Yesterday, I decided to drive south to Melbourne and meet up with my buddy Jim Lee to check out the new aircraft that he and old friend Joe Bostik are importing from the Czech Republic. Originally I was going to sail down, but as you can see in my posts below that didn't work out.
A little background: I used to own and fly a couple of aircraft that were registered as ultralights. Ultralights are (by law) supposed to weigh no more than 254 pounds. This law was enacted in 1983 and was quite archaic in the sense that by limiting the weight that much, you're asking the designer/builder to leave things off the craft that would be desirable. For that reason, ultralights slowly got heavier and heavier and even the FAA was turning it's back on the fact because they knew that most 'fat' ultralights were safer than one that was within the weight limit. Still, after enough years, the FAA decided to address the 'fat' ultralight problem.
When this decision to change the situation was arrived at, I was heavily involved in the United States Hang Gliding Association's (USHGA) board. In fact during this time, I was president. The USHGA as well as the United States Ultralight Association (USUA) were part of the rule making process. As most things with the government it took a long time to accomplish and in fact before the process was done, I'd retired from the board.
The result of the process was the LSA - Light Sport Aircraft. This category is a major change from the Ultralight category. The Ultralight Category still exists as it was (part 103) but now there's this new category - Light Sport - that covers the weight range from 255 - to just over 1300 pounds. Ultralights are supposed to have a top speed of 55 mph and the new LSA has a top speed of 120 mph. Ultralights don't have to be certified in any way - LSA do. Ultralight pilots can do all their own maintenance - LSA cannot. Ultralight Pilot do not have to have any rating to fly by themselves - LSA pilots have to have a LSA license (which is less work and qualification than a regular pilot license).
So, that's a quick and dirty overview of the system. Of course, it's more in depth than that quick synopsis, but why confuse the reader any more?
So, Joe Bostik is a past U.S. National HG champion who came here from Czechoslovakia. He now flies for Northwest Airlines and has settled with his wife and little girl in Melbourne. Joe started importing ballistic parachute emergency recovery systems from the Czech Republic a few years ago and has recently started bringing in this LSA - the Lambada.
Jim Lee (whom you've seen a few times in my blog over the last couple of years) is also a past U.S. National HG champion and after 2 years of cruising with his family on their sailboat, has joined with Joe to promote the Lambada. Jim is a sailplane instructor as well as a powered plane instructor, so he's perfect for this job.
Now, about the aircraft. After seeing and flying in the Lambada, I think it is the perfect aircraft for pilots like myself - and I think there's quite a few of us. The Lambada has a cruising speed of 115 mph - so it can get you places - PLUS it has wonderful soaring capabilities. It has a 30:1 L/D and a very respectable sink rate. With an 80hp Rotax engine - that uses unleaded automobile fuel - it's inexpensive to operate as well. Side by side seating (pretty rare in the sailplane world) makes it a more sociable aircraft as well.
I arrived at the Melbourne airport around 10 am and met up with Jim who was preparing the demo Lambada for a prospective customer who was driving up from Bushnell. Jim showed me around the plane which was a work of art. Completely a composite plane, it's sleek and beautiful with an ample cockpit (for a soaring aircraft) and a large canopy. The wings come off the craft quite easily and the whole thing packs up like a regular sailplane for transport.
There's 2 wing extensions for the Lambada - one adds a couple of meters to the wingspan - for optimum soaring and the other finishes of the the wings with an aerodynamic tip - best used
for when you're flying the craft like an airplane and not a sailplane.
Anyway, I could go on and on, but it's starting to sound like a glider review rather than a blog posting.
After lunch, Jim and I went up in the demo and Joe went up in a 'not quite committed' customer's craft. The Lambada smoothly 'leaps' into the air after an amazingly short takeoff roll. We initially headed west toward some good looking clouds. With the ROC (rate of climb indicator) showing substantial lift, both planes killed their engines and we feather the prop.
Jim quickly wrapped us up in a nice thermal with Joe right there alongside. There were lots of birds out thermalling so we flew from cloud to cloud and bird gaggle to bird gaggle. I took the controls and felt clumsy (not flying a sailplane for almost a decade) but after a while I got the hang of it and was able to thermal adequately. We hung out in the late afternoon Florida sky for a couple of hours between 1500 and 4000 ft. We thermalled with a wood stork as well as a couple of bald eagles.
When it was time to head back to the airport, Jim did all the talking on the radio to the tower and I piloted us back and set up the approach. In the downwind part of the approach I was amazed at how easily the plane reached 100 knots. I flew the plane into ground effect and Jim took over and landed her. What a great and fun flight!!
Again, I think this is the PERFECT aircraft for a lot of soaring pilots who would still like to go places. Jim is flying one to Albuquerque in the spring. That's 1400 miles. The Lambada has a range of 700 miles on a tank of fuel so theoretically, it could be done with one stop, but Jim's going to take a few days and stop off at his parent's house as well as a couple of prospective customer's place.
If I had $108K laying around - I'd have one of these. Thanks Jim and Joe!
