23, 2013 22:22
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It is much more interesting with planes that can maintain the same airspeed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njlz5tfLzqs&t=741s This is the view from the other plane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9x85f7-3ts Sandy hasn't put to many hours on his Challenger yet and is hesitant to fly close to the stall speed so he stuck to around 60 mph which is my redline.
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Sep 24, 2013 00:41
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I'm not quite sure if this counts as homebuilt but I think it's the best place for it. A friend of mine has just purchased a chipmunk. It's in pieces at the moment but he's having it rebuilt to a high standard. It'll be going on the permit to fly system which is generally for homebuilts. I'm pretty excited as I'll certainly get to fly it and may go in with a part purchase on it. I've been looking at Pitts specials but I must admit I'm almost more excited about the chippie.
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Oct 31, 2013 21:17
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A chipmunk would be a great plane to have. They were used as military flight trainers up here so it is considered a poor mans warbird. What engine has it got? I always preferred the inline engine it just looked better on that airframe.  The weather around here has turned to poo poo so the Lazair has been taken apart for the winter. I'll have to get to work on the brakes. The 172 nearly broke free from its moorings in the strong winds we had the other day. It has been moved from a grass parking area to the apron but the tiedowns are about two feet back from the paved surface. The plane was chocked on the tarmac with the wing ropes leaning back to the tiedowns. The tail is tied down via a tow hook. The wind was blowing from behind and pushed the tail into the ground which unhooked the towhook and then the tail swung around. No damage but it couldn't stay like that so today the owner and I did a bit of paving so it could be tied down properly.
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Nov 3, 2013 04:03
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It'll have the gipsy major inline inverted 4 in it as original. Over here they're the only ones we had and also the only ones certified for aerobatics. Yes I understand they're very sweet little aircraft to fly and have a bit of a feel of a warbird. I'm very excited to fly it. The chap who has bought it tried to buy back his old t6 harvard a month or two ago but it'd been sold already. The weather has dropped off a bit here too, I've not had a chance to fly and fuel up the husky as my free time hasn't matched up with any decent flying days. Will you be flying the 172 much over the winter? good job on getting it tied down properly, I'm always wary when i fly away of getting it tied down properly. airfields in the uk often don't have very good tie down points, I prefer using my own anchors I've made on a grass patch.
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Nov 3, 2013 10:46
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helno posted:They were used as military flight trainers up here so it is considered a poor mans warbird. Royal Danish Airforce used them as trainers for 26 goddamn years. They retired in 1976 to be replaced by Saab T-17 Supporters, so they've been used to train for everything from Supermarine Spitfires over Republic F-84 Thunderjets and F-100 Super Sabres to Saab 35 Drakens. 2.400 Danish airforce pilots got their education through the Chipmunk. 16 of the fuckers were sold off for civilian use from Flyvestation Værløse in 1976 for about $5K each. 10 year old me still hates my dad for not buying me one. I think there's at least 2 or 3 flyable left in Denmark. I definitely know that OY-FLV is still airworthy. 
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Nov 3, 2013 13:17
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Sir Cornelius posted:Royal Danish Airforce used them as trainers for 26 goddamn years. They retired in 1976 to be replaced by Saab T-17 Supporters, so they've been used to train for everything from Supermarine Spitfires over Republic F-84 Thunderjets and F-100 Super Sabres to Saab 35 Drakens. 2.400 Danish airforce pilots got their education through the Chipmunk. Buying a retired military primary trainer is akin to buying a retired rental car, except it has also been literally bounced off the ground several thousand times. And it's probably been puked in even more.
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Nov 3, 2013 13:43
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Colonel K posted:The weather has dropped off a bit here too, I've not had a chance to fly and fuel up the husky as my free time hasn't matched up with any decent flying days. Will you be flying the 172 much over the winter? Not sure how much flying I will get in this winter. I have at least 5 hours of dual time to finish my night rating. It is tough to get a dairy farmer/flight instructors schedule to line up with mine.
