Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

My Scratch-built Standard Lazy Ace


In the spring of 2002, I scratch-built a Big Lazy Ace biplane from Chuck Cunningham's plans. With over twenty flights on it, and very happy with how it flew, I decided to get a set of plans for Chuck's Standard Lazy Ace. After determining a count on the wood needed, I envisioned building three versions of this design. This is the story of the first version.

This will be a short story due the fact that I neglected to take photos of each step of cutting and framing the SLA, like I did on for the Big Lazy Ace last year. Then again, looking at a pile of cut parts on the bench is much like looking at the pile of pieces when you first begin a jigsaw puzzle. In fact, that's what building miniature aircraft most resembles -- a 3-D jigsaw puzzle.

As originally drawn by Chuck, the SLA is a 76" span, flat bottomed airfoil with two cockpits and a flying tail shaped much like that of a Telemaster. Only the bottom wing is designed for ailerons, and this plane (according to Chuck) flies well on a 1.20 four cycle engine. Those are nice, but the fuel is expensive. I elected to use a Zenoah G-23, which produces the same horsepower and cut the cost of fuel to about $2.00/gallon.

Other modifications include bolt-on wings and landing gear (again, modified to fit), making it a single open cockpit plane instead of double, a slight modification of the rudder and turtledeck height, the addition of aluminum cabanes for the top wing, the use of "I" struts in place of the "N" struts shown on the plans, and not adding a cowl or the wooden cheeks shown on the plans. I also beefed up the fuselage by using 1/8" light ply doublers and skinned the entire front with 1/32" ply veneer and added a hatch to access the fuel tank and motor mount bolts.

As I was framing, standard Futaba servos were installed for the controls, along with home-made wooden dowel pushrods with 4-40 threaded rods for the elevator and rudder. The trottle is controlled using Ny-rod to keep from transferring ignition noise into the radio bay. A new Hi-Tec Lazer 6 channel radio and 1,100 Mah rx battery pack provide guidance and convenience of adjustment.

The covering is Ultra-Cote. For me, it works better than other plastic films and there are a total of 7 colors on the plane.

The G-23 with a Zinger 16-8 prop provides plenty of power to fly the SLA. It takes off in less that twenty feet and lands about 10-15mph. The ailerons on the bottom wing are adequate for half throttle flights, although this version wasn't intended for intense aerobatics. All in all, I'm well satisfied with the results of the first seven flights on the new bipe and looking forward to flying it the rest of the season.

For those of you who would like to see how the cabanes were fashioned, click here. This method will work for any of the Lazy Ace sizes or the biplane of your choice to eliminate bending piano wire to fit.

Thanks for reading about my new plane. If you have any questions, drop me an e-mail . I'll be happy to answer.

Happy Landings!!
Rich (AKA: Captain Dumb Thumbs)

Shown here on the workbench, is the framed plane (less the plywood veneer on the front of the fuselage. The radio gear and pushrods, less the aileron linkages are installed and working. The new plane has a heartbeat at this stage.

With the cramped space available in the workroom, I took the plane outside for its first trip into the natural sunlight. I took the opportunity to add the plastic film to the cockpit floor and ends, as it would be nearly impossible to access that area when the foredeck sheeting is complete.

Here is another view of the framework. Though the wingtip framing turned out nice, they proved to be very awkward to cover. The next SLA will definately have a different shape.

Here's a shot of the finished framing showing the differece in the forward sheeting. The plans called for only the top of the fuselage to be sheeted. The 1/8" lite ply "I" struts were stiffened with a piece of 3/32" balsa on the inner side. It was at this point that I got a call to build a new trainer for someone else. Three weeks later, I began the covering on the SLA.

Having covered the BLA in pseudo-military colors last year, I decided the SLA needed a bright sporty color scheme. Basically red, white and blue, the bottom of the plane recieved wide dark blue stripes on the white base color. Both top and bottom wings are done alike.

Here's a close-up of the "rainbow" on the fuselage trim which carries thru the bottom of the rudder. The colors are yellow, orange, light red, dark red, light blue, dark blue and a center stripe of white trim tape. All the other color stripes were singly cut and ironed in place.

Here's the finished project at the flying field prior to the maiden flights. The covering job was a total of 8 days, but well worth the effort. The plane's orientation in the sky is easily seen with the difference in trim on the top and bottom surfaces. Not easily seen at this angle is the aluminum tape on the firewall to reflect any noise from the rear-facing magneto on the G-23. I use it on all my gasoline powered planes.

Here's a view from the other angle. The starburst pattern uses no trim tape. All the triangles are of Ultra-Cote and laminated over the white base color.

This is a close-up shot of the curly haired pilot figure. His hair is normally down over his forehead to his nose until the engine is started. Then it blows up and back so he can see where I'm aiming him.

The radio switch and the charging jack are on the cockpit floor just in front of the pilot. For those of you who would ask.... no, there is not a windscreen for the pilot, as the crossbraces on the cabanes are in the way.