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Welcome to the latest Allegro Newsletter for November 2006. It was my pleasure to recently visit the Allegro factory in the Czech Republic and we have some very exciting news to announce regarding some modifications to the Allegro aircraft for the new 2007 model!
The new Allegro 2007 model in flight In summary, the existing fuselage has been widened approximately 100 mm giving the pilot and passenger more elbow room, the position of the wing has been raised approximately 80 mm giving much more head room inside the aircraft, the rear fuselage and vertical stabilizer have now been totally redesigned and finally certification is underway to approve the aircraft for 600 kg maximum takeoff weight. Good news I am sure you will agree ! The bad news however is a price rise being brought on from the cost of developing the new model, an increase in composite prices around the world and also an increase in the cost of Rotax engines. The price rise however is not substantial and still makes the Allegro affordable and extremely good value against its competitors. The new Allegro model designated "The Allegro 2007" was born by collaboration of Fantasy Air, the Kabrt brothers from Vanessa Air and the Czech Technical University in Prague mostly acting on the feedback and wish list from current owners and flying schools who are using the of the Allegro 2000 aircraft.
New fuselage is just one of the improvments The already roomy fuselage which is almost 100 mm wider than a Cessna 172 has been completely redesigned; the cockpit has now been made even wider with the addition of another 100 mm of elbow room. The wing mounting position has been lifted around 80 mm giving much more headroom so that even people over 190 cm tall still fit comfortably into the aircraft with good roof clearance and by moving the wing higher, the door opening has also been made taller making it easier to some of our older customers who are losing flexibility in the joints to get in and out of the aircraft.
Fantasy Air have also developed new doors which are semi-domed and are now supported in the open position by a single gas strut. The single piece semi-domed doors provides the crew with still more shoulder and elbow room and also offers an improved view below and to the rear of the aircraft. The seats are now comfortably adjustable in height and also in sliding back and forwards. Each person can easily reach the instruments when buckled up and the back and forwards seat adjustment can even be completed in flight. The track of the rudder pedals has also been increased together with leverage on the rudder bellcranks and arms making directional control much more positive and comfortable by providing more space for the feet and reducing rudder forces.
One of the biggest differences is the new tail design as shown on the right, the tail has also been lifted to offer better gtound clearance over the 2000 model as shown in this photo Standard fuel capacity has been increased from 55 to 63 L thanks to the wider fuselage; the optional wing tanks add an additional 20 L per side giving the total usable fuel quantity of 100 L. On my aircraft cruising at 95 kn I burn around 13.5 lph effectively giving me seven a half hours endurance at 95 kn, meaning I can travel over 700 miles between fuel stops. The rear of the fuselage has now been totally redesigned with the original vertical tail fillet now gone and integrated into the rear fuselage shape which now offers a larger diameter rear fuselage section and an increased vertical stabiliser area approximately 50% larger than the original aircraft. This has the effect of giving the aircraft more directional stability in turbulence and eliminates the need to coordinate rudder and aileron in turns, now a lazy customer can simply turn the aircraft on either aileron or rudder alone. During my flight evaluation of the new model I noticed that during excessive and intentional side slipping of the aircraft it would return to a relaxed heading simply by releasing all of the controls. The earlier model would remain in the sideslip some of the time until you introduced opposite rudder. In my opinion however the original aircraft went a long way to making better pilots by making us use both the aileron and rudder at all times, the new aircraft however is as easy to fly as it is to drive a car. Even with the sales success of the Allegro 2000 model the manufacturer hasn't rested on their laurels. Fantasy Air listens to feedback from customers and dealers and continually introduces minor changes to aircraft to suit the individual markets around the world. Recently the Allegro has gained certification for towing sailplanes amongst other uses such as Banner towing and as mentioned earlier they are also in the final stages of certification for a weight increase up to 600 kg MTOW.
The team which bring us the Allegro aircraft at Pisek Airfield Czech Republic Finally, I was pleased to look over one of the original aircraft registered in 2001. Used in a flying school at Fantasy Air's base the aircraft has flown over 1350 hours including 7500 takeoffs and landings over a five-year period. The aircraft is in surprisingly good condition and was recently inspected by the Technical University of Prague as part of an ongoing maintenance review of Fantasy Air's products. The only replacements needed so far were two front undercarriage leg bushings which were replaced as part of routine maintenance and inspection and testing of all the primary load carrying and secondary structures confirmed the aircraft was holding up the flight school operations. Part of the inspection included the electric flap actuating mechanism which was removed from the airframe disassembled and thoroughly checked, despite the fact that the flaps had been lowered and retracted for 7500 landings no measurable wear could be found in any of the components and additionally the environmentally friendly acrylic paints used on the Allegro have demonstrated a surprising resistance to wear and ultraviolet radiation making the plane look almost as good with five years operation as when the plane was first delivered. Overall a very productive trip to Fantasy Air and it's with great pleasure I am pleased to introduce the Allegro 2007 to the Australian and New Zealand markets. Our web site will be updated in coming days with all the new information on the new aircraft, Kind regards Michael Coates X-Air Australia
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