Sometime ago someone posted an idea for people to
post thier stories on the Lazair forum and many of you responded with some
great stories.
Since the forum has a limited capacity of storage, anything that gets
posted there has a limited life span depending on forum activity. They
were to good
to let pass into oblivion. so here they are immortalized on Lazairforce..
Gene Yarbrough
"The tips on the ground go scrub,scrub,scrub" In the spring 1986 on
a beautiful windless warm day around the end of April my instructor
decided to go for a flying lesson. As it was a beautiful
windless warm day around the end of April we decided to practice touch
and
goes and single engine ops. The original takeoff
on this beautiful windless warm day around the end of April was uneventfull
as were
the single engine operations at altitude. So it
was time for some touch and goes. The first touch was smooth and the first
go went. The
second touch was a little fast and the second go
went faster. On the third downwind on this beautiful windless warm day
around the end
of April a dark fast moving line of clouds barreled
across the sky and hit us right about midway on the downwind leg. Well
firewalling
both JPX engines with tuned pipes only got us a
crawling forward groundspeed. I found as the temperature dropped at least
five
degrees in one minute that the air was very, very
mad at us as it was certainly trying to smack us into the ground. A few
minutes passed
and my instructor yelled that he would take over.
I guess he got tired of his knees being smashed by the stick as I fought
to keep the
plane straight and level. So we finally made it
a little past the end of the runway and my man turned the plane away from
the wind. The
acceleration was incredible! The loss of airspeed
and the ground quickly coming to us was even more incredible!! As we transitioned
from falling to flying about 50ft agl my instrucotr
taught me a new flying technique. With my underwear protecting me from
the inside, as
opposed to outside, and the lungs refusing to do
their job I was introduced to crabbing. Full right rudder, most all of
the left aileron and
just enough up elevator to fall slightly less than
gravity would have allowed we went zipping toward the end of the runway.
Wings banked
at 7 and 2 of the clock and 45 degrees left being
forward he adds differential engine to the mix. We scoot over the threshold
at nearly
v-max, at least thats how it seemed. It was then
that I was sure that dieing while flying was surely a poetic end to this
short life of 16 yrs.
Just as I was beginning my final prayer I saw the
left wingtip brushing the high grass at the edge of the strip. We began
to level out as
the tip hit the ground and went scrubbbbbbbbbb for
a long ways. Still holding the crab and dragging the wingtip we sat down
on the left
main wheel and rolled for quite some time before
he straightened it out. So we taxied to the hanger where upon prying my
now white
fingers from the frame and removing the undergarment
firmly embedded in the neither parts I stumbled out of the seat. I learned
that we
had just encountered a rather strong squall line
which made for some terrifying flying on this otherwise beautifull windless
warm day
around the end of April.
Paul Grandall
"The pilot and the pig farmer": In 1988 when I completed my Lazair
kit I had went up with a friend in his Tomahawk (spamcan) and got
an hour's of dual. That, with the fact that I had
soloed in a Cessna 150 15 years earlier, convinced me that I could master
a silly little "toy
plane". So off to the local GA grass strip airport
I went one early cold clear Washington March day. I introduced myself to
George, the
FBO and former F-104 Starfighter pilot. Anyway,
after most of the day taxing and ground hopping I realized that my "toy"
was for real,
and quite and handful with my inexperience with
ultralites and a slight cross wind (found out latter that I also had two
mismatched/adjusted engine and plenty of asymetrical
thrust). But I stuck with it and made baby steps towards actually flying
it. Finally
late in the day George suggested that I pack it
in and come back another day. As I was cold, stressed, hungery, and tired
I agreed that
was the wise decision. And that was my plan. Well,
except for this wise old man that had been "helping" and encouraging me
all day. I
didn't know him, but inspite of his blue jeans and
straw hat, he had that knowing look of one of those rare old bold pilots.
Anyway he
said "Son, you just have to get that plane in the
air. It will come to you then when you get it away from the ground. I've
been waiting all
day to watch you fly." So with that encouragement
I forgot George's advice (and my warm jacket) and gunned the throttle with
a smile.
