Hallo from Graham Singleton. I first met Ivan Shaw about 15 years ago thanks to
Burt Rutan and the Ezs. Ivan was the second UK Vari EZ builder. I built the
third or fourth Long in Britain. At that time Burt was something of a messiah
having shown us how EZ it can be to wattle and daub a new airplane design. Since
then we both built several composite planes but Ivan was the one who had the
enormous drive required to drag together the reluctant wealth of the limited
sources of finance here and at the same time build a POC prototype.
I'm in the final stages of a Europa, #27, 912 powered, for now at least. All
flying surfaces are finished and painted. Tonight I just glued in the door
screens using five luggage straps right round the fuselage and a few wedges and
strips of plywood to hold them in place. A dry run is essential !
This final stage of building an aircraft is frustrating. There seem to be a
hundred small jobs to do all needing half a day. Any day now though we will
suddenly find they are all done.
Graham
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