I am not moved to write often but just to add my two cents worth. Almost
everything we are saying is based on supposition regarding, in
particular, the tragic accident to Williams Europa. There has naturally
been much speculation, particularly after the early mention of flutter
as a possible cause. As with all accidents there were probably a number
of mutually divergent occurancies which led to the eventual loss of
control but I am waiting for the AAIB to give their findings as it would
appear that a preliminary report is imminent.
Making reference to comments in recent e-mails
If the tailplane balance weights were placed in the leading edge of each
tailplane you would end up with about four times the weight of the
present TP19's (200mm arm as opposed to the 800mm at present). I don't
have access to the TP19's at the moment but they are heavy and four
times heavy is very heavy, and this would obviously be undesirable in
weight and C of G terms. However it is probably correct that the mono is
slightly more prone to shock loading at the pin securing the TP12.
Although the 'system' is balanced, the tailplane is itself tail heavy,
and on landing and over rough ground this couple is resisted mainly by
the TP12 pins. A similar situation occurs of course with the balance
weight arm at TP9 and its two pins TP14C. Pronounced pitching on the
close coupled Trike gear on a rough surface would cause similar forces.
Taxi-ing at slower speeds is desireable for this and many other reasons.
All design is a compromise but obviously if the balance weights were in
the leading edge of the tailplane then it would avoid the above
situation and each tailplane would be individually balanced as the
ailerons are on the Europa. I suspect that in the original design this
option was discarded in the interests of weight saving, and bearing in
mind the arm length, from a weight and balance point of view.
I think there is a lot of truth in what you are hinting at. Us trigear
jockeys are having to pay dearly for shortcomings in the mono.
I don't think comments such as those above are very helpful. All design
is a compromise and the Europa was designed around a unique set of
operational objectives which is why so many of us bought Europa kits. It
is different to other taildraggers and requires slight modifications to
standard taildragger technique as does the Pitts Special and some other
more demanding aircraft. It is the only kit to have multi configuration
which allows people to make a personal choice depending on their
preferences. As I said at the beginning lets wait for the results of the
investigation before jumping to dubious judgments.
Tony
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