Europa FAQ version 15, last modified 11 October 1999
This is the list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the Europa e-mail
list. It relates to the Europa kit-built aeroplane, designed by Ivan Shaw
(with a little help from Don Dykins).
FAQ maintained at present by:
Rowland Carson [with help from FileMaker Pro and the Europa community]
<europa-club@rowil.clara.net>
Any Europa enthusiast may apply to take over as maintainer at any time.
Questions answered (* = changed since last version):
* 0 Where can I find this FAQ?
1 I have a suggestion for the FAQ - how can I get it included?
* 2 List etiquette - what's that?
* 3 How do I join the Europa e-mail list?
* 4 How do I get off the Europa e-mail list?
* 5 Why did my reply to a posting never appear on the Europa e-mail list?
* 6 Why did I receive two replies to my posting on the Europa e-mail list?
* 7 How can I get the full archives of the Europa e-mail list?
8 Can I post attachments or encoded mail to the Europa e-mail list?
* 9 How do I join the Europa Club?
* 10 Factory newsletter, Europa Flyer, e-mail list - I'm confused!
* 11 Are there any other organisations for people building aeroplanes?
12 Where can I get more info about home-built aircraft generally?
13 I haven't got a pilot's licence - can I train for it in my Europa?
14 Can I fly a Europa on a microlight/ultralight license?
15 Can I buy a ready-made Europa?
16 How long will it take me to build a Europa?
17 How much will it really cost to build a Europa?
18 What are the dimensions of the Europa on its trailer?
19 Do I have to use the Europa factory-supplied open trailer?
20 What tools will I need to build a Europa?
* 21 Has anyone designed a fuselage support for use during building?
22 Do I need special skills to build a Europa?
23 How will I know I've built it right?
24 Everyone says "build light" - how do I do that?
25 How can I avoid allergic reactions to epoxy?
26 How do I get a C of A or Permit to Fly the completed Europa?
* 27 What engines are available for the Europa?
28 I'm quite big - will I be comfortable in a Europa cockpit?
29 My strip is only 300m - could a Europa operate out of that?
* 0 Where can I find this FAQ?
-------------------------------
This FAQ is normally posted during the first week of each month to the
Europa e-mail list (starting January 1998).
A WWW page containing the latest version is maintained at:
<http://home.clara.net/rowil/europa/europa_faq.html>
(I try to honour HTML 4.0 standards - please help me by letting me know if
you have problems with this page.)
Previous postings can be found in the Europa e-mail list archives available
---From Avnet - search for a subject line containing "FAQ".
Europa Aircraft also maintain a FAQ on their WWW pages at:
<http://www.europa-aircraft.com/faqs/intro.html>
1 I have a suggestion for the FAQ - how can I get it included?
New items, and correction or enhancement of existing items are welcome.
Send your suggestion in e-mail to the FAQ maintainer (see above).
Submissions most likely to be incorporated will have similar formatting to
the existing FAQ, and display accuracy in spelling, grammar, and syntax.
The ultimate deciding factor, however, will be the quality and relevancy of
the information. The maintainer reserves the right to edit for brevity,
clarity or humour.
* 2 List etiquette - what's that?
----------------------------------
Like many things, an e-mail list functions best if all the users work
co-operatively. There are some ways of doing things that will make sharing
of information easier and more pleasant for all of us on the list. Adam
Engst, author of the "Internet Starter Kit ..." books has made a very good
summary of advice, and encourages its wider publication. I don't think I
can improve on his list so here it is:
There are a number of things we can do to improve the quality of
mailing lists for the benefit of all. Most of these
recommendations are simple and require little extra work. If you'd
like to read a more detailed rationale for these suggestions,
check out the Mailing List Manners 101 and 102 articles published
by TidBITS at:
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1141>
Email Program Settings Suggestions:
* Turn off features (like VCards) that create attachments.
* Avoid sending HTML-formatted messages to lists.
* Send replies either to the sender or the list, but not both.
* Make sure the time is set properly on your computer.
