Take off performance

[into gliders]

Hi, I am wanting to buy a Ximango but being at a field elevation of 5000 in Arizona I am wondering about the takeoff performance, especially when the density altitude gets to 7500 a lot of the time. Can anyone help me? The gross weight of over 1800 pounds seems like a lot for only 100 HP.
Any information would be appreciated.

[John Lawton]

Greetings and welcome to the forum,

On a recent trip out west I flew my 100 hp Ximango out of Minden, NV, (4700'), Durango, CO (6650'), Taos, NM (7050') Bridgeport, CA (6460') and Parowan, UT (5930') all on 90+F days near gross with DA's at or over 7500' and it does fine. Cruising at high altitude is also doable in the non-turbo version. On that trip I routinely traveled at 16,500' and 17,500' (with O2) to avoid the thermal chop in the afternoon and it does remarkably well. Takes a while to get there and you won't set any time to climb records, but if you are operating off of pavement and have 2500-3000' to work with over a 50' obstacle you shouldn't have any problems. I fly regularly out of a 2200' turf strip that is 700' msl and we get DA's around 5000' most of July and August and it does fine there, too, even in a light tail, as long as I keep the grass mowed short.

Hope it helps!

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

[into gliders]

Originally Posted by John Lawton

Greetings and welcome to the forum,

On a recent trip out west I flew my 100 hp Ximango out of Minden, NV, (4700'), Durango, CO (6650'), Taos, NM (7050') Bridgeport, CA (6460') and Parowan, UT (5930') all on 90+F days near gross with DA's at or over 7500' and it does fine. Cruising at high altitude is also doable in the non-turbo version. On that trip I routinely traveled at 16,500' and 17,500' (with O2) to avoid the thermal chop in the afternoon and it does remarkably well. Takes a while to get there and you won't set any time to climb records, but if you are operating off of pavement and have 2500-3000' to work with over a 50' obstacle you shouldn't have any problems. I fly regularly out of a 2200' turf strip that is 700' msl and we get DA's around 5000' most of July and August and it does fine there, too, even in a light tail, as long as I keep the grass mowed. short.

Hope it helps!

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

Hi John,
Thanks for your comprehensive reply to my request for information on take off performance. I regularly would be flying out of a paved strip that is 5000 feet in elevation and I was concerned about getting off the ground in a reasonable length of runway. I was also looking at a Lambada and see that at less than 1200 pounds it has the same engine. Anyway you have answered some of the questions that I had.

[John Lawton]

Greetings,

FYI: There have been some issues with elevator flutter on the Lambada recently resulting in at least two catastrophic failures of the tail boom that I am aware of. One of our glider customers was considering purchasing a Lambada a few months ago, but couldn't find anyone that would insure it as a result of the recent failures. We've done the elevator AD on one of them which involves reinforcing the elevator hinge mechanism by wrapping the hinge mount on the horizontal closeout side with carbon filament. The way the elevator hinge is attached to the rear close out of the horizontal stabilizer and the elevator itself is downright scary (to the point where I will not fly in one again). It is unlike any other glider I've ever seen and IMHO, is a very weak design. If you decide to fly or buy one I would exercise extreme caution in rough air.

I almost bought a Lambada myself and had signed an agreement with the former importer to become the SE USA rep for Urban Air until I discovered that Urban Air had also sold the one I had on order, serial number 91, to 2 other people. Long story, but lets just say the factory was considerably less than honest with me and now I am very thankful that I canceled the order and parted company with them. Fortunately, I got all but $50 of my money back. BTW, last I heard Urban Air was out of business (bankrupt) so parts support could be a real issue.

We also did a refinish on a Lambada a while back. I had ample opportunity to visually inspect all aspects of construction. There is really no comparison between the Lambada and the Ximango in terms of quality of construction and workmanship. The Lambada is very typical of what we see coming out of eastern Europe. The Ximango is a much, much better built airplane, overbuilt, really, and it significantly outperforms the Lambada. I have flown in two Lambadas and flown side by side with several others in my Ximango in weak to strong thermal conditions. The Lambada performance numbers are grossly overstated by the factory. The Ximango is far superior in both LD and sink rate. Really, it wasn't even close. FWIW, I have no financial interest in promoting the Ximango. I'm only passing along observations I have made.

Regards,

John Lawton
Whitwell, TN (TN89)
Ximango #135

[into gliders]

John, thanks for the input on the Lambada. I was considering a used one that is located in Florida but then I saw the accident report on the flutter or some such problem that brought down the one in Texas. That made me a little leery about it so you are confirming what I suspected. My only question was on the take off performance of the Ximango and you answered that for me pretty well.
Also the performance comparisons were interesting.
Thanks for your input.
Larry Minch (into gliders)