Doug Hempstead told LGA members the light sport aircraft Allegro LSA produces get better gas mileage than any of his automobiles.
Listening to Doug Hempstead
talk about flying can cause one’s imagination to take off and soar.
Those dreams don’t necessarily have to be brought back down to earth,
thanks to the light sport aircraft Hempstead’s company produces.
The president of Allegro LSA,
which currently operates out of Littleton, Hempstead was the featured
speaker at last Wednesday’s monthly meeting of the Lake Gaston
Association. He gave details on the airplanes the company produces as
well as future plans he and wife Betty hold for the company.
Allegro LSA deals in pretty much all aspects of light sport aircraft (LSA) in relation to the single-engine, one- or two-person airplanes the company produces. That includes production, inspections and sales and rentals as well as pilot training and certification.
Even though LSAs are small, low-energy aircraft, Hempstead said they are exceedingly safe, economical and user-friendly.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved LSAs in September of 2004 and completed rules and regulations for the category the following May.
“We’re about seven years into this, and it’s been incredibly successful,” Hempstead said.
LSAs are limited to a maximum weight of 1,320 pounds (1,430 pounds if intended for water operations) and a maximum air speed of 120 knots (138 mph), in addition to other regulations.
The Hempsteads started out as U.S. importers for LSAs and eventually bought an LSA producer out of the Czech Republic called Fantasy Air, moving it stateside.
The Allegro airplanes the company produces might be small and light, but that doesn’t mean they’re low on performance. In many cases, Hempstead said the Allegro outperforms the ever-popular Cessna 172.
“It will take off much quicker, climb much faster, cruise as fast, has a 45 knots stall speed, which is less than a 172, has a 12-to-1 glide ratio, which is much better than a 172, and it can land in as little as 300 feet,” he said.
In addition, Hempstead said Allegros are incredibly cost-effective and fuel-efficient, functioning on about a fourth of the operating cost and a fifth of the maintenance cost of a Cessna 172.
Hempstead recommends 87-octane automobile fuel to fill the 17-gallon tank on the Allegro, which usually burns fuel at a rate below 3.5 gallons per hour.
“Our planes get better mileage than any of my vehicles do,” he said.
For a normal take off, Allegros require about 350 feet, and they can land in as little as 300 feet. Their rate of climb is around 1,000 feet per minute, and the 12-to-1 glide ratio means the plane will glide 12 times farther than its elevation in the absence of thrust.
Obtaining a pilot’s license with a sport pilot rating requires 20 hours of training, which Allegro LSA can accommodate at its flight school, housed in Sanford, N.C. Sport pilots can operate in the U.S. or a foreign country that accepts the U.S. sport pilot certificate, which includes multiple European countries.
Sport pilots are limited to daylight flying with three miles of visibility or greater, can not tow an object and are not allowed to travel more than 10,000 feet above sea level or 2,000 above ground level, although private pilots with the correct medical rating are allowed to fly at night and take LSAs higher. Allegros have a service ceiling of 15,000 feet above sea level.
Among the interesting aspects of sport pilot certification, a person who has completed the 20 hours of training and holds a valid U.S. driver’s license is eligible to operate an LSA, provided he or she hasn’t had their pilot medical rating revoked in the past and doesn’t have any judicial limitations or administrative orders applied to their driving privileges.
“That means that if you have to wear glasses to drive, you have to wear glasses to fly,” said Hempstead. “If you get in trouble and the police say they’re only going to let you drive to and from work, you can only fly to and from work.”
Allegro LSA’s flight school in Sanford also serves as a distribution center, however all production of the Allegro airplanes take place at the company’s location at 231 U.S. 158-East in Littleton.
“We’re really proud to say that the only thing that we buy outside are the engines, the propeller, the instruments, the brake system and the fuselage, and those are done through our molds,” said Hempstead. “Everything else that’s done for the aircraft, we manufacture from raw materials in our own facility.”
Toward the end of the year, the company plans to move to a new facility at the Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport.
“We need to be on an airfield for testing delivery and so forth,” said Hempstead. “What’s happening now is we’re having aircraft that are coming in for inspection or repair, and once they land at the airport over there, we’ve got to go over with a trailer and pick them up, disassemble them, haul them here, do the repairs and haul them back there.”
Transporting new aircraft to the airfield also involves disassembling and reassembling, not to mention, dealers and customers must be driven to and from the airport.
“It’s just time-consuming and expensive for us to do that,” Hempstead said.
Allegro LSA takes great care to ensure customers are getting a top-quality product .
“When we build these aircraft, we don’t want them to last a lifetime, we want them to last lifetimes,” said Hempstead, who noted the planes are built strong enough to withstand an emergency landing.
“Even if the plane landed upside down, the people inside would not be hurt,” he said.
Allegro LSA offers three models of the same aircraft, with the price ranging from $89,000 to $99,000.
The company currently has 11 employees but is planning to increase its workforce to between 35 and 38 by the time it moves into its new facility, with a goal of producing two planes per month.
