Jump to content
Touring Motor Gliders Association (TMGA)

Update from AirUSA


Guest airusa

Recommended Posts

Guest airusa

AIRUSA has spare parts and other supplies for the Lambada and the SunDancer Light Sport aircraft. I have a stock of supplies that were accumulated during the early period of AIRUSA’s dealership for Distar’s products.

As you may know, Distar, the manufacturer of the Lambada, SunDancer and Samba, took over the company known as Urban Air. Distar moved forward with more testing of the Lambada and later renamed the Lambada as the SunDancer. There were several major advances made to the SunDancer. One was to separate the flap operations from the spoiler operations. The SunDancer now has two levers instead of one for both operations. The next greatest improvement was to establish the SunDancer Vne as 119Kts. 

The original Lambada Special Light Sport aircraft imported to the United States suffered from a couple of mishaps. One occurred in the Czech Republic and one happened in West Texas, USA. These mishaps, of course, created a bad image of the Lambada Special Light Sport aircraft. After continued research and testing of the Lambada, and the suggestions made to Distar from AIRUSA, the Lambada became the SunDancer.

The SunDancer is a new and improved product, with a 119 knot Vne and separated spoiler and flaperons. It certainly is an aircraft of distinction and erases the unfortunate reputation of the Light Sport Lambada. So why not change the name to SunDancer so you don’t have to talk about the Lambada as an S-LSA?

I need to make clear some other details about the Lambada and SunDancer. The original Lambada was imported to the United States as an experimental aircraft as early as 2004. The original Lambada Vne was 108 Knots. It was equipped with spoilers and flaperons but those controls were on one lever. In order to get spoiler operations, it was necessary to go full flaps first. The pilots who own them like them. Note: none of these aircraft were certified as Light Sport.

The Light Sport Lambada was made for the new Light Sport category established by the FAA in 2005. The Vne was established to be 119 Knots. The Light Sport version did not have flaps at all, only spoilers, along with short ailerons, not flaperons. After the two mishaps, the Vne was reduced to 81 knots with promises of returning the Vne back to 119 knots when the problems were corrected. That, of course, never happened.

What did happen was that Distar redesigned the Lambada, performed further testing of the aircraft, and gained approval to re-establish the Vne to 119 knots for the newly manufactured aircraft. Separating the flaperon operation from the spoiler operation was an excellent improvement. So why shouldn’t it be named something else like SunDancer?

Note:The factory issued bulletin, announcing the reduction of the Vne of the Lambada to 81 knots, only affected the Vne of the Light Sport Lambada not the Experimental Lambada.

Joe Kulbeth - AIRUSA 

 

Aeronautical & Industrial Resources, USA
6872 West Harvard Ave, Fresno CA 93723
559-960-7873
Email: 
joekulbeth.airusa@gmail.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...
On 7/2/2020 at 9:27 AM, Eric dobler said:

So what is the deal if you convert your light sport lambada to an experimental lambada?

Eric, 

    Any reply to your question?  What I have been told:

reduced resale value

required to adhere to E-LSA maintenance procedures NOT S-LSA procedures

a big grey area on - Magnum parachute, Rotax TBO and maintenance, accessory TBO enforcement, propeller guidelines for TBO, more

 

Tim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...