I am pleased to advise that the first Europa on the NZ register took to the
air on Saturday morning.
This aircraft, Europa #144 was constructed in Australia by Bart Henks and
was recently purchased by
Aero Developments for use a a flying testbed for the Airmaster propeller.
After spending three months being checked out and refitted to comply with NZ
CAA requirements (now you know why my log
has lots of no building entries!) it was finally ready to take to the air.
We had one little catch... this aircraft is first of type and there were no
type rated pilot's in the country - the CAA
declining to acknowledge my US Europa type rating. The only option was to
find a A-Cat instructor who was willing to
go for a flying 'lesson', for me to teach him to fly so he could type rate
himself, and then for him to check me out for
a type rating!!! On Saturday, in the space of one short hour and nine
circuits we achieved this. Warren Satler, the instructor flying right seat,
came back from the flight with a Europa grin :-)
Next phase, once I return from a short holiday is to benchmark the aircraft
with the fixed pitch prop, repeat the process
with the Airmaster prop and then re engine the aircraft with a 912S and
start all over again. It looks like I am
going to get in a lot of Europa flying this year.
Observations...
Landing with a trickle of power does a lot towards eliminating 'arrivals'.
We were able to demonstrate that
leaving the power on and making a steeper approach into the flare results in
a much slower speed over the ground. By the
end of the session we were both greasing it on every time. Warren has 30+
years of taildragger experience and reckons with a high power steep approach
the Europa would probably stop on a dime.
and
Be prepared for a crowd whenever you stop the engine!
Regards
Tony
:-))))))
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