The smile lasted about an hour until the cold late
afternoon chilled my excitement to the bone. As I headed back to the strip
I was
shaking so badly that the Lazair wobbled (or so
it seemed). Stressed and freezing by now the first landing approach was
too low
(powerlines!!), the next too high, and the third
just right.... until I flaired 8 feet too high, smack, ugh... As was picking
up the pieces
(shattered wheel rims, wheel pants, bent struts,
etc, good old George drove up in his pickup to help me "clear" the runway.
After we had
dragged my Lazair clear he stopped and asked me
why I hadn't followed his advice and called it a day. With a sad voice
I told him that I
had listened to one of those old experience pilots.
He demanded "who?". When I had discribe the fellow to him, George got real
quite
and his face got real red before he cused "Damn
it, all to hell! He just comes to watch. Hank's no pilot! He's a damn pig
farmer from
Chimicum...". So instead of flying that next summer
I had a lot to ponder as I rebuilt my Lazair. r, Paul
There is this really pretty stretch of beach between the airport and
my house that is fun to fly. It is about 18 mile that way with high bank
(80 feet with houses and trees) on one side and
Puget Sound on the other. When the tide is out the beach is gravel/sand
about 100 feet
wide. It is just incredible to fly this beach about
at about 5 feet at Laziar speed (25 mph) and take in the sights. One day
a guy was
shoveling in his back yard and I could see him looking
up for the ultralite he heard; when he finally looked DOWN at me he dropped
his
shovel! Low and slow in a Lazair doesn't get any
better. And having an 18 mile long "runway" to fly over low and slow is
really cool! r,
Paul
Shannon Whitaker
-Way back in the 80's we had a fellow down here named Holloway. A real
Cajun of "French decent" from deep in the desolate soybean
and rice growing areas of extreme South Louisiana.
The guy had a funny french accent that many Canadians know very well. He
was a
very nice guy but was quite illiterate and could
barely write his name. Somehow this fella' found out about Lazairs and
wanted one. My
father being a Dealer was quite happy when Holloway
showed up one day cash in hand wanting a kit. Much to our surprise Holloway
wasn't a pilot and had never even been off the ground
in an airplane. We were concerned because of his complete lack of aeronautical
experience. He insisted that he was going to build
and fly a Lazair and that was that. This guy built his Lazair by having
his girlfriend
read the instructions to him as he went along. After
the kit was built he taxied the up and down his runway for many, many hours.
A friend
of his joked that he was about to wear the plane
out on the ground. He learned to crow hop his plane in little graduated
steps. One day
when he was ready, off he went ! No experience,
no lessons, his first flight EVER ! His only advise was over the phone
from my Dad on
how to crow hop and make an approach to land. We
were convinced the guy was going to crash but what can you do when someone
is
this determined. This guy flew his Lazair for a
long time with no problems ! Simply Amazing !
-Follow this link http://www.ocis.net/tvsac/newsletter.html to the Thompson
Valley Sport Aircraft Club to read the little story of Gene Zwink
and his trouble with his first flight attempts in
C-ITOK. This is what usually happens to people with little or no flying
experience in their
valaint effort to become an ultralight pilot. It
is a shame but I know of 5 Lazairs destroyed in a similar way to Genes
story. This type of
incident is exactly why ultralights in general attained
a bad reputation as unsafe machines. This type of incident is also the
ignorant
basis for the product liability lawsuits that put
Lazair out of production.
-"The Coyote incident". Flying along one day over some large cow pastures
I noticed a momma cow and a very small calf standing
alone far away from a large herd. About 50 yards
away I saw some movement and thought it was a dog in the field. To my surprise
it
wasn't a dog but a Coyote stalking the newborn calf.
The momma cow was standing guard over her baby. I knew if I didn't start
a
"ground attack" mission that the calf would be history
shortly. I chopped the throttles and swooped down in a dive reminiscent
of an
A-10 thunderbolt attacking an Iraqi tank. The scene
would have reminded you of a Wild Kingdom episode with Marlin Perkins chasing
a
game animal in Africa. Me and the coyote went round
and round that field until all the coyote could do was lay on his back
and show his
teeth as I zipped by and pulled up for another run.
