Lazair III EC

[JPXman]

when i scooped my enclosure, i was talking with mike mckusick and he said that only 9 of the enclosures were ever sold.

as to how many were made? either way, what a sweet enclosure. if i can get my hands on the molds i'd love to make one from carbon fibre.

Tyler

[tommyb]

anybody know of a enclosure that is for sale? i dont have a lazair yet but i can own a closer for one! that would be a good start

[Chappy]

Tyler,

Wow, I never imagined that the enclosure was so rare! I had guessed only a handful ever made it into the states, as I've been to tons of fly-ins over the years and have never seen one. I've had the desire to own another series III ever since I sold the last one I had to fly (the one AOPA built back in 1983 while I was a dealer). About a dozen years ago I got the idea to try to find one with the enclosure (IIIEC). Every once in a while I would find an ad for one, inevitably in Canada, but they always turned out to be already sold. When I found out about the one out in Oregon, I didn't mess around. I called the owner, he e-mailed me pictures and answered my questions, and we made a deal over the phone in just a couple days.

I felt crazy buying it this way, and kind of foolish driving all the way across the US for it, but I really feared I would never find another one. Facing the trip out there, and not really knowing that what I would find would come anywere close to my expectations, I sure had some serious doubts (the trip, the plane, my sanity). H*ll, I even purchased a new van to go get it with - the first new vehicle I've purchased in 30 years. If in fact there were only nine sold, I'm more sure now than ever that I made the right decision.

Chappy

PS. Do you know who fabricated the enclosures? Was it Mike? Carbon fiber would be neat, as I've been surprised how heavy the fiberglass pieces are. The front half seems rather thick.

[tommyb]

Chappy sell me that piece of junk please its needs to much work for you to do and it sounds like your getting old -new car 30 years ago-
Heck I might be persuaided to even throw extra in for your trip.

[Chappy]

Does anyone have any idea of how many Enclosed Cockpit Lazairs were produce? I was looking through Tyler Paradis's list and only found 6, not counting mine. I've never seen one on the East Coast of the states.

Chappy

I asked this question a while back. Well, Dale Kramer recently told me "about 25" were sold. So there we have it. Tyler, make a note, there's still a bunch of EC's out there that aren't on your list!

Chappy

[uscgairdale]

Wow! Possibly as many as 25 were made? An EC is the only thing that would tempt me to part with my two-place. That enclosure on a Lazair makes it look real sleek and sexy. When UL skeptics see a picture of it they all quickly change their minds and think that it's awesome. Just goes to show how ahead of it's time the Lazair was and still is. I mean really, how much progression has there been in ULs over the last 10-15 years anyway? Sure there are some nice flying machines, but at 350lbs it's not even close to a UL.

I would have to agree with Chappy that I would prefer one with 185s on it. P-tips too. I'm sure that Mike has been confronted with the idea make some of these enclosures, any ideas on how receptive he has been to that? Tyler/Chappy, how difficult would it be to convert a stock series III to accept one? I'm sure that there is more to it than it appears. I am committed to my two-place, but the freedom of being a UL (in the US) still appeals to me very much and the idea of having an EC is very tempting.......

Dave

[JPXman]

I asked mike about making more EC's. He's not opposed to the idea. however he's not actively persuing it either. He has the moulds, but says they're in rough shape and would need work to crank out a few enclosures. John Bergen in winnipeg was drooling over my enclosure and said that if i ever happened to get him one he could mould one out of carbon fibre at his shop. tempting.

You need a factory wide-gear setup to use the EC, and if you have one of those then installing it is really easy. The pain the a$$ is mating the windshield to the airframe, the back half of the pod, and the nose pod all at the same time. It took me and myles a good deal of head scratching to figure that one out and we still left room for improvement (there's a 1.5" gap between the top of my enclosure on the nose and the D-cell, a tiny bit drafty but welcome in the summer i'm imagining).

I think i forgot to post these video's starring myles (daffy)

Tyler
(3meg movie, short but i can't compress it, too dumb)