Fantasy Air Allegro, anyone flying one?

[Weejah]

Hi

 

Just interested to hear any feed back on the fantasy air allegro, very interested in one, whose flying them at the moment etc, anything is appropriate to comment on.

 

Cheers

 

 

[fatmal]

Hi Weejah,

 

I used to own an Allegro, and have approx. 75hrs logged in them. Mine was the long-wing 2000 model – tapered wing, with a 100hp donk. MTOW was 522kg.

 

Let’s start with the bad – or less good anyway. Control balance a little odd at first. Roll is quite slow – a symptom of the long wing, while pitch is quite sensitive. It took me a few hours to stop overcontrolling in pitch – including having to having to remove grass from the tail skid a couple of times . Yaw weight is somewhere between the two.

 

Range, with the standard 55 litre belly tank is OK, but in an Australian context (I see you’re NZ-based), I would have preferred having the wing tanks also, so I didn’t have to source or carry extra fuel.

 

Because of the rather laid-back seating position, the view on climb-out is limited, with the cowling seemingly well above the horizon – again, something you soon get used to.

 

Ergonomically there were some issues. The flap and carb heat controls on mine were in the middle of the panel, so with the centre stick I had to reach across with my left hand to operate these. I should have just moved them to the left of the panel.

 

The good. Fuel burn at 90knots/4,400rpm was 11l/hr, 100knots/4,900rpm was 17l/hr, so it’s cheap to run.

 

With the 50-degree flap (stage 2) you can land very short. Putting out full flap (65-knot limit) is like slamming on the brakes!

 

Stalls are reasonably energetic, only breaking at what seems like a very high deck angle (probably due to the aforementioned laid-back seating position). The nose would seem to drop well through the horizon! To get it to stall you have to be positive about it – if you’re too gentle with getting the stick back it just seemed to sink at 1,500ft/min at a high deck angle without ever breaking into a stall.

 

You can fit a range of sized people in it – I had people up to 6’4” fit comfortably. I’m nowhere near that so I fit very well!

 

Overall, I think that the Allegro, when bought at the right price, is a bit of a bargain. It’s safe (well, as safe as any light sport), cheap to run, fast enough when you want it, and slow enough when you need it. Happy hunting!

 

mal

 

 

[Weejah]

Hi Weejah,I used to own an Allegro, and have approx. 75hrs logged in them. Mine was the long-wing 2000 model – tapered wing, with a 100hp donk. MTOW was 522kg.

 

Let’s start with the bad – or less good anyway. Control balance a little odd at first. Roll is quite slow – a symptom of the long wing, while pitch is quite sensitive. It took me a few hours to stop overcontrolling in pitch – including having to having to remove grass from the tail skid a couple of times . Yaw weight is somewhere between the two.

 

Range, with the standard 55 litre belly tank is OK, but in an Australian context (I see you’re NZ-based), I would have preferred having the wing tanks also, so I didn’t have to source or carry extra fuel.

 

Because of the rather laid-back seating position, the view on climb-out is limited, with the cowling seemingly well above the horizon – again, something you soon get used to.

 

Ergonomically there were some issues. The flap and carb heat controls on mine were in the middle of the panel, so with the centre stick I had to reach across with my left hand to operate these. I should have just moved them to the left of the panel.

 

The good. Fuel burn at 90knots/4,400rpm was 11l/hr, 100knots/4,900rpm was 17l/hr, so it’s cheap to run.

 

With the 50-degree flap (stage 2) you can land very short. Putting out full flap (65-knot limit) is like slamming on the brakes!

 

Stalls are reasonably energetic, only breaking at what seems like a very high deck angle (probably due to the aforementioned laid-back seating position). The nose would seem to drop well through the horizon! To get it to stall you have to be positive about it – if you’re too gentle with getting the stick back it just seemed to sink at 1,500ft/min at a high deck angle without ever breaking into a stall.

 

You can fit a range of sized people in it – I had people up to 6’4” fit comfortably. I’m nowhere near that so I fit very well!

 

Overall, I think that the Allegro, when bought at the right price, is a bit of a bargain. It’s safe (well, as safe as any light sport), cheap to run, fast enough when you want it, and slow enough when you need it. Happy hunting!

 

mal

Thank You Kindly for your reply mal, can i ask you what you would consider a reasonable buy for an allegro?

I see the issue with carb heat and flap on most of the ones I have seen photos of, I did wonder about the awkwardness of them

 

 

[Clive.croxford]

Thank You Kindly for your reply mal, can i ask you what you would consider a reasonable buy for an allegro?I see the issue with carb heat and flap on most of the ones I have seen photos of, I did wonder about the awkwardness of them

I have owned one for 10 years and love it. Never had any reliability issues and it's as cheap as can be to operate and maintain. It's now made in USA by the most helpful gentleman if you ever need parts. I've crossed Australia 3 times in mine.

 

 

[Weejah]

I have owned one for 10 years and love it. Never had any reliability issues and it's as cheap as can be to operate and maintain. It's now made in USA by the most helpful gentleman if you ever need parts. I've crossed Australia 3 times in mine.

Cheers for that Clive, I have admired them from afar for quite a while, the Gentleman in the States you mention, do you have a name or email addy for him, I was told they are not built anymore? An error obviously

 

 

[Clive.croxford]

Cheers for that Clive, I have admired them from afar for quite a while, the Gentleman in the States you mention, do you have a name or email addy for him, I was told they are not built anymore? An error obviously

It's [email protected]

 

Doug is the owner. They have a website at www.allegroLSA.com

 

 

[Weejah]

It's [email protected]Doug is the owner. They have a website at www.allegroLSA.com

Thanks for that

 

 

[The Flying Show]

weejah: tried the "Topaz"? Rod Birrell from airsports is the rep. worth checking out.

 

regards

 

 

[Weejah]

weejah: tried the "Topaz"? Rod Birrell from airsports is the rep. worth checking out.regards

Just had a look thanks , very nice.