Finally I pulled off enough for the coyote to make it to the treeline in
a mad dash. It was
quite rewarding to know that not only was I having
a blast, but my Lazair flight that day made a difference in the world.
However small !
Beep Beep !!!
-"Cocaine was his co-pilot" There was a little fella' named Clif who
purchased Lazair kit #883 in 1983. He was a very likeable little guy
and made up for in brains what he didn't have in
stature. Clif was absolutely nuts about Lazairs and set about building
his kit with much
enthusiam. Being that he didn't have a shop of his
own we offered our shop for him to build the plane in. Clif set an unoffical
world
record in building his Lazair and would work enormous
amounts of hours in the shop with no apparent exhaustion. In a very short
order
his plane was nicely assembled. On the final day
of assembly the plane was trailered out to the strip for engine testing
and final rigging.
By the time everything was checked out it was dusk
and Clif barely had time to make one taxi test down the runway before night
settled.
As we watched what we thought was going to be the
last taxi run before shutting down for the night he firewalled the engines
and was
off into the dark. We couldn't believe this guy
, he is flying his Lazair for the first time in the dark. All you could
see was the blink, blink,
blink, of the strobe as he circled the field. We
scurried to arrange car and truck headlights so he could make his way back
down. Out of
the pitch black comes a brand new Lazair for a nice
touchdown on the dark runway. Man what is with this guy ? As the weeks
and
months progressed Clif stayed in the air with his
Lazair and became increasingly wild with his antics. One day as we watched
in horror
he began an aerobatics routine that included tail-slides,
botched loops with inverted decents until recovery, and extremely fast
dives at
magnitudes that should have folded the wings. This
guy was a real testament to the strength of a Lazair. It was about this
time that we
acquired two JPX 20hp engines for a two seat kit
that was still in the crates. Clif went absolutely nuts with the prospect
of flying at a
local ultralight gathering with these engines on
his plane. To make a long story short he made the other ultralights at
the fly-in look like
relics and was out running many of them on one engine
just for fun. As a finale he would pass by the crowd on knife edge. No
big deal
except that he would do this on one engine ! He
took every ultralight award and every competition trophy at the airshow
! I still have the
pictures to prove it ! The other ultralight dealers
were fuming and hated Lazairs with a purple passion from that day on. Sadly
one day
we got the call that Clif had overdosed on cocaine
and had died of a massive heart attack. We then understood that cocaine
was the
reason for all the wild Lazair antics. The Lazair
was tougher than cocaine. Amazing !
-"Following the Leader" This is a short account of
an experienced Lazair flier leading a rookie Lazair pilot to a near death
experience.
One day two Lazairs and an Eipper MX were flying
the banks of the Mississppi River on a sightseeing patrol. Spotting a short
dirt
logging road that led to a 35' shear cliff overlooking
the river the "ace" lazair pilot decided this would be a great place to
hold a meeting.
His reasoning was that it looked to be a good place
discuss how much fun the pilots were having. And beside that "he needed
to pee".
This cliff overlooked the fast flowing, log-jammed,
whirlpool infested muddy river. The trio somehow made it down on the road
without
incident. After a short break it was time for them
to make a takeoff that was very similar to a aircraft carrier takeoff of
a WWII plane. The
"ace" pilot weighed 160lbs and didn't have much
trouble getting airborne. The MX pilot had his 40hp Rotax to get himself
safely back in
the air. After watching the other two planes depart
the "Rookie" lazair pilot didn't think twice about heading over the cliff.
Much to his
surprise his plane sailed off the cliff and dropped
34' feet to skim across the nasty looking water of the Mississippi. The
fact that he
weighed 200lbs must have played a part in his poor
climb performance. Somehow the Lazair caught some air under the wings and
flew
along in "ground effect" or maybe in this case "water
effect" for half the distance across the river. Lucky for the rookie that
a catfish
didn't jump out the water and smack him in the face.
