Having spent an afternoon recently with
Rainer and Barbara Friebose, principals of Wings 'n Tracks,
who hold the Southern Africa distributorship for Urban-Air
who make these aircraft, and having the opportunity to fly
the Lambada, we are equally impressed, once again.
The Lambada is virtually identical in
it's construction to the Samba - high quality composite
throughout, well - finished internally and externally like a
sheet of white glass! All the result of using European resin
and composite technology first developed by the
high-performance competition glider manufacturers in
Germany.
Major differences from the Samba are the
shoulder mounted wing and the T-tail. The wing is longer at
13 metres in standard form, and can be extended with
quick-mounting wingtip extensions to give a 15 metre
wingspan, the same length of wing as seen in racing and
competition gliders.
The longer wing, particularly when the
wingtip extensions are added, and the T-tail give the
Lambada very much improved gliding performance over the
Samba - which is the reason for Urban - Air building the
Lambada. The directors of the company aimed to build a true
motor-glider, which can operate under it's own power, but
still provide good soaring performance.
The glide-ratio of the Lambada is claimed
to be in the region of 25:1 - for every 25 metres of forward
flight, 1 metre of height will be lost in no lift or sink
conditions, when soaring without any engine assistance. That
ratio is not close to the ultra high-performance gliders of
today, which can exhibit ratios of 60:1, but then these are
the Open class ships, which cost up to R 2 million, and have
only a single function and use - that of winning contests.
However at 25:1 we suspect that the
Lambada can serve as a very satisfactory sport glider, but
with the capability and convenience to hoist itself aloft,
cruise to distant places and get you back to the field
without worries when the lift runs out.
The cockpit of the Lambada is laid out
identically to the Samba, with integral seat buckets moulded
in and control sticks for each occupant. Basic VFR
instrumentation is provided, whilst comprehensive engine
instrumentation is taken care of by a tiny digital readout,
on which all engine parameters can be selected as required.
The Lambada, like the Samba is powered by
a Rotax motor of 100 hp. On the demonstrator an in-flight
electrically adjustable propeller is fitted, and as an
option a constant speed unit is also available. In
operations where the Lambada is used as a glider tug, the CS
unit may be preferable, as it should help relieve workload
on the tug-pilot, during a hard day's dragging gliders into
the sky at a busy club.
With the additional wingspan, we were
anticipating that the Lambada would not be as responsive to
fly. We flew it first without the extended wing-tips and
later clipped these in place to sample the machine with it's
maximum wingspan.
Taxiing the Lambada, according to Rainer,
can be improved, as with only a steerable tail wheel, the
turning circle is large - Wings 'n Tracks hopes to be able
to modify the braking system to give some differential
braking effect, which will improve matters dramatically.
However at Brits Airfield, with it's wide
open spaces and little traffic, we did not have any problems
- obviously on a crowded ramp, one would appreciate improved
maneuverability.
Take-off, as with the Samba is quick and
the run short - after only about 150 metres we were airborne
and climbing strongly at 1500 fpm. Visibility is great
through the bubble canopy and the shoulder wings are behind
your head and do not get in the way.
Once at a reasonable altitude, we could
start to explore the handling of the aircraft - speeds
appear to be very similar to the Samba, with a comfortable
cruise of 110 kts or so. The VP prop must be helping here,
and when we flew the Samba it had a ground adjustable
propeller, rather than an in-flight adjustable - if both
aircraft had the same equipment we suspect the Samba will
have the legs on the Lambada.
Control feel is excellent - nicely
weighted controls let the pilot fly the machine with
precision and ease. The control feel is very similar to the
Samba, (which we rated as excellent in our previous article)
albeit a fraction heavier. Ailerons are powerful, with the
ability to generate brisk roll rates and we carried out a
smooth chandelle with ease.
Since the Lambada is rated at +6/-3G, it
would be structurally capable of aerobatics but we did not
do more than a chandelle out of deference to the novelty of
the aircraft, which has less than 10 hours of flight. Once
Rainer is more familiar and has completed his series of
checks on this new airframe, he will explore the Lambada's
capabilities.
During turns and maneuvers relatively
little rudder input is called for - just a little rudder
pressure here and there to keep the ball in the centre, and
that of course, is what pilots of most modern aircraft are
familiar with. Later, we found that the Lambada handling
characteristics change in this respect, once the wingtips
are added!
Even without the wingtip extensions,
gliding performance is good - pulling the motor back to idle
at the midpoint of the downwind leg, the Lambada sailed
serenely on around base and on to finals, losing little
height and aided by a pocket or two of weak lift, until we
landed without needing the motor. The point on downwind
where we decided to turn to base was a point at which, in my
own aircraft, a Grumman AA1B, the pilot would have declared
the emergency!
Glide slope is easily adjusted using the
spoilers fitted - no flaps on this one, unlike the Samba
which has no spoilers but uses very effective Fowler flaps.
Having landed, the wing-tip extensions
were fitted in just a couple of minutes, and we went aloft
once more. No difference on the ground of course, expect
that it's wise to remember the extra 2 metres of wingspan
when maneuvering. Take-off and climb out seemed much the
same as before, but once at height and in turns the
difference became apparent. While control feel in roll
becomes significantly heavier, it however maintains
excellent responsiveness. The rudder now comes into play, as
with the added adverse yaw generated by the longer wingspan,
the pilot must wake his feet up and pedal to keep the ball
centered! According to Rainer this is very much like the 15
metre gliders that the Lambada emulates so well.
Gliding performance with the extra span
is markedly improved. In the late afternoon, with little
thermic activity around, the Lambada could maintain almost
zero sink or lift for longish periods - and this pilot is no
soaring fundi! Where some tiny hint of lift existed, as in
one or two spots that we located, the Lambada made the most
of them, although they died out very quickly.
With the Lambada, as well as the Samba in
the Wings 'n Tracks stable, the leisure and sport aviation
market is well catered for - the Samba being a delightful
two-seat touring aircraft, glider tug and sometime fun
glider, whilst the Lambada does all those things well, but
with the added attraction for some potential owners, of
being able to accomplish effective sport-soaring.
Pricewise these offerings represent good
value for money, even though the collapse of the ZAR
exchange rate against other major currencies last year
December has adversely affected selling prices - but then it
negatively affected everything else in aviation too!
As we left Brits Airport, Rainer
mentioned that he was preparing for a trip where a Samba and
the Lambada would be flown to the Cape Province and then on
to Namibia - in the Cape the Lambada was to be demonstrated
to a gliding club, hopefully to replace it's ageing
tug-fleet of two conventional aircraft, and the Samba would
be delivered to the latest customer in Namibia - seems like
aviation, which appears to resist change to a remarkable
extent, IS changing in this neck of the woods.
Perhaps the likes of Cessna, Piper and
others who have been manufacturing single-engined aircraft
and selling them for private use for decades, had better
wake up - a part of their market is piece-by-piece
disappearing as more owners realize the substantial gains to
be made through discarding old ways of thinking about
aircraft.