As others have said, the Europa can be a much cheaper aircraft to run than say a 172. With the proper training, it is a most rewarding flying machine with excellent handling characteristics in the air.
However, the ground handling can be a real challenge. Take off was invariably a very busy time. As an ex owner with many hundreds of hours on type, and having coached others onto Europas through the (then) PFA coaching scheme, may I offer some insights into the challenges?
The 80hp 912 can be considered rather under powered for the take off, especially with a fixed pitch prop, grass, at Max all up weight etc. As mentioned, take off with gear down by definition meant full flap was obligatory also, so plenty of drag there. With a variable pitch prop, it was usually set as fine as possible for best acceleration, which as you will soon see, would cause its own set of problems later...
Increasing the throttle for take off caused a slight swing to the left, easily corrected by a small amount of right pedal. This had nothing whatsoever to do with the rudder, rather it was by virtue of the powerful steering from the rudder-linked tail wheel, with significant weight on it giving excellent traction. Once over 25 kts, the tail could be gently raised, causing 2 immediate challenges:
First, the wings must now be held level using ailerons (up until now, they were held level by the struts which are mounted on the wings BEHIND the monowheel). By lifting the tail, the struts are now off the deck, so the wings need to be flown and held level using aileron.
Secondly, no there is no longer any tail wheel steering, only rudder can keep you straight, and believe me, full rudder movement was usually required at this low speed, especially if there was any crosswind from the left. Any left crosswind over about 7 knots, and it was worth considering a tailwind take off to put the crosswind from the right. Look how many monowheel Europas went left off the runway and groundlooped straight into the accident statistics on the take off roll.
By now, all being well, the Europa is still on the runway, and accelerating to flying speed. Any small bump would now launch you airbourne, at critically low speed, and it was a 50 / 50 whether you bumped back on, or she just managed to claw her way through the air, nose very high, just inches off the deck. Floating just inches above the ground, with an airspeed which is taking what seems like an eternity to increase, the engine would likely be at max RPM by now, so a quick jab at the electric prop pitch switch would trim off 200RPM or so to keep the revs below redline, but still just enough revs to keep the gradual acceleration coming. All this, whilst holding her as low as possible to the ground, wings level, as she struggled to gain an extra knot or 2 against the full flap. Now we're ready for the big one - lifting the flaps to a half way setting to reduce the drag from the full flaps, and to have some chance of better acceleration. This also lifted the big monowheel half way up too, further reducing drag - so far so good.
But easy tiger! Just this slight flap retraction caused - yes, you guessed it - two more challenges! First, it allowed the Europa to drop, significantly, whilst we're already as low as we can be to gain maximum benefit from ground effect, with the nose already very high from the very low airspeed. And secondly, with the monowheel half up, now there is nothing to stop any sink back down to Mother Earth from causing a propstrike, and inevitably the end of the show for today.
If all has gone to plan so far, with airspeed now beginning to rise, keeping as low as possible to maximise ground effect to reduce induced drag, the flaps can be raised fully, along with the monowheel, and another sink downwards hastily corrected with further judicious aft stick to prevent propstrike. But at last some proper acceleration can begin now that we're finally clean, for the climb out at 85 kts. Of course, by now the RPM is nudging the redline again, requiring further attention...
By now, some considerable distance has been covered, often well over 1,000m, before any safe climb can even be considered, especially at MAUW, meaning that long runways without obstructions on the climb-out path were required for safe operation.
Please don't get me wrong, I loved the Europa monowheel, it had real character, and was delightfully rewarding to fly, but she was a handful on or near the ground. Obviously a 172 is far simpler in almost every aspect, but most pilots would learn to cope with the Europa's quirks and foibles with the right training. But you could never take you eye off her for a take off or a landing - she was already to remind you that she needed constant attention and a delicate hand in a split second.
Possibly the Europa monowheel is best summed up by a most highly experienced pilot (an instructor since the 70s, ATPL, TRE, biz-jet owner, helicopter pilot, glider pilot) friend who once commented to me that he would never own one... because he could never own an aircraft that required such absolute concentration on every single take off, and just wouldn't let him relax.
Enjoy - but PLEASE be sure to take plenty of training, take time and care to learn her quirky ways in gentle conditions, and never become complacent with one near the ground.