why not more Europa around
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Norfolk
Age: 84
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The trigear behaves pretty much like any other trigear aircraft, albeit with much more sensitive and harmonised controls and better visibility over the nose on the ground. Being able to use one stage of flap on takeoff (or none at all) and max flap for landing makes for better approach control, although the max flap is no greater than on the mono. Hence the approach is still rather flat and it is easy to allow the speed to increase leading to a long float.
The monos with the extended tail wheel and Spring connection to the rudder are much less of a problem on takeoff as it isn't absolutely necessary to raise the tail because of the shallower ground angle provided the longer run is not a issue. Europas tend to have varying stall characteristics as the wing is optimised for the cruise and tiny variations in build, bugs on the leading edge, mud in the flap slot cause differences in which wing drops. Early ones had very little stall warning. Now stall breaker strips and/or stall warners are the norm.
The shallower ground angle with the extended tail wheel tends to cause tail first arrivals. It then pitches down onto the main wheel and sometimes buckets fore and aft. Uncomfortable but at least the judgement of the "yaw it straight" in crosswinds is not so critical as the springs in the steerable tail wheel make yaw corrections easier.
Personally, unless operating almost exclusively from grass where the big monowheel has advantages over the small wheels of the trigear, I would accept the reduced cruise performance in exchange for less worries about crosswinds on the almost universal single runway airfields.
Again personally, I would chose the 80hp engine with an electric constant speed prop over the 100hp version with a fixed pitch prop. Better fuel consumption, less noise and perfectly adequate field performance. It's all a matter of individual choice.
The monos with the extended tail wheel and Spring connection to the rudder are much less of a problem on takeoff as it isn't absolutely necessary to raise the tail because of the shallower ground angle provided the longer run is not a issue. Europas tend to have varying stall characteristics as the wing is optimised for the cruise and tiny variations in build, bugs on the leading edge, mud in the flap slot cause differences in which wing drops. Early ones had very little stall warning. Now stall breaker strips and/or stall warners are the norm.
The shallower ground angle with the extended tail wheel tends to cause tail first arrivals. It then pitches down onto the main wheel and sometimes buckets fore and aft. Uncomfortable but at least the judgement of the "yaw it straight" in crosswinds is not so critical as the springs in the steerable tail wheel make yaw corrections easier.
Personally, unless operating almost exclusively from grass where the big monowheel has advantages over the small wheels of the trigear, I would accept the reduced cruise performance in exchange for less worries about crosswinds on the almost universal single runway airfields.
Again personally, I would chose the 80hp engine with an electric constant speed prop over the 100hp version with a fixed pitch prop. Better fuel consumption, less noise and perfectly adequate field performance. It's all a matter of individual choice.
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Günzburg, Germany
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It turns out, I was quite lucky to have a wish list and having it fulfilled so quickly ... well .... partly 
Yesterday, a very enthusiastic Europa-owner took me for in his trigear for a ride. From my limited experience, it felt like a very capable aircraft as people here have pointed out. The controls react quick, flies fast (we were cruising at 125 kts), has quite large baggage space and looks shiny
Yes, one has to weigh against the small cockpit leg-space. It would be difficult to fly more than a 3-hours-leg.
Well, I loved what I saw and felt.
My pilot friend commented that Europa is past it heydays. Anyone knows how many kits are they selling per year?
Yesterday, a very enthusiastic Europa-owner took me for in his trigear for a ride. From my limited experience, it felt like a very capable aircraft as people here have pointed out. The controls react quick, flies fast (we were cruising at 125 kts), has quite large baggage space and looks shiny
Yes, one has to weigh against the small cockpit leg-space. It would be difficult to fly more than a 3-hours-leg.
Well, I loved what I saw and felt.
My pilot friend commented that Europa is past it heydays. Anyone knows how many kits are they selling per year?
