Europa FAQ version 16, last modified 2 November 1999
This is the list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the Europa
e-mail list. It relates to the Europa kit-built aeroplane, designed
by Ivan Shaw (with a little help from Don Dykins).
FAQ maintained at present by:
Rowland Carson [with help from FileMaker Pro and the Europa community]
<europa-club@rowil.clara.net>
Any Europa enthusiast may apply to take over as maintainer at any time.
Questions answered (* = changed since last version):
0 Where can I find this FAQ?
1 I have a suggestion for the FAQ - how can I get it included?
2 List etiquette - what's that?
3 How do I join the Europa e-mail list?
4 How do I get off the Europa e-mail list?
5 Why did my reply to a posting never appear on the Europa e-mail list?
6 Why did I receive two replies to my posting on the Europa e-mail list?
7 How can I get the full archives of the Europa e-mail list?
8 Can I post attachments or encoded mail to the Europa e-mail list?
9 How do I join the Europa Club?
10 Factory newsletter, Europa Flyer, e-mail list - I'm confused!
11 Are there any other organisations for people building aeroplanes?
12 Where can I get more info about home-built aircraft generally?
* 13 I haven't got a pilot's licence - can I train for it in my Europa?
* 14 Can I fly a Europa on a microlight/ultralight license?
15 Can I buy a ready-made Europa?
16 How long will it take me to build a Europa?
17 How much will it really cost to build a Europa?
18 What are the dimensions of the Europa on its trailer?
19 Do I have to use the Europa factory-supplied open trailer?
20 What tools will I need to build a Europa?
21 Has anyone designed a fuselage support for use during building?
22 Do I need special skills to build a Europa?
23 How will I know I've built it right?
24 Everyone says "build light" - how do I do that?
25 How can I avoid allergic reactions to epoxy?
26 How do I get a C of A or Permit to Fly the completed Europa?
27 What engines are available for the Europa?
28 I'm quite big - will I be comfortable in a Europa cockpit?
29 My strip is only 300m - could a Europa operate out of that?
0 Where can I find this FAQ?
-------------------------------
This FAQ is normally posted during the first week of each month to
the Europa e-mail list (starting January 1998).
A WWW page containing the latest version is maintained at:
<http://home.clara.net/rowil/europa/europa_faq.html>
(I try to honour HTML 4.0 standards - please help me by letting me
know if you have problems with this page.)
Previous postings can be found in the Europa e-mail list archives
available from Avnet - search for a subject line containing "FAQ".
Europa Aircraft also maintain a FAQ on their WWW pages at:
<http://www.europa-aircraft.com/faqs/intro.html>
1 I have a suggestion for the FAQ - how can I get it included?
New items, and correction or enhancement of existing items are
welcome. Send your suggestion in e-mail to the FAQ maintainer (see
above). Submissions most likely to be incorporated will have similar
formatting to the existing FAQ, and display accuracy in spelling,
grammar, and syntax. The ultimate deciding factor, however, will be
the quality and relevancy of the information. The maintainer reserves
the right to edit for brevity, clarity or humour.
2 List etiquette - what's that?
----------------------------------
Like many things, an e-mail list functions best if all the users work
co-operatively. There are some ways of doing things that will make
sharing of information easier and more pleasant for all of us on the
list. Adam Engst, author of the "Internet Starter Kit ..." books has
made a very good summary of advice, and encourages its wider
publication. I don't think I can improve on his list so here it is:
There are a number of things we can do to improve the quality of
mailing lists for the benefit of all. Most of these
recommendations are simple and require little extra work. If you'd
like to read a more detailed rationale for these suggestions,
check out the Mailing List Manners 101 and 102 articles published
by TidBITS at:
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1141>
Email Program Settings Suggestions:
* Turn off features (like VCards) that create attachments.
* Avoid sending HTML-formatted messages to lists.
* Send replies either to the sender or the list, but not both.
* Make sure the time is set properly on your computer.
Writing and Layout Suggestions:
* Don't use all capital letters for more than a word or two.
* Insert blank lines between paragraphs.
* Include full URL schemes, as in <http://www.tidbits.com/>.
* Surround URLs with angle brackets.
* Try to use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Message Content Suggestions:
* Never send unsubscribe commands to the list.
* Create and maintain descriptive subject lines.
* Quote original text sparingly in your replies.
* Don't include email attachments unless explicitly allowed.
