Last winter I had the fortune to pick up a mostly completed 33% Lanier Laser 200 kit. It is now time for me to finish it.

As you can see from the pictures, some steps have been taken to lighten the plane, others have not. It has the fiberglass cowl, an an attempt was may to build up the turtledeck rather than use the plastic one. Also included in the deal was a brand new Quadra 75XL and ignition.

Looking over the building job, it has degraded over five years of storage and there are places where I'm not sure the original job was all that great. A number of the wing cap strips are coming loose and/or have gaps between them and the sheeting. The built up turtle deck has several loose stringers. Things like that.

Tonight, I went through and weighed everything. Including estimated covering and battery weights, I ended up at 20.6lb. So, first thing to do is put it on a diet. Hitting GraphTech for a wing tube, landing gear, and wheel pants, brings the weight down to 19.7lb. I plan to core the wings, which based on research will probably save about 4oz per wing. The built up turtle deck is made from hand picked pieces so even though it is made from 3/8" sticks, it only weighs between four and five ounces. I could cut that in half by using a balsa sheeted styro turtle deck, but I would have to go with 3/32" contest balsa for the sheeting and I don't know that it is worth it. I may still re-do the turtle deck, but not to save weight. The fuselage sides are the original door skin that came with the Lanier kit. I am going to check the glue joints to see how good they are. If they are good and strong, I will just "skeletonize" the sides. If they joints are weak, I'll likely replace with a nicer lighter plywood. I haven't decided what I am going to do with the hatch cover yet, but the plastic has to go. Assuming I can take about eight ounces out of the fuse just by cutting out unneeded door skin, my estimate is around 18.6lb. Add in weight for rigging, hinges, pushrods and other miscellaneous stuff, and I am aiming to keep it under 19lbs. Switching out the motor for something like a ZDZ-60 would put it in the 17.5lb range, though I am not sure about motor changes yet.

Servos will be an HS-7980TH on the rudder and HS-7954SH on the elevator halves and ailerons. The servos were picked to allow for 45 degree deflection at 75mph. Perhaps a bit of overkill considering the original recommended servos... Battery packs will be LiFePo4 packs, unregulated since I am using high voltage servos.

I will continue to post updates as I have them. Realistically, I hope to have it flyable for next spring.