Writing and Layout Suggestions:
* Don't use all capital letters for more than a word or two.
* Insert blank lines between paragraphs.
* Include full URL schemes, as in <http://www.tidbits.com/>.
* Surround URLs with angle brackets.
* Try to use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Message Content Suggestions:
* Never send unsubscribe commands to the list.
* Create and maintain descriptive subject lines.
* Quote original text sparingly in your replies.
* Don't include email attachments unless explicitly allowed.
* Use a short signature containing only essential data.
* Send welcome or congratulation messages via private email.
* Respect other people's news.
* Civility is always worthwhile.
Thanks for helping to keep mailing lists useful and pleasant
places!
Other advice on making the most effective use of e-mail in general can be
found at:
<http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html>
* 3 How do I join the Europa e-mail list?
------------------------------------------
You can subscribe automatically by sending an e-mail message to
<europa-request@avnet.co.uk>
The subject line is not important (put "subscribe europa list" there to
remind yourself what it was about) but the body of the message should
include the following command:
subscribe europa
You will then receive a message with instructions on how the list works,
and all future contributions to the list.
* 4 How do I get off the Europa e-mail list?
---------------------------------------------
To remove yourself from the Europa mailing list, send an email to
<europa-request@avnet.co.uk>
The subject line is not important (put "unsubscribe europa list" there to
remind yourself what it was about) but the body of the message need contain
only the word:
unsubscribe
Please note that all commands (including subscribe and unsubscribe) to the
server which runs the Europa e-mail list must be addressed to the server,
NOT the list address where the discussion goes on. Doing that will make you
look (at best) forgetful, or (at worst) incapable of following simple
instructions (and you need to follow a lot of instructions to build an
aeroplane).
address which is different to one you originally subscribed on, the server
will not be able to deal with your request. If your e-mail address changes,
first unsubscribe using the old account, then subscribe using the new one.
* 5 Why did my reply to a posting never appear on the Europa e-mail list?
You forgot to choose "reply-to-all". Most email clients allow this as an
option when creating a reply, and some (like Eudora) can be set to have
that behaviour as default. Once the "to" header line has been created,
please remove the original sender's name from it, leaving just the
<europa@avnet.co.uk> part. If you don't remove it, the original sender will
get your reply twice & wonder why you're repeating yourself.
You might ask why such an apparently inconvenient procedure is necessary.
When the Europa e-mail list was set up, the list server (which administers
it all) was indeed configured to make the "reply-to" field in the message
headers the same as the list address. This was very convenient for users,
as any reply was automatically posted for all to see. Of course, it also
sometimes caused embarrassment when folk forgot to change the "to" line in
their header when composing a reply meant to be read by the sender only.
However, much worse could happen when ill-configured or ill-designed e-mail
software interacted with list traffic. It could happen that such a system
immediately replied to every list message received by it, thus generating
another list message, which was again replied to, etc, etc, ad infinitum,
thus clogging up the list server and its communication ports with
ever-multiplying traffic. Such "mail loops" cannot arise if the "reply-to"
field is not set to the list address. To protect the list, and the
integrity of all Avnet's operations, this change was made in February 1998.
* 6 Why did I receive two replies to my posting on the Europa e-mail list?
The person who replied to your posting forgot to remove your personal email
address after choosing the "reply-to-all" option (so that the reply would
go to the Europa list). If the original sender's name is not removed from
the "to" field in the header, leaving just the <europa@avnet.co.uk> part,
the original sender will receive the reply twice - once direct and once via
the list.
See the answer to the previous question to understand why such an
apparently inconvenient arrangement is necessary.
* 7 How can I get the full archives of the Europa e-mail list?
The browsable archive of e-mail list postings on the Europa Club WWW site
is no longer maintained or updated (time & space constraints).
