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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Aug 13, 2005
Description:
Here's Bill Narby taxiing out. He had never flown anything but r/c models before, but Dale had gotten him to taxi around the lake a few days before, and this was to be Bill's Big Day.
Maybe you can see a cell phone sticking out from the right side of the helmet. That's how Dale communicated with Bill--by telephone!
Bill flew a short distance--farther than the Wright boys did on their first flights--but didn't venture too far off the water before coming back to shore.
Then it was my turn.
Eat your hearts out, guys! Flying that thing was the most fun I've ever had in an airplane, even better than a SeaRey. You're right out there in the open air, with almost nothing obstructing your view. The only instrument was a rudimentary airspeed indicator--that little vertical tube above Bill's right toes in this photo. Everything else was pure feeling and intuition.
The Lazair flew beautifully, with light, perfectly balanced controls. It just about would not stall--merely slowed to about 22 mph indicated and mushed along. It turned on a point--the point of its own wingtip! Dale told me later that he had looped it lots of times, but that even the twin 18 hp engines didn't make enough thrust for a slow roll. (I think the original Lazairs had twin nines.)
Top speed with the two 18's was probably around--well, let's just say that it moved along at a rather good clip for an ultralight. It climbed at maybe 400 or 500 fpm at part throttle and cruised, throttled well back, at probably 50 mph. I was surprised that the inverted V tail worked so nicely. It's more efficient than an upright V and probably better than a conventional tail. The three-axis controls (stick and rudder pedals) worked conventionally, and felt light and responsive. There was some adverse yaw, but not much, and it could be turned with either ailerons or rudder alone.
Date Taken:
Aug 13, 2005
Place Taken:
Lake Keuka, NY
Owner:
Don Maxwell
File Name:
Lazair_BillNarby_0012.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZXI20000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZXI20000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZXI20000s">
Category:
23, Max Pix
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Click on photo to view the original size. |
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Read what others had to say:
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Charlie Huskey - Aug 13,2005
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Don, you like that open air feeling, you need to take a flight with me in the Powered Parachute. Come down to the fall fly n at Eagleville and I`ll take you up for the thrill of your life.
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Dan Nickens - Aug 13,2005
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That does look like fun, Don, but it would be a real slow ride to Oshkosh.
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Don Maxwell - Aug 14,2005
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Not as slow, Dan, as one might expect from (ahem!) an American ultralight. But it would be bracing on a chilly day.
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John Robert Dunlop - Aug 14,2005
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Don you really do have all the fun!<br />
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Frank Noordhuis - Aug 14,2005
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Hey Don, nothing fly's like a Lazair... the best true ultralight aircraft ever made.. I've built many and wish to have another one for myself again but the wife..lol thinks not.<br />
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