Roger Mills and I had another taste today at exploring the delights of his
new Europa. After the earlier flights we made a few minor adjustments, one
of which was to reduce the tension of the tailwheel drive cable springs.
Roger had set them up with the recommended precompression. Compared to
GKWhip, which has the spring tension very low, GBVUV was rather sensitive
on tarmac. We reduced the tension to almost nothing and had much improved
ground handling. Crosswind is controlled with fairly large rudder
deflections and small wheel deflections, IOW the rudder is now decoupled
---From the tailwheel.
Cruise was explored. Using a spreadsheet downloaded from the net true
airspeed was calculated from three GPS headings and ground speeds. The
program gives true air speed, wind speed and wind direction. We had 125 kts
true at about 75 % throttle and 5,200 rpm. This confirms the accuracy of
Europa's latest iteration on pitot/ staic position. (As per the XS). Very
acceptable for a stock 912 Europa Classic at 2000 ft. Temperature was 25
degrees so you can work out the density altitude. Enough to degrade take of
noticeably.
Graham
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