The Allegro is the value leader among LSA designs. One year ago, the fi rst special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA) were approved and delivery of S-LSA began. A few brands stand above the rest in the number of aircraft delivered. One of those is the Allegro 2000, imported into the United States from the Czech Republic by Fantasy Air USA. Since May 19, 2005, when the Allegro earned S-LSA approval, Fantasy Air has delivered more than 40 aircraft, keeping owners Doug and Betty Hempstead busy. One of the appealing factors of the Allegro 2000 is its price, which starts in the upper $50,000 range for the flyaway version. An airplane with an attractive price has a clear advantage over others with higher price tags. When that airplane flies well, is supported well, and has the equipment desired by consumers, it's likely to succeed. Well-Established Given its fast start, Fantasy Air USA has reason for optimism, but the Allegro design has a much longer history outside this country. The Allegro series of aircraft has been flying for a dozen years in Europe. Fantasy Air s.r.o., the parent company, reports more than 450 units flying throughout the world. Located on the Sanford-Lee County Regional Airport in Sanford, North Carolina, Fantasy Air USA is developing its facility to become the manufacturing home for the Allegro 2000 in the United States. Currently, it is assembling the aircraft in stages with imported parts. Later, it hopes to fabricate more parts in the United States. Either way, Fantasy Air can assure buyers it will have readily available replacement parts. In addition, Fantasy Air offers all airframe services, plus warranty work, and the company operates a flight school that provides pilot training tailored to the Allegro 2000. It has a network of 11 dealers to sell and service the Allegro throughout the United States. When EAA took its Sport Pilot Tour to the Phoenix area in February 2006, a first occurred-a flight school on the fi eld, Falcon Executive Aviation, offers sport pilot training, and its aircraft of choice is the Allegro 2000. (See sidebar "Instructing With the Allegro.") But, while Fantasy Air's focus is on delivering ready-to-fly Allegros for private owners, flight schools, and rental facilities, it also offers the aircraft as an experimental amateur-built aircraft with a quickbuild kit. Modern Materials; Modern Cockpit The Allegro's fuselage is constructed of a Kevlar-reinforced composite material to which are mated aluminum wings. On earlier models, the wing area aft of the leading edge D-cell was fabric, but this has given way to full aluminum wings. The empennage structure and covering is also aluminum. Although the Allegro is leaner looking than some S-LSA on the market, it has a generous interior size. A tad more than 43 inches wide at the shoulders, it is nearly 4 inches wider than a Cessna 172 and an inch wider than a Cessna 182. However, I found entry into the Allegro a bit challenging. The highwing aircraft's doors open upward, but the entry space is small because the aircraft's cabin floor is high. Consequently, you must bend to get yourself inside. Luckily, the aircraft has a center-mounted joystick, which keeps the interior space free of obstacles during entry. The Allegro's door latch works well; a rod slides up and down a slotted bracket and slips into a keyhole at the top of the slot to prop the door open. To lower the door, you manually pull the rod toward the inside of the plane while pulling down on the door handle. Once closed, a twist of a lever inserts a different rod on the front side of the door. This saves the weight of gas pistons, which are common in many LSA. Once the door is secured, the view is broad; the doors are full Lexan panels, and there's a large overhead skylight and a wide windshield that angles down to meet the doors. For open-cockpit enthusiasts like me, you can fly with the doors open up to 80 mph-perfect if you want to do aerial photography. The factory can also provide a sliding window in the door. If you enjoy wind moving through the cabin, removing the doors entirely is a process that "takes about three minutes," said Doug Hempstead. Many pilots are enamored of open-cockpit flying. The Allegro's joystick is centered between the side-by-side seats. Most right-handed pilots will fi nd it natural if seated in the left seat; from the right seat, some may fi nd its operation awkward. I thought the center joystick worked quite well. (I was seated on the left and am right-handed.) The control was fluid and produced a good response to movement ratio. But the Allegro does have two throttles, a feature flight instructors will like. A hand brake is mounted on the front side of the joystick. Thanks to the authority offered via hydraulic action, your hand can adequately apply enough brake pressure to stop the airplane. The Allegro's seats adjust up and down plus fore and aft via a strap arrangement that is advisably changed on the ground; you can adjust the seats in flight, but you'd need to be pretty flexible to do it. The up and down adjustment range is about 4 inches, and fore/aft adjustment is about 6 inches. The design's fi rm, molded seats support you well with good lumbar support, most uncommon in airplane seats. Because the seats adjust, no