Eventually the Lazair gained some speed and climbed away from the river.
After
telling the story to other more responsible Lazair
fliers the rookie acknowledged that he should have never followed this
particular
leader. Instead he should have adopted the "every
man for himself" attitude and flew back home alone. I don't think this
new guy ever
flew with "ace" again.
- "Beware of GA pilots" There is one sure fire way to increase
your chances of having a torn up Lazair. If you ever have a friend, buddy,
or
acquaintance that is a experienced GA pilot be very
cautious about letting them fly your plane. There were two incidents where
Lazairs
were trashed by pilots with much time flying regular
aircraft. After you explain to a GA pilot how great your plane flies and
what a
wonderful machine it is they will often come up
with the bright idea of taking your plane for a spin. GA guys often display
an over
confidence in their ability to handle this plane.
After all they watched you fly and it looks like a piece of cake. Here
is what happened to a
couple of good Lazairs. A flight instructor decided
he was going to take a Lazair for one of these test flights one day. He
climbs in and
makes it into the air and seems to be doing real
good. After a few passes up and down the runway one engine suddenly stops.
This guy
was feeling so good about flying this nearly new
Lazair that he shut one engine off to "see how it would do". This would
have been just
fine except that he was flying at 100' feet. Scratch
one Lazair. Another guy was so scared of slowing down he dove for the runway
and
missed a short grass strip. His landing resembled
Kamakazi attack into a bramble of small trees at the end of the runway.
Scratch 2.
These incidents could have been avoided had the
GA guys been instructed on what to expect, what not to do, and what speeds
to use.
These detailed instructions combined with an hour
of ground taxi training probably would have saved these planes. The pilots
didn't get
hurt in these crashes by the way. I am personally
the greedy type and tell everyone to "get your own" and "hey don't touch
that!".
- " Prop strike" Years ago I heard a tail of a nasty incident
of a person walking into a Lazair prop. Seems as though some guy had his
wife nearby (lord knows why) when he was preparing
to go for a flight. While this guy was warming up his engines his wife
apparently
forgot where the propellers were located on the
plane. We know that propellers all but disappear when the engines are running
at a fast
idle. She was attempting to hand a camera to the
pilot so he could take some pictures while flying. The unlucky lady had
her arm nearly
severed by the wizzing carbon props. Apparently
the pilot was so shaken by this incident he sold his Lazair. I would caution
everyone to
explain the any bystanders, especially children,
to stay well clear of the airplane. Also painting your tips white helps
make the props
more visible. I have seen numerous pictures of Lazairs
with unpainted prop tips.
- " The Tweaker" I'd like to share this little post on
a guy I call the tweaker. It seems as though the tweaker thought he could
makes things
on his plane work better by tweaking and fiddling
all the time. He would constantly mess with things that didn't need messing
with. He
would convince himself that he could get more power
and speed. He constantly adjusted settings, replaced jets, and changed
the oil
and oil ratio 14 times. He swore by magic snake
oils and elixirs and spent a fortune screwing up perfectly good engines.
Fiddling and
fretting he always blamed any imagined problem he
was having on everything in the world but himself. The tweaker sweated
and
cussed, spending many an hour disassembling and
reassembling things that were in perfect working order hours before. When
referred to any official engine or aircraft literature
he dismissed the information as so much hogwash. Of course he was smarter
than
the teams of trained engineers that developed his
engines and plane. In the final analysis the fiddling and tweaking put
his butt on the
ground. No big surprise that he now developed the
theory that his plane and engines had potentially fatal flaws that were
trying ruin his
life. So off went, checkbook in had to find new,
better and more sophisticated planes and engines to fiddle and tweak upon.
His fiddling
ways continued anew with the predictable outcome.
$40,000 later I would guess he is somewhere tweaking, fiddling, sweating,
and
cussing still.
- " The Big Scare at Box Canyon Acres" There are scary
things that often happen to new Lazair pilots that make them realize the
error of
their ways. This is a noteable account of my early
ignorant days of low level hedge-hopping that could have proved disasterous.
