>>On Sunday, August 23 at approx 3:45 E.S.T. Dan Boyd made the first flight
>>of Europa N216JE
>
>Congratulations - that's kit A045, the highest-numbered US kit to fly so
>far. Previous highest was Lynn Elsner's N841E (A030) with a Subaru.
>
>Any chance of info on the engine, prop, and dry weight?
>
>cheers
>
>Rowland
>
Rowland,
Dan's plane has a Subaru with an Eggenfellner (spelling?) redrive and
Warp
Drive prop. The empty weight is approx. 890 lbs (Dan did all the weight
and balance stuff while I was working, so I'm not absolutely sure what the
final weight came up to--it is heavy, but that was expected when we chose
to use the Soob.) We didn't have to add any ballast to keep the CG in the
correct range thanks to the fact that the redrive keeps the thrust line of
the prop inline with the crankshaft, so we were able to keep the engine up
high in the cowling and, therefore, move it very far back towards the
firewall. The battery is mounted approx. 8 inches behind the baggage
compartment bulkhead beside the push-pull tube for the tail planes. This
location gives us an empty CG very near the front of the allowable CG range.
We were fortunate to have the time to really hustle along with the
airframe construction and have it mostly finished in about 13 to 14 months.
We were slowed by having to design our engine installation and do all the
systems installation in the airframe. We never intended to try to build
the plane fast, it was just so much fun that we couldn't stop until it was
complete!! You know, we may have to start over!! :-)
Marl
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