* Use a short signature containing only essential data.
* Send welcome or congratulation messages via private email.
* Respect other people's news.
* Civility is always worthwhile.
Thanks for helping to keep mailing lists useful and pleasant
places!
Other advice on making the most effective use of e-mail in general
can be found at:
<http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html>
3 How do I join the Europa e-mail list?
------------------------------------------
You can subscribe automatically by sending an e-mail message to
<europa-request@avnet.co.uk>
The subject line is not important (put "subscribe europa list" there
to remind yourself what it was about) but the body of the message
should include the following command:
subscribe europa
You will then receive a message with instructions on how the list
works, and all future contributions to the list.
4 How do I get off the Europa e-mail list?
---------------------------------------------
To remove yourself from the Europa mailing list, send an email to
<europa-request@avnet.co.uk>
The subject line is not important (put "unsubscribe europa list"
there to remind yourself what it was about) but the body of the
message need contain only the word:
unsubscribe
Please note that all commands (including subscribe and unsubscribe)
to the server which runs the Europa e-mail list must be addressed to
the server, NOT the list address where the discussion goes on. Doing
that will make you look (at best) forgetful, or (at worst) incapable
of following simple instructions (and you need to follow a lot of
instructions to build an aeroplane).
address which is different to one you originally subscribed on, the
server will not be able to deal with your request. If your e-mail
address changes, first unsubscribe using the old account, then
subscribe using the new one.
5 Why did my reply to a posting never appear on the Europa e-mail list?
You forgot to choose "reply-to-all". Most email clients allow this as
an option when creating a reply, and some (like Eudora) can be set to
have that behaviour as default. Once the "to" header line has been
created, please remove the original sender's name from it, leaving
just the <europa@avnet.co.uk> part. If you don't remove it, the
original sender will get your reply twice & wonder why you're
repeating yourself.
You might ask why such an apparently inconvenient procedure is
necessary. When the Europa e-mail list was set up, the list server
(which administers it all) was indeed configured to make the
"reply-to" field in the message headers the same as the list address.
This was very convenient for users, as any reply was automatically
posted for all to see. Of course, it also sometimes caused
embarrassment when folk forgot to change the "to" line in their
header when composing a reply meant to be read by the sender only.
However, much worse could happen when ill-configured or ill-designed
e-mail software interacted with list traffic. It could happen that
such a system immediately replied to every list message received by
it, thus generating another list message, which was again replied to,
etc, etc, ad infinitum, thus clogging up the list server and its
communication ports with ever-multiplying traffic. Such "mail loops"
cannot arise if the "reply-to" field is not set to the list address.
To protect the list, and the integrity of all Avnet's operations,
this change was made in February 1998.
6 Why did I receive two replies to my posting on the Europa e-mail list?
The person who replied to your posting forgot to remove your personal
email address after choosing the "reply-to-all" option (so that the
reply would go to the Europa list). If the original sender's name is
not removed from the "to" field in the header, leaving just the
<europa@avnet.co.uk> part, the original sender will receive the reply
twice - once direct and once via the list.
See the answer to the previous question to understand why such an
apparently inconvenient arrangement is necessary.
7 How can I get the full archives of the Europa e-mail list?
The browsable archive of e-mail list postings on the Europa Club WWW
site is no longer maintained or updated (time & space constraints).
However, there is a pretty full archive of the list postings
available for download to your own machine. You can order monthly
chunks of it from the list server using an e-mail command. Your
command (like all commands to the list server) must go to the server
address, _not_ the list address. You can get a list of all the files
available by sending the message:
index europa
to the list server address <europa-request@avnet.co.uk>, then have the
desired file delivered by sending a message such as:
get europa.9706
to the server address, which would get you the postings seen during June 1997.
You can collect all the previous postings in this way, but how best
organise them so the information is accessible? You could just save
them all as text and use a text editor or word-processor application
to search for words of interest. You could create your own database
system to make browsing easier. Or, you could avoid re-inventing the
wheel and use one of the already-developed systems.
Peter Thomas created a stand-alone system called EUROCHAT which runs
under Windows, and it is available from the Europa Club ftp site (off
the main menu). Look for EUROCHAT.ZIP, download it and unzip it. The
file as downloaded does not contain all the postings - you have to
add them yourself, but instructions are included.