Allegro LSA has several initiative going. It’s working with Halifax Community College to produce a sport pilot training program based at the Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport. It’s also got a contract through an American company to sell a minimum of 10 planes per year to China.
“I’m really pleased with that, because we import so much from China, it’s my pleasure to be able to stick something back to them,” said Hempstead.
Allegro LSA deals in pretty much all aspects of light sport aircraft (LSA) in relation to the single-engine, one- or two-person airplanes the company produces. That includes production, inspections and sales and rentals as well as pilot training and certification.
Even though LSAs are small, low-energy aircraft, Hempstead said they are exceedingly safe, economical and user-friendly.
The Federal Aviation Administration approved LSAs in September of 2004 and completed rules and regulations for the category the following May.
“We’re about seven years into this, and it’s been incredibly successful,” Hempstead said.
LSAs are limited to a maximum weight of 1,320 pounds (1,430 pounds if intended for water operations) and a maximum air speed of 120 knots (138 mph), in addition to other regulations.
The Hempsteads started out as U.S. importers for LSAs and eventually bought an LSA producer out of the Czech Republic called Fantasy Air, moving it stateside.
The Allegro airplanes the company produces might be small and light, but that doesn’t mean they’re low on performance. In many cases, Hempstead said the Allegro outperforms the ever-popular Cessna 172.
“It will take off much quicker, climb much faster, cruise as fast, has a 45 knots stall speed, which is less than a 172, has a 12-to-1 glide ratio, which is much better than a 172, and it can land in as little as 300 feet,” he said.
In addition, Hempstead said Allegros are incredibly cost-effective and fuel-efficient, functioning on about a fourth of the operating cost and a fifth of the maintenance cost of a Cessna 172.
Hempstead recommends 87-octane automobile fuel to fill the 17-gallon tank on the Allegro, which usually burns fuel at a rate below 3.5 gallons per hour.
“Our planes get better mileage than any of my vehicles do,” he said.
For a normal take off, Allegros require about 350 feet, and they can land in as little as 300 feet. Their rate of climb is around 1,000 feet per minute, and the 12-to-1 glide ratio means the plane will glide 12 times farther than its elevation in the absence of thrust.
Obtaining a pilot’s license with a sport pilot rating requires 20 hours of training, which Allegro LSA can accommodate at its flight school, housed in Sanford, N.C. Sport pilots can operate in the U.S. or a foreign country that accepts the U.S. sport pilot certificate, which includes multiple European countries.
Sport pilots are limited to daylight flying with three miles of visibility or greater, can not tow an object and are not allowed to travel more than 10,000 feet above sea level or 2,000 above ground level, although private pilots with the correct medical rating are allowed to fly at night and take LSAs higher. Allegros have a service ceiling of 15,000 feet above sea level.
Among the interesting aspects of sport pilot certification, a person who has completed the 20 hours of training and holds a valid U.S. driver’s license is eligible to operate an LSA, provided he or she hasn’t had their pilot medical rating revoked in the past and doesn’t have any judicial limitations or administrative orders applied to their driving privileges.
“That means that if you have to wear glasses to drive, you have to wear glasses to fly,” said Hempstead. “If you get in trouble and the police say they’re only going to let you drive to and from work, you can only fly to and from work.”
Allegro LSA’s flight school in Sanford also serves as a distribution center, however all production of the Allegro airplanes take place at the company’s location at 231 U.S. 158-East in Littleton.
“We’re really proud to say that the only thing that we buy outside are the engines, the propeller, the instruments, the brake system and the fuselage, and those are done through our molds,” said Hempstead. “Everything else that’s done for the aircraft, we manufacture from raw materials in our own facility.”
Toward the end of the year, the company plans to move to a new facility at the Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport.
“We need to be on an airfield for testing delivery and so forth,” said Hempstead. “What’s happening now is we’re having aircraft that are coming in for inspection or repair, and once they land at the airport over there, we’ve got to go over with a trailer and pick them up, disassemble them, haul them here, do the repairs and haul them back there.”
Transporting new aircraft to the airfield also involves disassembling and reassembling, not to mention, dealers and customers must be driven to and from the airport.
“It’s just time-consuming and expensive for us to do that,” Hempstead said.
Allegro LSA takes great care to ensure customers are getting a top-quality product .
“When we build these aircraft, we don’t want them to last a lifetime, we want them to last lifetimes,” said Hempstead, who noted the planes are built strong enough to withstand an emergency landing.
“Even if the plane landed upside down, the people inside would not be hurt,” he said.
Allegro LSA offers three models of the same aircraft, with the price ranging from $89,000 to $99,000.
The company currently has 11 employees but is planning to increase its workforce to between 35 and 38 by the time it moves into its new facility, with a goal of producing two planes per month.
Allegro LSA has several initiative going. It’s working with Halifax Community College to produce a sport pilot training program based at the Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport. It’s also got a contract through an American company to sell a minimum of 10 planes per year to China.
“I’m really pleased with that, because we import so much from China, it’s my pleasure to be able to stick something back to them,” said Hempstead.
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