The hinges are one of the weak design areas of the Europa. I had an
identical experience to Sven, but mine was on my first flight. At 300 feet
on takeoff, the pilot side door departed the aircraft. The hinges are so
weak that you dare not even do an engine run-up with the door open, or they
will blow off their hinges. If you remember to firmly latch both doors,
both front and rear shoot bolts, any time the engine is running, you'll not
have any problems. Forget once, and you've lost a door.
Garry Stout
----- Original Message -----
From: "R.C.Harrison" <ptag.dev@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Europa-List: Did you lock the door today ?
>
> Hi! Sven.
> That all sounds somewhat of an important item of failure! Was there any
> likelihood of the hinges being maligned at all and in a position of
> stress when the door was finally closed down?
> Have you any feed back as to the situation with the other door hinges?
> Regards
> Bob Harrison G-PTAG Europa MKI/Jabiru 3300
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
> [mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Sven den
> Boer
> To: europa-list@matronics.com
> Subject: Re: Europa-List: Did you lock the door today ?
>
> <svendenboer@quicknet.nl>
>
> Jeff,
>
> The hinges sheared right in the middle.
>
> Cheers
>
> Sven
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "JEFF ROBERTS" <jeff@rmmm.net>
> To: <europa-list@matronics.com>
> Subject: Re: Europa-List: Did you lock the door today ?
>
>
>>
>> Just curious Sven,
>> When the door departed, where did the separation take place. Was it
>> right at the hinge or did the bolts pull out of the holes. I have been
>
>> working on painting my doors and have been considering a fix for this
>> worry that a cozy builder used. He placed an inside secondary latch.
>> I'm not sure if this is legal because it cant open from the outside,
>> but it would solve any worries.
>> Jeff
>> A258
>> On Apr 5, 2005, at 11:57 AM, Sven den Boer wrote:
>>
>> > <svendenboer@quicknet.nl>
>> >
>> > Saturday april 2nd, a nice day for a ride with beautiful weather.
>> > After take off, turning out of the circuit and towards the lake,
>> > having a
>> > passenger onboard, a ride over water is always a bit more smooth.
>> > After 15 minutes of flight a Whoosh sound was noted, I did not take
>> > long to
>> > realize that the pilot door had disappeared and had actually
> departed
>> > the
>> > aircraft. Was I glad being over water.
>> > The aircraft was undammaged and flying it was not different, except
>> > for a
>> > lot of noise due to the wind.
>> > After an uneventfull landing and a couple of days of thinking and
>> > investigating this mishap, it is most likely that the door did lock
> at
>> > the
>> > forward position, but the aft locking pin was outside the fuselage.
>> > Being a quite new Europa flyer I have been asking around and this
>> > seems to
>> > be a frequent observation.
>> > Now working on a solution, probabely a set of microswitches and a
> small
>> > light will do the trick, since it is almost impossible to verify by
>> > the eye.
>> >
>> > A thanks to Andy of Europa, who responded quickly and is trying to
> get
>> > the
>> > parts over even this week !!
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> >
>> > Sven den Boer
>> > A168 (Cabrio)
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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