by David Landis 

Welcome to the Wallaby which one lucky reader will win over the next six months, fully kitted out with thousands of dollars of avionics. So, what do you get when you cross an Italian bird with an Aussie marsupial? Well, an Italian Wallaby, of course. To be more precise, a Fly Synthesis Wallaby.

Now Fly Synthesis are no new comers when it comes to light aviation, indeed they’ve been manufacturing composite aircraft for over 25 years and the Wallaby was actually their first aircraft to be built. Amazingly it’s taken 25 years to bring this machine to Australia.

I managed to do some background checks and discovered the first Wallabies were part composite and part metal. The wings used to aluminium riveted to ribs and metal spar.

Today the new Wallaby is all composite except for the aluminium tail boom which forms the connection between tail and fuselage pod. It’s the same system as employed by the very popular Fly Synthesis Storch of which over 500 are flying.

I first saw the Wallaby at this year’s Avalon Air show where I met the importer Caz Monteleone. I quizzed Caz about the performance and handling and the normal stuff we pilots like to know. I

was fascinated with the Wallaby’s short field performance and the simple design, all of which are available in fast kit build and foldable wings, but more on that later.

I’ve flown a few wind in your face aircraft and I like them: from an airborne trike (still own) to a drifter and bantam. There’s no feeling like flying safe and slow, much like our feathered friends.

Like all wind in your face planes, there’s pros and cons. Firstly they’re not real comfortable while flying in rain due to the exposed cockpit design, although a zip up enclosure is available from the manufacturer. And, secondly unless you intend to use this aircraft for mustering or checking out the farm fencing, it really is made for recreational flying, in other words when the weather’s nice this machine gets a work out, just as the designers intended!

So on with the test flight…

The Walk Around
I arrived at the Fly Synthesis hangar with only a small breeze straight up the grass strip, otherwise perfect flying conditions.

Now the Wallaby can be described as follows: a two seat light aircraft with a standard tricycle undercarriage. The nose wheel is directly steered by either the pilot or co-pilot pedals which are directly coupled to the rudder controls as you would expect. The power plant on this example was the tractor mounted Rotax 583 out front and above. Caz tells me that the standard Wallaby comes with the 503 engine, but as this aircraft was to be converted to an amphibian, the bigger engine was chosen. A Wallaby on floats: now that I’ve got to see! Or better still, test fly it.

A walk around the Wallaby and one appreciates why these composite little machines fly as fast as they do on such little power. Apart from the wing struts, the otherwise clean and streamlined flying surfaces give this machine a miserly 28 knot stall speed. The wings are quite big too, indeed bigger than the Storch 500 which was also in the hangar. The big wings will come in handy when this machine goes amphibian.

The pod is your standard shape with a windshield to deflect most of the wind above your head. Sitting in the side by side pod, visibility, as you would expect, is exceptional which is why these types of aircraft are sometimes used as observation platforms. I think two large pilots would have their shoulders rubbing and their arms sticking out the sides like one does when driving your favourite car on that Sunday drive - a small price to pay while having fun I reckon.

The flying control surfaces are pretty much the same as its big Brother Storch: the wings, stabilator and rudder are directly interchangeable and controlled by Bowden cables. The pitch of the stabilator is controlled by a lever in the cockpit connected to an anti tab mounted at the trailing edge. When compared to the Storch the only difference would be that this little machine has no flaps. I guess with such big wings and the low stall speed, flaps would be considered a luxury and therefore unnecessary - a test flight will tell all.

The ailerons are full span so I’m expecting good control authority at  low speeds. Refuelling is achieved by a clever on board electric fuel pump, whilst the wings aren’t all that high it does save the need for a ladder and a spill free refuel is guaranteed. Since the Wallaby has a sealed fuel system, fuel level is checked via a transparent section of the wing root fiberglass. This is found on many light aircraft: it’s simple and it works a treat.