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Nov 3, 2013 15:53
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Sir Cornelius posted:
I feel similar about when Spitfires were being sold off for £1'000 or whatever it was. MrYenko posted:Buying a retired military primary trainer is akin to buying a retired rental car, except it has also been literally bounced off the ground several thousand times. And it's probably been puked in even more. At least trainers were designed to take that sort of use, rental cars not so much. That being said I still wouldn't mind a Harvard at some point. helno posted:Not sure how much flying I will get in this winter. I have at least 5 hours of dual time to finish my night rating. It is tough to get a dairy farmer/flight instructors schedule to line up with mine. Best of luck, I have completed all my night qualification training and sent off my application but they wanted to take a ridiculous extra charge to convert my licence, so I'm waiting until it runs out to put in for it. Night flying in the UK isn't all that usefull as there's not many airports open at night and the ones that are have pretty hefty landing, handling and parking fees.
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Nov 3, 2013 16:49
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Colonel K posted:That's an interesting colour scheme. That's the original RDA scheme. Some of our current F-16s has weird paint-jobs too.  Pilots patch is kind of cool: 
Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Nov 3, 2013 |
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Nov 3, 2013 23:19
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Love the videos helno, I'm working towards my PPL now and it sure would be cool to try one of those some time.
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Nov 5, 2013 05:22
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Thanks. I don't have the skills to produce the finely polished videos so I prefer to keep them simple and just show the experience how it looked and sounded to me. Where are you doing your PPL? It can be hard to find ultralight guys as they tend to be more private about it.
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Nov 6, 2013 03:42
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In the Portland, OR area. Which sucks because of the weather here, impossible to find clear days in the winter on a weekend. I fly out of a pretty small airport and there are some cool planes I see around, but no ultralights yet. I guess most people don't launch them from actual runways?
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Nov 6, 2013 03:51
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hayden. posted:I guess most people don't launch them from actual runways? Depends on your definition of actual runway. I fly from a really nice grass runway at a registered aerodrome. Most people think hard surface runway is the only way to go. I much prefer to fly off grass the extra rolling resistance makes for much better directional control. Have you had any progress in your flight training? I am still at basically the same place. The weather has been pretty nasty for the last two months so I have only gotten an hour in the last while. I helped Sandy winterize his challenger for the winter, not much to do there. My winter project for the Lazair is going to be brakes. I need to space the disc's out further to allow clearance for the bicycle brakes but I think I will be able to just use aluminum spacers rather than the large spacer discs that I had originally envisioned.
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Dec 12, 2013 04:27
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I'd love to get into ultralights and the Lazair looks perfect. Are there really no more new kits to build? Replicas? Scratch build plans? Similar ultralights? I wish more were available for sale in the US.
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Jan 15, 2014 23:51
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There are quite a few out there as they made a ton but no more kits since the early 80's. I met Gene the guy behind this project this summer. He is working on producing an updated version. http://newlazair.blogspot.ca/ Other similar aircraft are available as kits. http://www.kolbaircraft.com/ http://www.beliteaircraft.com/ http://www.quicksilveraircraft.com/ http://www.teammini-max.com/ If you like working with wood these guys make great kits. (my Uncle makes fiberglass parts for them) http://www.fisherflying.com/
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Jan 16, 2014 04:12
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helno posted:There are quite a few out there as they made a ton but no more kits since the early 80's. This is great. I absolutely love the Fisher biplanes. The FP-404 looks fantastic. It's a real shame that literally the day I learn about the company they decide to no longer sell kits. I've built wooden RC planes before and I imagine that these kits are very similar - only larger. Would be a lot of fun. I'll keep my eyes open for Lazairs for sale. The others just aren't grabbing my attention, I'm afraid.
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Jan 16, 2014 08:06
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That is pretty ironic about FFP. I guess that means you need to be not only a good carpenter but also good at sourcing materials. Where are you located? You can always join the two lazair yahoo groups and ask about ones for sale. As a side benefit you can watch as a few guys get butthurt about various subjects (this is why there are two groups).
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Jan 16, 2014 16:48
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Hello, has anyone finished building my cri-cri yet?
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Jan 16, 2014 18:22
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I'm still waiting for a DA-2A So I haven't gotten much done on my brake project. Winter is kind of happening around here. A few weeks ago I got my spacers for the disks and got them assembled.   I went out to install the wheels and make a template for the caliper mounts and was greeted by this.     Got the wheels mounted made a nice cardboard template got the parts cut out of some aluminum and filed them to shape. Winter happened a bit more and we had four snow days from work. Helped out another guy mount the center section of his T18 wing and got some electronics work done. Went out yesterday to test fit the parts and found this.  The door I need is on the left. Don't think I'll be getting in there anytime soon.
