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Europa Questions Again

Subject: Europa Questions Again
From: Collins <collins@pali.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 08:39:16
Hi all again,

Thanks to everyone who responded to my earlier post. There
are a lot of friendly people on this list!

In my earlier post I asked about the aerobatic rating of the
Europa, but nobody had any comments on that. Maybe if I gave
more details I would get a response.

FAR 23.337 lists three categories of operation for aircraft
in the US, based on limit load (G) capability.

        Normal     +3.8G  -1.52G
        Utility    +4.4G  -1.76G
        Aerobatic  +6.0G  -3.0G

Now the Europa Aircraft website lists the limit load 
rating as:

        Europa XS  +3.8G  -1.9G

This would then place it in the "Normal" category and not
even allow steep turns. Am I missing something?

A related question is that the "standard" ratio of limit
load to ultimate load is 1.5. The Europa data is much
more conservative than that but even if you divide the given
ultimate load by 1.5, you still won't make the aerobatic
category.

Thanks

Bob Collins


Collins wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I am researching available airplanes to build and the Europa
> looks like a potential winner. The San Francisco bay area
> here has very expensive hanger rates and I am attracted to
> the idea of a trailerable aircraft. The only seemingly
> viable choices are the Europa and the Sonex, which both have
> sailplane-like wing mounting.
> 
> Both planes have their pluses and minuses and I would like
> to hear opinions on both, as well as comments on any other
> competing designs. I do however have a couple of
> specific questions about the Europa.
> 
> The review articles about the Europa talk about doing
> aerobatics but the G limit loads listed on the Europa
> website do not qualify for the aerobatic category. Is/was
> there a change in design direction?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Bob Collins
> Sunnyvale CA USA


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