Hi Paul,
I flew our Europa XS (mono wheel) for its first flight and subsequent 40
hour fly off. I had no Europa time but did have about 300 hours of tail
wheel time, mostly in a Great Lakes biplane.
I found the mono wheel Europa to be quite challenging, in its own way.
Before my first flight I asked a similar question as yours, with a
number of useful responses. I then flew a variety of airplanes, tail
wheel and tri gear, low wing and high, just to get used to flying
different things (I had flown the Great Lakes almost exclusively for the
previous couple of years, which led to some strong habits that needed to
be broke). The following are a list of suggestions and comments that I
would give to anyone transitioning to the monowheel.
1) Keep it off the monowheel alone, it is VERY tricky as a unicycle.
Don't get the tail up on take off like you would most other tail wheel
planes. For the Europa, keep the stick back until it is nearly ready to
fly, then relax the back pressure on the stick, letting it go to
neutral, the plane will almost immediately 'levitate' off the runway. I
'relax' back pressure at about 35 knots solo and about 40 knots dual.
Of course, on landings, try to get the tailwheel down before the main
wheel, or a the least, at the same time. No wheel landings and no high
speed taxing!
2) It is more tail heavy than most (relative to its weight). Once it
starts to move to either side, you have to aggressively correct, with a
'kick' (I have heard others use the term 'bootfull of rudder'), then get
off. I had trouble trying to finesse the rudder on the ground, once it
gets very far to the side, it doesn't want to stop.
3) If using the Graham Singleton tail wheel mod, I would strongly
suggest reducing the tailwheel throw if you operate off of a surfaced
runway. Ours was initially nearly 90 deg travel each way, which make
the plane very sensitive on the ground. We backed it off to +- 45
degrees of tail wheel travel, which helped.
4) You lose almost all tail wheel authority when braking, so let go of
the brake if you need to correct with rudder, then reapply the brake
once you are straight again.
regards,
Terry Seaver
A135 / N135TD
Paul Boulet wrote:
>
>
> Hi All;
>
> I have a question that I hope some of you don't mind giving me an opinion on
(be kind!). My plane has about 4 hours on it and I've not yet landed it- my
check
pilot always did. However, I have 25 hours in taildraggers (500 hours total)
and since I'm having trouble getting a checked out Europa pilot to accompany
me feel like I'm ready to land the plane myself.
>
> I know some of you did the same thing...just don't remember who it was. I'd
like to hear from pilots that jumped in without any more training than I have.
Thanks
>
> Paul Boulet, N914PB (plane located Mesa, Arizona)
>
>
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