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Re: Europa-List: The Europa Weight Competition (please do not take serio

Subject: Re: Europa-List: The Europa Weight Competition (please do not take seriously)
From: Frans Veldman <frans@paardnatuurlijk.nl>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:06:58

Raimo,

> My reasons (almost free order):
> 9) sounds grazy but I wanted to use money (yes - an el. horizon was more than
Dynon but do not tell to my wife)

Well, I agree with almost every single point, except for this one. Got a
marvel from eBay, a nice coloured attitude indicator from some airliner,
fully overhauled, has been stored in a controlled environment, and when
the company decided to go to glass, they sold the whole lot. Got it for
100$, looks like new, is like new. Has a fast erect/cage button. I only
had to build a 3-phase 400Hz 115VAC inverter to run these kind of
things, and with its own weight of 200 grams it is not too bad. Power
consumption is very reasonable with 3 Amps during spool up of the gyro,
and 0.6 Amps when fully established up to speed.
Apart from the good reliability/affordability ratio, I also had
tremendous fun experimenting with all this stuff. ;-)

> Frans: when there is nothing anymore to improve our Europas - lets plan to 
> make
aluminium custom made experimental stick grips - like in Hornet F18s but much
lighter

Good idea!

> My 5 switches are all illegal: two of them have a specific purpose (which is
illegal but fun).
> Two of them have (very illegal - so illegal that I cannot publish so far) 
> plans
for future winters.
> Just one is so far extra. But I promise some day it also will be strightly 
> illegal.

Oww. I envision another contest: what illegal features can you put into
your airplane?
1) Sound! Yell to the neighbours. Or fly low over a crowded street and
emit a machine gun sound and see what happens. Gives a whole new
dimension to flying! The possibilities are endless, and for sure a
source of great fun.
2) A fuel dump. When you have to make a forced landing, better get rid
of the fuel first. Probably illegal, but might save your life.
3) A dropping bay. For water balloons (very innocent), paint balloons
(somewhat less innocent) or possibly even less innocent stuff.

But you have still more switches. What am I missing?

> Frans: a little tip for you. Do paint your pedals to black. 
> So they disappear nicely.

Have been thinking about that, but because of their nature, paint will
probably wear off quickly at some points, leaving something that looks
very ugly.

> Please find and look LAA issue # June - so you will find out what I mean.

Where can I find that?

> My enlightened guess is your weight will be +420 kg /924 lbs - lets see.

I would be happy if that were true. Oh, it is a tri-gear as well. With
metal nose gear springs. And of course fairings.

> Also - leather interior could easily be many kilos lighter - it took three 
> fullgrown
hartebeestskin to complete it.

Well, here I tried to use the leather tactically, only on places where
you can see it. The black stuff (on the ceiling, and most of the bagage
bay) is very light weight.

-- 
Frans Veldman



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