Dirtnaper -

Actually, I believe Wayne Ulrey was the original designer - less Leo Loudenslager and Jim Roberts that is.

I have had a Lanier 1/3 scale Laser 200 for years and always loved the way they fly. I also have a copy of the original Ulrey plans which they used a geard .90 for at the time. BIG gassers did not exist then. Also, the original plans had foam cut ribs instead of sheeted cores or built up wings. First 1/3 scale Lasers came in around 15lbs. with the geared .90's.

It is very good to see you folks enjoying these airplanes. I am planing some new modifications this winter and a set of planes for IMAC competition again. I am going to be crunching some numbers and making two piece (removable) airfoiled stab for this plane, along with an airfoil shaped fin/rudder. The objective is to get removable stab - for transportation purposes - with elevator servos in the stab instead of the fuse. This shortens and tightens linkages even further, moves weight slightly farther back, and allows stabs to be removed without taking apart linkages. Airfoiled stab/fin will also make control surfaces more effective on same area planform, but I may play with increase in elevator/rudder area to see what additional 3D capabilities can be achieved. While the fullscale plane had flat tail surfaces, IMAC rules specify appearance of fullscale aerobatic plane - which is why we can get away with slightly different locations for wings and stab (along with incidence) from their fullscale brothers. One of the advantages of the Laser design over others of that time - or even now - is that they had literally no coupling issues. Extremely axial rolls - which is why the rolling crcle inputs mentioned above are so much easier. I want to make sure that changes in the tail do not change this aspect of the airplane. If all goes well, you may see me at some North Central events. Long term goal is to scale this airplane up to 40-42%. I have competed with both Extra's and Edge's - IAC and IMAC - and flown a number of the latest and greatest YAK models of the past year or two. They still don't 'groove' like the Laser 200 can.

Oh - and for the person who cannot hold KE flight - move the CG back. While this will make the plane more pitch sensitive it also changes the balance point and therefore movement arm in KE. Don't slam the elevator around and it will work fine. However, if you ham-fist the elevator surface, be prepared for a wild ride. SNAP !! doesn't even begin to describe it.