Nope; I disagree with that. The Lazair is no kite; for its size and weight it's a solid, dependable little airplane. I had the opportunity to fly one in - oh; about '95 or so. My Dad and I had visited the shop in Port Colborne a couple years earlier (We were avid airplane enthusiasts and pilots; and loved wandering around Southern Ontario's impressive aviation heritage on sunny weekends) and simply fell in love with the little beast. One day; Dad pointed out an ad in the paper: a guy in Hamilton was selling his Lazair 2. That was enough; he grabbed his cameras (Paired steel-body Nikon SLRs - the best 35mm. cameras I've ever seen and used; Dad was a professional photographer (with National Geographic credentials) and these cameras were his own personal Samurai swords; as it were.
), I grabbed the car keys and off we went.
Purrrrrfect day for flying; like you only get in Southern Ontario. We met the guy; talked a bit, went over the aircraft with a fine-toothed comb. She was a real beauty; grey with dark blue trim. I was a bit nervous about loading; with me at over 200lbs. To be clear; I've always had a bit of the "what if the wings come off" heebiejeebies no matter what type of aircraft I've ever flown; every single flight I've ever had and this little thing brought that out while I was still on the ground. I mean; compared to a 172 she
does look pretty spindly.
I needn't have worried; as I went over the craft (and reviewed its certificates and the guy's excellent maintenance log) I was impressed by the solidity of the design.
Anyhoo; to shorten this after about half an hour of detailed instruction, ground practice, running her around on the grass a couple times (having to get used to the idea that the 'brakes' consisted entirely of my left size13 hiking boot), I left my Dad with the guy as ransom; pointed her nose down the strip and let 'er go.
MAGIC!
She soared into the air with grace and ease; without instruments I've no idea what climb speed and rate were; but it was somewhere around 40kts and 200fpm. climb. Taxiing around on the ground I hadn't liked the overhead stick much; but forgot completely about it once in the air. Control feel was light and informative; not too sensitive. I took her up to around 1,500 ft. and just enjoyed the Fall colours for a bit.
Stall characteristics were easy - you've got to work to stall the thing - asymmetric thrust was comfortable as well; though to explain what Profloater mentioned; remember she has an integrated control system; ruddervators controlled solely by the stick; no rudder pedals. Thus in full-throttle asymmetric flight the thing's in a fairly serious slip; hence the rapid descent. An engine conks out; the best response is kill the other one. With an excellent glide ratio (12:1) its the much safer option. And on that note; I did catch some thermal action but without a VSI I've no idea if I gained any altitude; but certainly managed to soar for a minute or two. But all good things end and all too soon me and the little beast were whispering back down to the field. I expected a long balloon flare, but she plopped herself smartly down right where I wanter her to. The roll was long again; I was hesitant about putting my foot down - but still very short.
Well; between Dad and I, we managed to scrape up the five grand for her; but had to look into storage and hangar fees. By the time we got that sorted out - a couple days - she was gone to a guy with deeper pockets and - we heard - his own farm strip. Oh well. (shrug)
Upshot: the Lazair's a solid, well built little machine; great flyer and easy to maintain.
Definitely not 'just a kite'.
There was a discussion about the Lazair - a modified version of which appears in the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy 2" (I haven't seen it, myself.) In the thread; someone called the Lazair 'Just another kitbash kite'. I responded thus: