303print wrote:
>Now that there are several Europas flying I'm curious what the actual
>build times are? Are they matching the factory estimates very well?
Ken - far be it from me to question factory-supplied figures, but in the
Europa Club membership database I do have some of the completion times
quoted by builders. I know of 49 customer-built aircraft now flying
worldwide. Of those, 30 have not quoted any build time. The remaining 19
quoted the following times:
900
1200
1500+
1580
2000
2000
2000
2000
2000+
2300
2400
2400
2500
2500
~2800
2900
2900
3000
3000+
Clearly all those who knocked 'em out in 500 hours are missing from the
list only 'cos they didn't have a fourth hand to operate a stopwatch with
:-)
Some of those in the upper ranges will be "show" aeroplanes; others will be
perfectionists like myself who take a long time over details, or feel that
they got so much better as they went on that they really had to go back &
re-do some of the early work that didn't come up to their latest skill
level. Some numbers will be estimates - others will be from a timer hooked
up to the workshop light switch. And how much time do you actually include?
Setting up the workshop? Comparison shopping for tools? Reading the build
manual (twice)? Sitting in the workshop looking at it and thinking "why did
they do it that way? - I bet I could do it another way"? Sitting in the
cockpit module making aeroplane noises?
FWIW, none of those times is putting me off, anyway. (Hope Ivan'll still be
willing to sell me a kit after such negative publicity!)
> how many builders are there in the U.S.?
At present my database shows 65 builders in USA. (Some of those kits were
supplied direct from Kirkbymoorside & so do not have the "A" prefix
identifying Lakeland-supplied kits. Contrariwise some Lakeland kits have
been delivered to addresses outside USA.) At least 2 of the USA builders
are flying.
cheers
Rowland
... that's Rowland with a 'w' ...
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