Rowland Carson created a database file template for doing much the
same thing, but it requires the database manager application
FileMaker Pro to function. FMP is available for both Mac and Windows
operating systems. The template requires that the text files as saved
---From the e-mail application be pre-processed for dross removal &
formatting before import to the FMP file, and a small Mac tool is
available to do that. The C source of the program is also available
and should readily port to other platforms if desired as it has
minimal interaction with the operating system. Contact Rowland Carson
<rowil@clara.net> for further details.
8 Can I post attachments or encoded mail to the Europa e-mail list?
The simple answer is "NO" - read on for the longer one.
Like most e-mail lists, and in line with accepted netiquette, we
would prefer that you do not post encoded material, whether it's
HTML, styled text, pictures, compiled programs or even encrypted
text. Do not post messages with attachments to the list.
The Europa e-mail list was set up to be as accessible as possible to
the greatest number of people, and one way to maintain this is to
avoid using any coding that may only be decodable by a minority of
those receiving it. (The only form of encoding acceptable to
virtually all e-mail users is MIME, which operates invisible to the
user in all modern mail clients.)
If you care about whether anyone will read your message, send plain
text. Most people don't have time to spend untangling an
incomprehensible mess to find if there might be a nugget of good
stuff somewhere in it - they're much too busy trying to build
aeroplanes!
If there is something (such as a circuit diagram) which can't be
expressed in plain text, but is worth sharing with the majority of
the Europa community, there are two possibilities: (1) if it's
urgent, ask the Europa Club internet representative to put the file
on the ftp or www site; (2) submit it to the Europa Club newsletter
editor for inclusion in the next quarterly issue of the "Europa
Flyer". See the Europa Club WWW pages, or the lastest "Europa Flyer",
for the current addresses.
If an individual has requested an encoded file, make sure you address
the message to that person, NOT the list!
Most e-mail clients (eg Eudora Pro) which are capable of sending
encoded or styled text can be configured to warn you before sending
if a message contains styles. The Outlook Express address book allows
you to specify for each addressee whether they should be sent only
plain text. Other applications (eg www browsers) may come
pre-configured to send HTML by default, and you may have to dig
around in the configuration dialogue boxes to achieve the desired
settings.
9 How do I join the Europa Club?
-----------------------------------
Contact the Membership Secretary for full information. At present the
Membership Secretary is:
Rowland Carson
4 Saville Close
CHELTENHAM
Gloucestershire
England
GL50 4NE
10 Factory newsletter, Europa Flyer, e-mail list - I'm confused!
The Europa factory puts out a newsletter from time to time (between 2
and 4 times a year), a subscription to which is mandatory for all
builders. Those not yet building can also subscribe, but will not
receive the inserts with details of modifications, etc, which go only
to builders. Subscriptions are paid to "Europa Aircraft" at the
office in Yorkshire, England or Florida, USA depending on your own
location. Europa Aircraft is opening new outlets in other countries
which will probably be able to handle factory newsletter
subscriptions - check the factory WWW site (see below) for the latest
addresses.
The Europa Club puts out a newsletter (The Europa Flyer) 4 times a
year (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec) to all paid-up Europa Club members.
Subscriptions are paid to "Europa Club", and are due 1st April each
year. Enclosed with the March newsletter, members receive
notification of their subscription status and a copy of the
information currently held about them by the Club. That notification
is required to satisfy certain requirements of the UK data protection
laws. The Club and its newsletter is not connected with the Europa
factory or its newsletter.
The Europa e-mail list on the internet is open to anyone to join.
There is no charge. Like most things on the internet, it is not
controlled by anyone. Neither Europa Aircraft nor the Europa Club
have any power over what goes on there, although representatives from
both take part from time to time. It's simply a forum for discussion
among Europa enthusiasts. Many of the useful nuggets of information
appearing there are reproduced in the Europa Club newsletter for the
benefit of members not on-line. The list (and the Europa Club
website, see below) was set up as a service to the Europa community
by a Europa Club member, and it (and the website) is now maintained
by another Europa Club member. The time available for list & website
management work is anything left over after family, Europa building,
and day job have had their allocations.
Both the Europa Club <http://www.avnet.co.uk/europa/> and Europa
Aircraft <http://www.europa-aircraft.com> have World Wide Web sites,
and there are links between them. The Club pages provide access to
the archives of the Europa e-mail list, and some past copies of the
FACTORY newsletter, but NOT the CLUB newsletter - that is available
to Club members only.
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