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Re: Europa-List: door modifications and Europa sweet sleeping

Subject: Re: Europa-List: door modifications and Europa sweet sleeping
From: Rowland Carson <rowil@clara.net>
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:36:37


>bad door design made by Europa factory

Stanislav - sorry to not have responded sooner on this; you seem to 
have stirred up a lot of adverse reactions!

I agree that there are some aspects of the Europa which are not 
satisfactory in service, and that there are some features which don't 
appeal to everyone. However, I think we should remember that the 
aircraft was designed by a very small team, to answer one person's 
"wish list" for his personal ideal aircraft. Every aeroplane is a 
collection of compromises flying in formation. For me, Ivan, Don and 
the team made most of the right compromises in their original design, 
and the fact that so many more than the original production run of 10 
have been sold shows that other people agree.

I wonder what you are comparing the Europa with? Do you have much 
experience of other kit aircraft? If so, which ones are better to 
build than Europa and in what way?

>Europa builders are loosing time and money to correct shoddy piece 
>of work made by Europa factory

I think that is an unfairly strong criticism. Many of the real 
problems that emerged in the early days were corrected by the factory 
free of charge. What we've got now is not shoddy work or design, but 
rather refinements to a basically sound package. I have had faulty 
parts (usually made by a sub-contractor, not the Europa factory) 
which were replaced without question. And how many factory-built 
certified aircraft go through their lives without Airworthiness 
Directives or other modifications? If you want shoddy design and 
implementation, how about the Cessna seat-rail lock that tried to 
kill me on takeoff for my first solo? Must have been a lot more of 
those sold than Europas!

>I can not understand, why Europa is doing nothing at all to correct it

 From other recent postings, looks like maybe they WERE doing 
something! Of course, we don't hear every little detail of all the 
work that goes on. And like any commercial firm, the factory needs to 
manage its resources for best outcome. It's possible that if the 
factory had in the past responded to fix every single customer 
complaint free of charge that they would have run out of resources to 
actually continue producing kits and supporting builders - I'm sure 
none of us would wish that to happen!

I feel that maybe all this is a bit like the weather in the British 
Isles - we have hardly any of the awful extremes of climate endured 
by many other places, but still we find plenty to moan about!

regards

Rowland
-- 

| Rowland Carson  PFA #16532   e-mail <rowil@clara.net>
| 630 hours building Europa #435 G-ROWI




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