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Feb 5, 2014 02:37
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You can dig through that in an hour or so if you are motivated  I didn't read the whole thread, but will tomorrow over lunch most likely. So just ignore this or tell me it's already answered if it has been. What are people using for PSRUs on Subaru engines? I'm hoping to build my own at some point in the future, and have settled on an EJ22 shortblock/EJ25D heads/turbo build since Subaru mechanics I know and trust tell me you can romp on that setup basically all day at high RPMs without problems at around the 200-250hp level. Since I'm on a budget and engines/avionics/PSRU/prop/landing gear are (at least as far as I can tell) the most expensive parts of building an airplane, I've been researching each one in turn so I know what I'm in for financially. The PSRUs I've been finding for Subaru engines tend to either be chinesium (which I don't trust with my life) like the aeroflight 33 generally posted about by banned user "1946" on various homebuilt forums, or Eggenfellner boxes based off Subaru 5MT gearsets and custom housings, or full custom units, and all seem to run in the 6-10k USD range. That's rather more than I was expecting or hoping to have to spend, is there anything cheaper that is well respected or should I just start saving now? I found another box that seemed well respected for either 3 or 6 grand each, but can't remember the name of it now. I think it started with an M? e: Worst case, I actually work for an aerospace company (if you saw a flying car at Oshkosh last year, well, I spent yesterday rewiring and calibrating strain gauges on it for our next upcoming test flights!) and sit next to the engineer in charge of the gearbox, I'm sure we can come up with something, but if it's possible to get a quality box in the 2-3k USD price range, I'd rather just buy one premade. kastein fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Feb 6, 2014 |
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Feb 6, 2014 01:08
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I don't know too much about the gearboxes on ultralights other than having anything made will be aviation prices. I was involved a little in a project to build a replica pre first war floatplane where the intention was to use a rotec radial and a box for that was pretty expensive. I've been following the rebuild of a turbulent on another flying shed where they seem to think it'll cost around £5k all in, but that uses a VW engine, and I understand that they also end up needing a fair amount of checks when used in an aeroplane.
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Feb 6, 2014 03:35
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kastein posted:What are people using for PSRUs on Subaru engines? First off, what plane do you have in mind? I would recommend avoiding PSRU's. And that horsepower level for a subaru seems.. very, very high. I strongly suspect you'll run into head cooling issues at that sort of power level. I can go into the whole explanation of why "romp all day at 250hp" isn't the same as "flying at 200hp" if you'd like. So, to avoid the PSRU issue, feel free to run boost. Build for torque. Spin a multi blade propellor a little faster, and keep the blades shorter. You can find a lot of usable power without going to 6000rpm. Take a look at the people flying Corvairs. If you're dead set on trying to get 250hp from a subaru for any useful length of time, and require the PSRU, building your own is not an insurmountable task. I'd look at this guys documentation, http://www.zenith.aero/profile/Ben He's got a v8 engine driving a (mostly homemade) PSRU. We can also discuss what causes crank, and PSRU failure. :-)
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Feb 18, 2014 19:01
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Thanks! I will definitely check out that website. Yeah, apparently my numbers were somewhat... unrealistic. The same people I thought told me 250hp was reachable now say that 200 is a bit optimistic, but probably possible, and upgrading the rings will probably be necessary to maintain that kind of power + RPM without wearing out quickly. The plan right now is to run exactly the setup I listed, but minus the turbo, with space set aside for the turbo/intercooler. If I don't think I have enough power, add it on later, and refresh the rings/bearings/etc as well. If I go turbo, I should probably consider piston oil sprayers also, so that's all off the table for now. Also, I came up with what I think is a winning combo of cheap bulletproof factory parts, cheap bulletproof aftermarket parts, things I can fabricate easily using regular plate aluminum and maybe having a few things turned/splined/hardened, and mostly COTS wear parts for the PSRU. I'm not saying exactly what it is because I think there might actually be a market for a kit based on this idea and if that's gonna happen, I want to be the one who does it. The ratio I'm planning is around 2.7:1 and the geartrain involved is rated by the manufacturer for 1600 to 1900 foot pounds, while experience dictates there's a significant safety factor on that number. If you've figured it out, please don't spill the beans 
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Feb 18, 2014 19:18
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1900 foot pounds isn't enough. At least not without some very, very, very, serious torsional damping in place. Hardening has it's own share of issues, beacause with hardening, comes brittlenss. Propellers are big springs. They resonate. If you reach the right rpm, where the power impulses are anywhere near the same frequency as the prop is rotating, you can build some massive forces in fractions of a second. The big advantage of having a zero lash drivetrain, is as those forces build up, they never unload the mechanical bits. The hammering action of teeth on each other causes even mild resonances to weaken and remove teeth rather quickly. Piston sprayers shouldn't be left on the table, don't add those as an upgrade, do them the first time. I can't say it enough, the sort of operation that airplane engines sustain, isn't equaled anywhere else that most people have experience with. Another thing to look at, is the Subaru engines aren't all that light. A good PSRU isn't going to be light either. If you really want 200hp, there are other engines that can do 200hp, without needing a massive array of associated support devices. For example, the ford SHO v8, is making 210hp at 4800rpm. And is a mere 390lbs. And then there's the classic inverted oldsmobile V8 in the wittman planes. You can check this for installed weights of subarus. http://www.sdsefi.com/air51.htm
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Feb 18, 2014 19:45
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Trying to make a car engine produce 200+ direct drive at the rpms required of a propellor is a recipe for disaster. Speaking of Subaru engine my soon to begin project is to put one into my 77' VW bus. I'll have to make a thread in AI.
