Silvereagle,
I would love to give you a ride in my Europa. What's more, we have two shares for sale at the moment! Unfortunately, I think White Waltham may be a little too far from you for that to be practical... but feel free to e-mail or private-message me if interested!
As with all home-builts, build quality will vary depending on the builder. The only real advice is to contact the PFA and get a list of inspectors, then find an inspector who knows Europas to look over any that you're interested in. (Preferably not an inspector who's too friendly with the group, either... not that any PFA inspectors would deliberately miss something, but if they've inspected the aircraft before, then all their pet hates will have already been fixed, whereas someone else might spot something which the group's regular inspector may have genuinely missed.)
My Europa is the monowheel, which really is a whole load of fun, and can be a little challenging - although since you've already got tail-wheel time, you shouldn't have any problems. The only problem is it's not particular comfortable on a bumpy grass runway - you can do a perfect landing, then hit a bump 100 feet later and start bouncing around. Also, lack of prop clearance means you can't do wheel-landings, which is a real shame, and limits the cross-wind capability somewhat. But the enjoyment factor, plus the extra performance (and the fact that you can tell your friends your aircraft has retractible undercarriage!) outweigh that, IMHO.
I have a Rotax 914, which is absolutely fantastic. It not only provides the power for a very short take-off run, it's also comforting to know that it's got enough power to get you out of almost any trouble you can get yourself into if it goes wrong during the landing.
Our aircraft is slightly limited in useful load as a result of having lots of nice kit installed. It really isn't necessary, though - if it were down to me, I'd have put the bare minimum into the panel, and been able to carry more weight. We also have a small problem with a rear centre of gravity - not really an issue, we just have to be careful about loading luggage as far forward as possible.
When I bought into the group, the "speed kit" had already been fitted, so I never got to fly without it. However, I'm told by the rest of the group that adding the speed kit resulted in around a 5-10kt increase in speed for the same rpm setting, so definitely worth having!
Space inside can be tight, so Rod's suggestion to go for an XS if possible sounds good, especially if you're 6'6"!
Basically, you've made a good choice - the Europa is an excellent all-round aircraft, good for economical long-range cruising, very responsive and enjoyable to fly.
FFF
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