rudder pedal adjustment is planned. A two-position flap switch, located just forward of the joystick, moves the flaps to 15 degrees for normal takeoffs and landings or to a deep 48 degrees for short-fi eld operations. When retracted, the flaps go slightly negative (about 5 degrees) in the tradition of sailplanes, which use negative reflex-or a slight upward curving of the trailing edge-as a performance enhancement. When the flaps are being extended, an LED flashes red. It turns green when the flaps reach any selected position. It's quite simple but may not appeal to those who like to tweak their flap positions more subtly. Full flaps cannot be used until the airspeed is 70 mph or less. The instrument panel has a modern yet practical design with well-placed flight and engine instruments. The panel's relatively low height allows good forward visibility while taxiing. A small horizontal shelf in the panel provides a place to stash maps temporarily. Another small storage area is located under each seat, but you can't access these areas during flight. A larger luggage area located behind the seats has a lot of cubic space, but it's limited to 33 pounds. For most flights in the Allegro, this area will suffi ce. But getting large items in this space may prove a little challenging because the adjustable seat straps are in the way. The Allegro 2000 holds 14.5 gallons of fuel, giving the airplane an endurance range of about three hours (somewhat more in economy cruise). A professional fuel fi ll cap is located just below the lower edge of the left-side door. As a design innovation, the Allegro's engineers positioned the fuel tank under the floor and ran all fuel lines under the floor structure or forward of the fi rewall. They implied this could be an improved safety factor in certain types of incidents. What I noticed was that this installation kept fuel fumes from entering the cockpit. Twin 6-gallon auxiliary wing tanks are an option, giving a total of 26.5 gallons on board. This added fuel extends the airplane's range to more than fi ve hours. "The Allegro 2000 was designed for a maximum takeoff weight of 1,232 pounds," Doug Hempstead said. (That was the original weight proposed for LSA.) Given its empty weight of about 622 pounds (depending on optional equipment chosen), the Allegro can claim a useful load of 610 pounds. Subtracting 87 pounds for the standard 14.5 gallons of fuel, the remaining payload is an impressive 523 pounds. Even with the optional long-range tanks, the Allegro 2000 has a 451-pound payload. This equates to a full 33 pounds of cargo and two 209-pound occupants, even with fi ve hours of fuel on board. Up We Go The Allegro 2000 wants to fly. I added in full power and rotated at about 50 mph, though slightly faster might be advised to assure you remain well above the airplane's 40 mph stall speed. The Allegro's takeoff run, at about 500 feet, is a little longer than the average LSA; this may be a function of its long, tapered wing that likes to glide. The Allegro has large ailerons that demonstrate strong control authority within reasonable crosswind angle and wind speed limits. Thanks to those large ailerons and the Allegro's equally strong rudder, you can hold a good sideslip to landing, though you may never need to do so, given the deep flap setting available. However, again, you can't lower the flaps until you've slowed to about 70 mph. With flaps at the first notch, deployment will be 15 degrees. At this setting you can approach comfortably while carrying 65 mph, a speed that will allow operations at most shorter strips. Once experienced in the Allegro, you can use full flaps and approach at perhaps 50 mph to make the shortest fi elds. But the round-out at this speed comes rather abruptly, given the heavy drag of full flaps. In my trials, I settled on about 55 mph and the first notch of flaps, though that may be slightly slower than optimal. In the event you need to extend your approach, flying at about 65 mph with no flaps will use the design's solid glide performance. Running the Allegro through its handling paces, I found a roll rate of about three seconds for 45- to 45- degree bank changes. Though quite responsive, this is about average for the LSA I've flown. However, with the Allegro I found it was harder than average to keep the ball in the center of the lip/skid tube. Responsive controls suggest the plane will be useful for training, yet it should satisfy most recreational fliers. While in turns, especially to your opposite side, visibility is enhanced by the overhead skylight and the low instrument panel. However, the curved-top panel does take away a familiar reference line for holding turns steady. In general, most pilots will agree the Allegro exhibits great performance. Its glide ratio is reported as 12-to- 1; that's substantially better than most general aviation aircraft or ultralights. Perhaps this long reach is no surprise given the more than 35-foot wing on the Allegro 2000; many LSA use wingspans in the 28- to 30-foot range. The Czech design uses a dualtapered wing in the outboard wing section, which allows the long wing to have large ailerons without sacrificing flap area. With 122 square feet of wing area, the Allegro is loaded to 10 pounds per square foot, so it handles