First of all congrats Pete for setting this up!
Next a few discussion points.
Build time. Any advance on 2,000 hours? I've done 550 so far, I'm just
starting the wing trailing edges, no profiling. Rule of thumb wd. seem to be,
the profiling of the flying surfaces takes as long as building them. I know that
professionals took 160 hours to profile a europas flying surfaces. If only the
wings were pre-preg like the fuselage! I reckon that would halve the total build
time.
Aileron push-rod housing. I was never told I'd have to widen it, even
though I bought the wings in Dec. and only stuck the wing blocks down in the
last 6 weeks - in other words Europa had six months to let me know before it
mattered. Widening it once the blocks are stuck is a pig.
Wing t.e. close-out. As Graham Singleton mentioned at Cranfield the
flanges are crucial, aileron and flap. To get them straight on layup I am
clamping them between two melamine shelves.
Humidity. It has been much too humid for any layups these past few days.
Frustrating, isn't it?
Peel ply. I'm not using the factory-provided stuff. I'm covering all
glass with peel ply cloth. This soaks up any excess resin and gives a good
surface for the filler to key into.
Metalwork. I'm drawfiling the sides to get rid of the irregularities
from
stamping, and sandcleaning the surfaces.
Finally some more general points:
Speculation please about what Ivan's big secret could be. This was when
he said at Cranfield that he had something fantastic in the pipeline. The
subject of discussion at that point was engine options but he said it wasn't the
Yamaha (mentioned in July Flyer).
Does anyone out there know about the Europas that are being built as it
were commercially to be sold as finished items? I believe there is a unit at
K/moorside doing this for a start. Prices? How much for a finished fuselage? And
does anyone know if the people selling completed flying surfaces did so and for
how much?
Last of all I'm asking everyone this do you know of a good Shadow for
sale to 'tide me over'?
Best wishes to all Europa people Nick Davies
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