Jon Tye's new Europa , builder #1, IOW the launch customer, first flighted
Thursday from Wombleton. Jon has done an excellent job, as many of you know and
G-PTYE is the lightest yet at 730 lbs. Peter Tye was Jon's father, G-JTYE is ,
of course, a certain slightly notorious (for winning concours prizes) Aeronca
Champ.
GPTYE, occasionally refered to as Billy Smart, looks great, flies straight, and
at present is slightly quicker than GK WIP. He has his outrigger cuffs on, we
don't. OTH we have relatively cold air to the carbs , he doesn't.
Our rate of climb from 500 ft to 1500 ft was 860 fpm at full gross weight. So
far we have seen 125 kts IAS @ 5600 rpm full throttle, 4000ft. At that weight.
We will probably coarsen the prop a bit from 17 deg.
EGTs are a bit high at 860/70 so we are considering a richer main jet .
The handling is delightful, and with a small fixed tab on the rudder she flies
straight hands off in the cruise.
I am convinced, now, that a return bleed from downstream of the engine driven
fuel pump back to the tank is necessary to avoid fuel vaporisation problems.
Rotax are now indicating (in the certified installation manual, 912 F) that the
bleed restrictor should be .35 mm, not the 1.5 in our manual. They do have a
part in their catalogue, apparently, which also includes provision for fuel
pressure sensing. Also highly desireable IMO.
Graham
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