Franz-
Beautiful airplane!=C2- Congratulations from Lynne and I.=C2- Hopefully
I will have similar news in a couple of months.
Jim Puglise, Punta Gorda, FL
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frans Veldman" <frans@privatepilots.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 1:50:36 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Europa-List: PH-DIY first flight!
Hi everyone!
Today, at 12:25 LT on EHHO, PH-DIY made his first flight.
Conditions were vulcanic ash, 17-22 KN head wind (straight on the runway).
According to the test pilot, the PH-DIY flies beautifully, straight and
balanced, can be flown hands-off, with a very slight tendency for left
(but this can be attributed to the asymmetric load). Only the rudder
seems to be a bit out of balance: there is always some "right rudder"
required. A trim tab would solve this. This needs some investigation.
Stals:
The stall is, clean and dirty, benign. Some buffetting, and then nothing
really happens, he just parachutes down. Absolutely no wing drop. "Like
a Cessna" according to the test pilot.
Stall clean is at approximately 50 Knots, with full flaps it is 42 knots.
Performance:
The pilot was amazed at the performance of this airplane.
Climb was 1500ft/min with 80 knots, with the power to 100% (not 115%).
Cruise was with 4200 rpm and a manifold pressure of 28 good for 120
knots IAS (the airspeed indicator has been calibrated to a maximum
deviation of 1 knots).
Conditions were somewhat turbulent, but performance data was verified in
a sequence of tries (because the pilot had some trouble to believe this
data, =C2-he tried it a few times at some distances apart to rule out loc
al
updrafts).
We have had some temperature problems on the early ground runs, but
although the temperatures on the ground still have a tendency to rise,
during flight the temperatures were actually quite low (this was with
the cowl flap 3/4 open, I asked the pilot to leave it at this setting to
keep things simple and comparable).
Quirks:
The PH-DIY needs constant right rudder. If anyone has a good idea what
the cause can be and/or what to do about this, let us know!
In cruise, there is some down trim necessary. Trim setting is not in the
middle of the scale. I believe that this is a common thing, but I have
not yet checked the Europa forum archive for this.
Comments:
After some horror stories of Europa's that flip upside down on the
stall, we are very pleased with the benign stall characteristics of the
PH-DIY. The performance data is better than we expected, and we will of
course repeat the tests. (We have Fred Klein's wing root fairings, a
radically trimmed down and optimized cooling duct, and of course this
"can't be true" 2-blade high twist large diameter prop, so we expected
performance to be on the good side of the scale, but this is more than
we accounted for).
Well, tomorrow we will give the PH-DIY a thorough check, so if weather
cooperates we will saterday fly ourselves (first with an instructor of
course).
Pictures of the first flight can be found on our website at
www.privatepilots.nl/europa/firstflight.htm
Ilona & Frans
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