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Feb 19, 2014 04:23
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People are always talking about Mazda rotary engines (light, compact, high HP), but I never seem to see anyone who actually goes through with it. It it because they are not as great HP/Mass as people think or it is something to do with the High RPMs and gearboxes?
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Feb 20, 2014 05:46
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I'd bet the gearbox cuts a lot of the weight savings, and possibly fear of apex seals (though in an airplane carbon buildup shouldn't be an issue, I suppose).
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Feb 20, 2014 06:19
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This guy is building a 1:1 scale BF-109 and says the engine is going to be a Mazda.BF109 guy posted:The engine we have choesen is a Mazda/Wankel engine, with turbo and either two or three row`s with around 450HP I honestly don't know where he's getting that HP figure since Mazda's most powerful commercially available engine was the 13B-REW in the RX-7 wich generated 280 HP, and was already twin-turbocharged. The only engines over that HP were experimental and for concept cars that never materialized and their LeMans offering which was a 4-Rotor 700HP monster. On paper they look nice due to their injection, HP, weight, and size, but I think you're probably correct about the added complexity and weight of the gearbox. Otherwise you'd see everyone zipping around in comparatively cheap Mazda engines instead of Rotax and others.
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Feb 20, 2014 16:44
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Blistex posted:I honestly don't know where he's getting that HP figure since Mazda's most powerful commercially available engine was the 13B-REW in the RX-7 wich generated 280 HP, and was already twin-turbocharged. The only engines over that HP were experimental and for concept cars that never materialized and their LeMans offering which was a 4-Rotor 700HP monster. Don't worry too much about it. Nobody has heard anything from him since 2010 when he was looking for sponsors to finish his lovely build replica and still didn't have an engine. Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Feb 22, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 18:41
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Blistex posted:This guy is building a 1:1 scale BF-109 and says the engine is going to be a Mazda. That thing looks like what you'd get if you asked a scale modeler with zero engineering knowledge to build an airplane.
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Feb 22, 2014 02:57
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MrYenko posted:That thing looks like what you'd get if you asked a scale modeler with zero engineering knowledge to build an airplane. His idea of building a frame for foam and use that as a mold for a fiber fuselage is somewhat legit, but my loving Gods, that wood frame was all kinds of hosed, and his plan was to keep it in there. 
Sir Cornelius fucked around with this message at 11:07 on Feb 22, 2014 |
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Feb 22, 2014 03:21
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:16 |
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He was saying that the frame looks warped due to the camera lens and everything is in fact straight. Also like you mentioned it's the sandwich that he was thinking about. The strength from this kind of design comes from the layer of composite on the insides and outside, and the wood and foam is just a base for it. I've seen aircraft built in this manner, but they usually have the money to do a giant mold for the fuselage instead of having to seal the mold on the inside. So essentially, if he had the tech to do it without the wood, he would go in that direction. I really hope that this thing actually does happen, and fly well, but it looks like it might be vapourware as there have been no updates in a long time. Then again it was posted at the homebuilt forums, and that's usually reason enough to assume it will never be built as I've yet to see anything custom happen (aside from slight mods to kits).
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Feb 23, 2014 02:02
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