Just a word of caution for those who have heard something but don't know the whole story.
The initial design of the Monowheel Europa had a rather large, steerable (but I think non-sprung) tailwheel roughly located beneath the leading edge of the stabilator. Apparently the ground handling was appalling so a later version/modification brought the tailwheel where it belonged: all the way at the tail. However, damage was done and the Europa Monowheel got a slightly bad reputation.
I personally have no tailwheel experience and on my only flight ever in a Europa XS Monowheel it was Mr. Shaw himself who did the take-off and landing so I'm not going to comment from personal experience. But if you do read a story about the aircrafts ground handing, make sure you find out if this was experienced before or after the modification.
Last edited by BackPacker; 14th Jun 2009 at 17:25.