After 2 years and 3 months of effort, Europa trigear A4220S took to the sky
on it's first flight this past weekend. At the controls was test pilot
Lee Omernick. It was a beautiful sight to watch the plane depart the
runway (Lakeland Airport....home of Sun N'Fun), and circle the pattern.
Even more beautiful was that no pieces of the airplane were falling off,
the propeller continued to rotate and the wheels stayed pointed toward the
ground. After 1 1/2 times around the pattern, Lee lined up for a landing.
My heart was pounding as Lee greased it on the runway. His
evaluation?........the tachometer was reading 7,000 RPM, and he could only
get about 80 MPH. We quickly determined that the blades of the Warp drive
prop were not sufficiently tightened, and the initial pitch of 22 degrees,
had flattened out to 9 degrees. No wonder the engine was overreving....and
going nowhere. Other than that, Lee declared that the plane's controls,
balances, responsiveness, etc, were all first rate. We re-pitched the prop
and Lee took the plane out for another test. This time all was well. It
does need a slight rudder trim tab installed.....anybody out there have a
good suggestion for mounting a clean rudder tab? (height, width, etc).
Lots of people to recognize for all their help and assistance along the
way. I couldn't have done it without them. Russel Lepre, Jimmy Thursby,
Marvin Alvarez, Bob Berube, Bob Setzer, Glen Saunders, and Lee Omernick are
just a few of the wonderful people who kept me going. I plan to have my
plane on display at the Europa booth during Sun N'Fun. I'd encourage all
Europa builders/flyers to stop by and say hello. Hopefully I can sneak
away from work this week and actually solo the plane myself. I'm so
looking forward to "my" first flight.
Regards,
Garry Stout (# A 060)
(813) 878-3929, TieLine 427-3929
FAX (813) 878-7976, Internet ID Gstout@us.ibm.com
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