A word of encouragement to all of you toiling away out there - keep going -
it _is_ going to be worth it!
Last week I had my first flight in a Europa. It has left me firmly
convinced that I made the right decision in turning in my notice for the
day job to take up full-time aeroplane manufacture. I know I'd have great
difficulty sustaining the momentum of building over the length of time it
would take me just over evening and weekends, and I'm getting too old to
wait that long anyway. There's a Europa poster by my office desk, and I
shall probably be starting to cross off the days on the calendar soon.
Unlike my first flight in a Kitfox, I came away happy that the aeroplane
performed as advertised and as I expected. It was really quiet, had a
sensible climb rate, felt nice and solid, and went where I pointed it
without either requiring large control inputs or feeling as if I was trying
to balance a ball-bearing on a pinhead.
However, I _did_ regret having indulged in the 'full english breakfast' at
our B&B in Scarborough before the flight. Ivan said "I'll just show you the
roll rate" and before I could say "err, OK then .." the green bit had
exchanged places with the blue and was rotating above my head. Since I have
no previous aerobatic experience, it was all a bit overwhelming, and there
was a serious risk of an action replay of the fried mushrooms, etc.
The aircraft was the tri-gear G-KITS, and of course it was a bit slower in
cruise than either G-YURO or G-ELSA. It handled the crosswind we had
easily, even with me doing the take-off. On approach it was on rails and
felt as easy to land as my regular C172 mount G-BJDW.
G-YURO is grounded at present, I think for some more hacking about -
although there was some talk of putting it on a pole as a gate-guardian.
Ivan hinted also about other secret developments - maybe by the Autumn
Gathering in November he'll be prepared to go public on this new engine
choice (or is there more than one in the pipeline?).
cheers
Rowland
... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
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