bumpy air with less rocking and rolling than most lightly loaded aircraft. Always in Control The Allegro's VNE (never exceed speed) is set at 137 mph, which is just shy of the maximum speed allowed for LSA (120 knots or 138 mph). That gives the aircraft a normal cruise speed of about 115 mph. I commonly seek a power setting to keep noise and vibration at a minimum for creature comfort (mine!). By feel, I liked about 5200 rpm on the Allegro I flew, which produced 110-115 mph-safely below Allegro's VNE, but still fast enough for touring. If you want to stretch your fuel supply, you can ease back to 4800 rpm where consumption will drop to about 3.5 gph and speed will hold at about 105 mph. That 400 rpm difference also turns out to be easier on your ears. The Allegro's airspeed indicator was marked for a 45 mph stall in the landing confi guration (bottom of the white arc). A wide yellow arc, from 90 mph to VNE, cautions against flying in the upper ranges. Keeping the Allegro within its speed limits will prove straightforward with the 80-hp Rotax 912, but those electing the 100-hp model may have to watch power dives. While running through my common routine of stalls, I found some signifi cant buffeting and stick movement preceded stall break. When stalls break in an Allegro 2000, one wing tended to drop, but not with great suddenness. Normal stall recovery easily returned the plane to level flight with little altitude loss. Stalls done at cruise power (approximately 75 percent) were more attention-getting and had less warning; the nose can drop noticeably. But the extreme deck angle you reach before stall should be all the warning you need that a stall is imminent. The factory does not approve spins, so I didn't try them. This Allegro was not fi tted with a parachute, though the company does offer the option if a customer wishes. Spend Less, Fly More The Allegro 2000 in ready-to-fly form powered by the 80-hp Rotax 912 engine and a three-blade WoodComp propeller is currently listed at $57,225. The Allegro 2000 with the 100-hp Rotax 912S is listed at $59,850. Because the airplane is imported, the euro currency exchange rates can affect this fi gure; check with Fantasy Air for the latest prices. Neither of these models is stripped down. At only a shade more than most completed kits, this ready-to-fly beauty comes wellloaded, including airspeed indicator, altimeter, vertical speed indicator, bank indicator, compass, fuel level gauge, flap position indicator, tachometer, water temperature, oil temperature, oil pressure, fuel pressure, ELT, hydraulic disc brakes on main wheels, electrical flaps, upholstered and carpeted cockpit, color design choice, and electric fuel pump and fuel drain valve. At these prices and with these options, the Allegro is the value leader among LSA designs. It is no wonder the company has enjoyed brisk sales. Fantasy Air's success at selling the aircraft to some conventional GA flight schools is further proof of the aircraft's ramp appeal as well as good performance and economy. Though the Allegro leads the fi eld from a value standpoint, $57,000 to $59,000 may still be out of reach for some potential buyers. Plus, homebuilders enjoy the experience of assembly. So, unlike many LSA suppliers (especially importers), Fantasy Air offers an even lower cost option with the Allegro 2000 in kit form. You can purchase a quick-build kit (QBK) for only $26,125, plus freight. Build time to assemble the aircraft is reportedly about 190 hours. The QBK is a partially assembled airframe with the majority of the work fi nished for you. Completely riveted aluminum wings, wing struts, elevator, and rudder are included. Fantasy Air's QBK contains all electric flap control parts, the engine cowling, pre-assembled front nosewheel assembly, and completed main gear legs. The fuselage comes fully welded using factory jigging and tooling. The wing connects, elevator, and main gear legs are already fi tted, and all structural parts (wing, elevator, and main undercarriage fi ttings) are installed on the airframe. A scratch builder won't need all this help and might look elsewhere for a more ambitious project, but most folks primarily looking to reduce their cost will benefi t from all the work Fantasy Air does legally under experimental LSA (E-LSA) regulations. The company said the homebuilder's main task is assembling and installing the steering components into the airframe. It is also necessary to install the nose wheel, some cabin parts, wingtips, and elevator. To the QBK price you must add powerplant and propeller, instruments, and paint. Taking a base kit cost of about $28,000 with shipping, adding an 80-hp 912 engine and engine mount kit plus prop (about $15,000), instruments (assuming $5,000 worth), and fi nishing costs (about $2,000), you will have invested about $50,000 plus a couple hundred hours of your time. Obviously, it's your choice between your time and labor or the extra $7,000 to have a ready-to-fly airplane. Either way, you'll spend literally tens of thousands of dollars less than for other LSA. You cannot compare LSA by price alone, but no matter how you stack up the numbers and factor in the flight qualities of the Allegro, you'll come up with a competitive airplane that should find a market for a long time.