Company
>Ivan Shaw is a consumate professional marketeer, whether through education
>or
>natural ability. I think he has done a superb job of marketing the europa,
>the testimony to that is the wide spread support from the press, who like
>most press
>are divorced from the realities of everyday flying/building. (that should
>wind someone up!).
>
>
Ah.... how could I not rise to the bait!
That Ivan is a good salesman is part of the reason that Europas have sold so
well. And good luck to him: in this marketplace, you need more than a good
product.
As it happens, we chose to build a Europa because it filled two important
criteria: one is that when it's built, it's very cheap flying without
serious compromises. The second is that it really is a joy to fly. Simple as
that. It's also the reason why Ivan has sold a lot of them. The marketing
gets 'em in. A flight in the aeroplane actually gets the signature on the
cheque - It sells itself.
Building? the proof will be in the pudding....
Flying... well you may have a point there, partly because I've spent so much
time in the workshop. So much so that in the next couple of months I've got
to go and do a GFT... sorry, Skills test. You'll be able to read all about
that in due course. It does explain why I haven't done any flight tests for
18 months or so.
All of this, ahem, concern over the ground handling is rather reminiscent of
when Luscombes began to arrive in the UK in significant numbers. But they
have astonishing low speed control power and exemplary taildragger manners
-once you have learned how to fly them- and in real terms you can fly one to
a higher crosswind limit than almost anything you can name.
I've flown (and landed) 5 Europa's to date and any problems were down to
me, not the aeroplane (not, you understand, that any of them were all that
bad!) - in fact I've had far more trouble coming to grips with Austers...
and that's the crux of the matter: it's a training issue, not really a
hardware one -other than the fact that it's not a 152.
Cheers
Miles
|