Flying
along over a quite unfamiliar area one day I discovered
some very vast fields that looked ripe for flying in. Seeing that no houses,
barns,
or electric wires would preclude my greedy (and
ignorant) desire sail along the ground at five feet I dropped down on the
deck. I was
having a blast following the contour of this immense
pasture at full speed. I followed a sharp curve in the treeline around
a bend to
discover I had flown into a pasture that ended in
a Box Canyon surrounded by tall oak trees. I checked my altimiter and it
read 6 feet
under and there was a skull and crossbones where
the needles should be. I cursed out-loud to myself "you stupid son of a
@#$%$#"
and pulled up into a climbing arching twisting 180
degree U-turn. This was a maximum effort U-turn and I can actually remember
going
"Oh S*#t" as the plane skirted the wall of the canyon
! Flying back over the area after regaining my composure I couldn't believe
that I
had been stupid enough to fly down in there. This
was all the medicine I needed and I was cured of my ignorant low level
antics. I now
recon any unfamiliar area very carefully before
I get below the treeline.
- "The Chimney Incident" We had a Lazair flier have an
engine failure one time while climbing out over a residential neighborhood.
This
particular guy was not one to heed warnings or pay
attention to rules for this small private strip. The standing rule was
to never fly over
the neighborhood to keep good public relations.
This rule was quite sound as there was no good place to make an emergency
landing
should something go wrong. Well it happened, as
you might expect. His engine quit at the exact worst spot during his climb
out. Faced
with very few choices for landing he opted to try
for a vacant lot rather than electric wires looming ahead. In his approach
to the vacant
lot he managed to catch a wing on a brick chimney
on a nearby house. The plane made a complete 360 degree turn in the air
and
came to rest on its wheels in the homeowners driveway.
Thankfully the residents of the area had become so use to seeing Lazairs
fly
around they didn't raise a big stink about the incident.
Remarkably the plane suffered only minimal damage and was flying again
very
soon afterward. But as you might expect from a different
airport.
-"The Weedhopper Fatality" There was a Lazair flyer in
this area years back who had a friend that purchased a Weedhopper. The
guy
wanted to get into flying ultralights cheaply but
wouldn't buy a Lazair becuase they cost too much. This Weedhopper was garbage
and
had tears in the rotten sails that were repaired
with duct tape. The guy wouldn't listen to reason and was warned repeatedly
not to fly the
plane until he got some new sails. He thought that
his sails were just fine and had to be just as strong as the "cellophane"
covered
Lazair , as he liked to say. Even if it did have
a few tears and some mildew. So one day the pair are flying along and the
wing sail starts
to literally rip off the Weedhopper. The Lazair
pilot watched in horror as the rip grew larger and larger. The Weedhopper
slowed down in
an attempt to land in a rough pasture with tall
grass. Unfortunately he dropped to low and got too slow to make it over
a tall treeline
surrounding the pasture. The plane clipped the top
of 65' tall oak trees and went straight into the ground. The pilot was
killed instantly
when his head hit the motor hanging off the boom
in front of him. It was doubtful that a helment would have saved his life
had he been
wearing one. This isn't the ending of this unhappy
story though. The Lazair pilot became so shaken by what he had just witnessed
that
he lost his cool tried to land in this very rough
field without thinking. He susequently hit some hidden small stumps or
rough ground and
flipped his Lazair on it back doing considerable
damage. To make matters worse what he found when he clawed his way out
of his
Lazair and went over to the Weedhopper wreckage
was his buddy with a smashed head. You can imagine the bad press that came
out
of this incident. The story was all over the news
for several days. To top it off the guy had a wife and small child that
he left behind. If
there is any good to come from this story it makes
us aware that we have to land our aircraft safely in order to help someone
that has
gone down. There could have been two fatalities
that day
Mike Lee
well this is not as good as that coyote story but I'll tell it any
way. I had been looking to get a Lazair for a while and after reading the
story
of the couple that rebuilt those two in canada with
Hypec coatings I was sold. My son told me a friend of his at school had
a Ultralight
and it was for sale but didn't know what kind it
was. I told him to ask about it but I din't give it much thought because
I had decide what I
wanted. Well the next day My son called and said
he talk to his friend and had forgot what kind it was but he said that
he remembered
that it had 2 engines. You can't imagine what my
face look like right then but you can bet that it didn't take long for
me to get the rest of
the info on it. I talk a friend of mine into taking
me to it as fast as he could in his helocopter. I bought it right then
and there after the kid
flew it for me. Well now all I needed was some lessson's.
