As a former Citabria pilot with several years of glider towing (lots of
take-offs and landings), I still found my first test flight of my Classic
Mono to be different in the landing phase. Speed control on final and a
perfectly executed flare are essential. Not only does the rudder lose it's
effectiveness at this time, but the ailerons do likewise and the outriggers
are only in contact with the ground when the tail is down. You must nail the
tailwheel as soon as possible, especially in a crosswind. A few circuits in
a monowheel would make all the difference. Take-off in a taildragger always
means: stick forward, to get the tail up. Never, never check stick forward
in the monowheel Europa during landing and very little at take-off.
On another subject I find the load carrying ability of our little wonder
quite amazing, even though, as Cliff suggests, it is most fun to fly solo
and lightly loaded.
We are off to Australia this Sunday for a couple of months; Cairns,
Brisbane, Sydney, Albury, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and some places in
between. Would like to meet with Down Under Europa builders and pilots for a
chat and look-see if possible.
Let me know off list if interested. cptimm@telus.net
Peter Timm, #110
Pemberton, British Columbia
>
on 05/11/21 6:06 PM, GLENN CROWDER at gcrowder2@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> I flew my 930 lb Monowheel with EA81 power and 125 hp yesterday with a 195
> lb passenger. I am 210. My home base is at 5090 ft. I have a fixed pitch
> 3 bladed prop pitched for cruise. Takeoff was a breeze on my 4700 ft
> runway, breaking ground in about 800 ft, staying in ground effect for
> another 1200 then climbing at about 750 fpm for the first thousand feet.
> Cruising about 4600 rpm
> gives about 145 mph. On part of the flight, we slowed to about 100 and were
> getting 2.0 gph
> on the fuel computer for about 30 minutes. My passenger felt the ailerons
> were very light and
> sensitive but the elevator was sensitive but heavier than the Mustang II he
> had just ridden in last week (probably due to the all flying stab on the
> Mono). The landing was sweet at the normal 70 mph approach speed with no
> bounce or tail wagging common on a lot of taildraggers. Very enjoyable! I
> did weld in some additional steel supports to the swingarm area. Back when
> I was first learning to fly the Mono, I botched some landings not getting
> the tail down far enough (easy to do now!) and got some very severe bouncing
> (almost hit the prop) before I decided to do a go around. I thouroughly
> inspected the swing arm area afterwards and could find nothing bent. That
> was 3 yrs ago and haven't had a landing with more than one extra bounce
> since.
> I recently received some wheel landing training in a brand new Citabria
> and felt the Citabria was quite a bit touchier on landing than the
> Monowheel. With the Mono, as soon as the tail touches, you just pin the
> tail with the stick and hold it, with the Citabria if you do that the tail
> wheel will start shimmying badly. Also with the Citab, you can occasionally
> get a wing to lift on one side after touchdown and have to roll it level
> again. This never happens with the Mono. Landing the Mono
> seems no harder than a C172, just a bit different! Just my $ .02.
>
> Glenn
>
>> From: Jeff B <topglock@cox.net>
>> Reply-To: europa-list@matronics.com
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