The Test flight
As I was going to fly solo I decided I would be sitting in the middle and using the two outer rudder pedals. Too easy!

Getting in the pod isn’t all that easy but no different to any other pod type aircraft I’ve flown and certainly better than some. Once in and seated, it’s quite comfortable with all controls within easy reach and instrument visibility excellent. Caz tells me this Rotax 583 is fitted with automatic choke and oil pump so it should be a straight forward mags on, turn the key and vroom. Indeed, this is exactly what happened.

Waiting for the engine to get to pressure and temps gave me the opportunity to familiarize myself with the flying controls and having flown a Storch before made this function a lot easier. The Flysynthesis Air Strip is 600 metres long and has an 18-36 orientation. My plan was to do a fast taxi down the strip and on the return leg do my take off. Checking the brake effectiveness left me feeling that the drum brakes of the Wallaby were more than up to the task. During taxi the Wallaby did bounce around a bit, but this may be due to the rough strip suffering from the drought conditions here.

Ok, with warm ups completed it was time to apply full power and give this marsupial a fly.

The manual suggests a normal rotation of 38-40 knots but with only one pilot I found it wanted to lift earlier. I used up about 100-120 metres but suspect a shorter run could be achieved with some practice. Climb out was 700 fpm at a shallow angle of attack. Once I had some height my plan was to test the range of flight parameters.

Heading north east to get further away from controlled airspace I soon came across the blackened scorched range where the Victorian bush fires had ravaged. Slowing the Wallaby down to 50 knots gave me an insight to what the firefighting helicopters had to contend with.

Flying over the mountains the Wallaby encountered some turbulence which I must say it handled very well: any aircraft of the pendulum style will always handle turbulence well. The Wallaby has a slight dihedral of about 2% which will always be less than low wing aircraft and that’s because the lower centre of gravity really does help when turbulence is encountered. Ok so now roll response: this was my chance to really throw this aircraft around. During cruise speed, the Junker type full span ailerons didn’t require much force to get a nice roll rate; the roll and pitch was evenly balanced and consistent in both lateral and longitudinal motion. An attribute all too often neglected by some aircraft manufacturers.

Stalling at idle rpm was clean with a tendency to waffle around with plenty of warning of the imminent stall until the left wing dropped. I was able to repeat the stall and cause the right wing to drop providing I shifted my weight starboard side. Stalls at full power were exciting as this little hopper just wanted to keep climbing whilst eventually stalling around 26 knots indicated.

Straight and level cruise speed at 5000 rpm was 65 knots indicated. I didn’t take the Wallaby to max cruise speed: I was enjoying the view and the flying too much.

All too soon it was time to take this bird back home, satisfied that its performance was every bit as claimed by the manufacturer. It seemed I was flying for at least two hours when in fact I had only done 45 mins.

With the Fly Synthesis strip in sight I decided to pull back the power and check its glide performance. I didn’t check its best glide speed before hopping in so I used the rotation speed as best guesstamate with the Wallaby demonstrating gracious control even as low as 35 knots.

Lined up for landing, the slight nose down attitude gave lots of forward view and was completely uneventful. The front nose wheel relies on the pneumatic tyre for suspension so I recommend a little back stick pressure until stopped.

Conclusion
I like this aircraft, not because it’s delightful to fly but because it is simplicity and function all rolled into one. Built for its specific purpose, it has respectable speed with very safe flying characteristics. Its construction is as good as the other top end aircraft Fly Synthesis manufacture without the price tag. This aircraft will suit pilots that love the art of flying and sheer pleasure that only these wind in your face type of aircraft provide, with a budget we could all afford. Available in quick build kit form, it’s even more affordable, it would make an ideal second plane for us fair weather flyers!

Areas of improvement would be the option of wing refuelling and a set of wheel spats to sporty it up a bit.

What I didn’t like…pushing it back in the hangar.
Price for Kit $ 29,000
Price Ready to Fly $ 44,000