well nothing around to do that in so I went and took lesson's in a cesna
right up
to the point of solo but not including a solo. Another
friend told me what to do from there and what to exspec different in the
Lazair
compaired to the cesna. First thing I did was to
get some ground time in and I did that for a total of about 4 hours. No
hopes though.
Well I decided that it was time to go for it and
my friend told the first thing to do once I was airborn was get away from
the ground and
see what the difference were to the cesna before
I even thought of trying to lo land it. Fly it around for like a hour or
so he said then
make some passses at the feild and it fell's good
land if not go around till it does. Well I was doing taxi practice with
the Idea that I might
fly it if thing's felt good and he was going to
come and take picture's if he could also. I was sitting on the run way
and decide no time like
now. The engines were running and I called him on
the cell phone to ask if he was going to make it to the airport. He said
he couldn't
make it and I said well when I hang up I am going
to shove thease throttles forward and I would call him when I got back.
I hung up the
phone and said well I told him I would call when
I get back so I guess I have to leave first. So away I went and I was air
born. There was
only one problem that I was unaware of. It was September
12th,,, the day after the attact in newyork and the air space was closed
and
nobody at the ultralight airport new that it was
us also. well after about 10 min in ther air I went back over the air feild
and there was a
guy in a orange vest waving me to land,,, I didn't
have anyidea why but I was not ready to land as I was not comfortable with
that Idea yet.
So off I went. well to make a long story short,
some farmer had called the city and ask why there was someone up there
flying and the
Mayor called the airport and said "get that guy
out of the air before the FAA finds out" well it took about another 20
min before I felt
good enought to bring it in and it took three passes
before I did by then there were three people on the air strip waiting for
me. As it
turns out none were mad after I was down but they
just wanted me down before someone that did care were to find out.So you
can
imgine what my first entry into my log book looks
like. I have many hours sence then and can take off and land at will now.
lucky for me
that I couldn't that day or I would not have got
as muck flight time in. Mike
Ok, I'll start this off. One morning years ago I
awoke with the excitement and anticipation of flying my Lazair that day,
as was the case on
many an occation. It was the first day of the spring
flying season. I had taken my bird down the previous season and was putting
it back
together for a new season of fun. I arrived at the
airport, locked my car, proceeded to assemble the plane with the assistance
of my
father. After an hour of fiddling around, I put
on my helmet, started my trusty 185's and after a short warm up I was airborn.
Finally, I was
free from the stress of life and in the air. I flew
for about 30 minutes of pure pleasure. I was in the air, looking beyond
for miles around. I
would look at my plane's wings, the props, glance
back at the tail, all marvelling at what simple pleasure this little aircraft
was providing.
I had my instriment panel mounted forward and above
my head. On one of many glances at the altimeter my pleasure turned to
absolute
fear as I notice I had missed one critical element
(well actually four) during assembly for the season. My eyes fixated on
four wing attach
bolts that were vibrating in circles to the tune
of the engines. I had actually forgoten to do two things, one was tighten
the nuts on the
wing attach bolts, and second, the "never forget
to do this" pre-flight walk around. I was always one to look at every bolt
before take off,
but on this first day of spring flying, my excitement
overtook my sence of safety. I will never forget the absolute fear at the
thought of
watching one of those nuts vibrate off and see the
bolt vibrate out of the hole and see a wing seperate from the mount. (No
parachute on
that plane) My thought was to keep a + one-G force
on the wings to "hold" the mounts tight against the bolt. As you can see,
I managed
to get on the ground and do what I should have done
in the first place, and cought with a pre-flight before ever getting in
the seat.
George Curtis