However, there is a pretty full archive of the list postings available for
download to your own machine. You can order monthly chunks of it from the
list server using an e-mail command. Your command (like all commands to the
list server) must go to the server address, _not_ the list address. You can
get a list of all the files available by sending the message:
index europa
to the list server address <europa-request@avnet.co.uk>, then have the
desired file delivered by sending a message such as:
get europa.9706
to the server address, which would get you the postings seen during June 1997.
You can collect all the previous postings in this way, but how best
organise them so the information is accessible? You could just save them
all as text and use a text editor or word-processor application to search
for words of interest. You could create your own database system to make
browsing easier. Or, you could avoid re-inventing the wheel and use one of
the already-developed systems.
Peter Thomas created a stand-alone system called EUROCHAT which runs under
Windows, and it is available from the Europa Club ftp site (off the main
menu). Look for EUROCHAT.ZIP, download it and unzip it. The file as
downloaded does not contain all the postings - you have to add them
yourself, but instructions are included.
Rowland Carson created a database file template for doing much the same
thing, but it requires the database manager application FileMaker Pro to
function. FMP is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems. The
template requires that the text files as saved from the e-mail application
be pre-processed for dross removal & formatting before import to the FMP
file, and a small Mac tool is available to do that. The C source of the
program is also available and should readily port to other platforms if
desired as it has minimal interaction with the operating system. Contact
Rowland Carson <rowil@clara.net> for further details.
8 Can I post attachments or encoded mail to the Europa e-mail list?
The simple answer is "NO" - read on for the longer one.
Like most e-mail lists, and in line with accepted netiquette, we would
prefer that you do not post encoded material, whether it's HTML, styled
text, pictures, compiled programs or even encrypted text. Do not post
messages with attachments to the list.
The Europa e-mail list was set up to be as accessible as possible to the
greatest number of people, and one way to maintain this is to avoid using
any coding that may only be decodable by a minority of those receiving it.
(The only form of encoding acceptable to virtually all e-mail users is
MIME, which operates invisible to the user in all modern mail clients.)
If you care about whether anyone will read your message, send plain text.
Most people don't have time to spend untangling an incomprehensible mess to
find if there might be a nugget of good stuff somewhere in it - they're
much too busy trying to build aeroplanes!
If there is something (such as a circuit diagram) which can't be expressed
in plain text, but is worth sharing with the majority of the Europa
community, there are two possibilities: (1) if it's urgent, ask the Europa
Club internet representative to put the file on the ftp or www site; (2)
submit it to the Europa Club newsletter editor for inclusion in the next
quarterly issue of the "Europa Flyer". See the Europa Club WWW pages, or
the lastest "Europa Flyer", for the current addresses.
If an individual has requested an encoded file, make sure you address the
message to that person, NOT the list!
Most e-mail clients (eg Eudora Pro) which are capable of sending encoded or
styled text can be configured to warn you before sending if a message
contains styles. The Outlook Express address book allows you to specify for
each addressee whether they should be sent only plain text. Other
applications (eg www browsers) may come pre-configured to send HTML by
default, and you may have to dig around in the configuration dialogue boxes
to achieve the desired settings.
* 9 How do I join the Europa Club?
-----------------------------------
Contact the Membership Secretary for full information. At present the
Membership Secretary is:
Rowland Carson
4 Saville Close
CHELTENHAM
Gloucestershire
England
GL50 4NE
* 10 Factory newsletter, Europa Flyer, e-mail list - I'm confused!
The Europa factory puts out a newsletter from time to time (between 2 and 4
times a year), a subscription to which is mandatory for all builders. Those
not yet building can also subscribe, but will not receive the inserts with
details of modifications, etc, which go only to builders. Subscriptions are
paid to "Europa Aircraft" at the office in Yorkshire, England or Florida,
USA depending on your own location. Europa Aircraft is opening new outlets
in other countries which will probably be able to handle factory newsletter
subscriptions - check the factory WWW site (see below) for the latest
addresses.
The Europa Club puts out a newsletter (The Europa Flyer) 4 times a year
(Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec) to all paid-up Europa Club members. Subscriptions are
paid to "Europa Club", and are due 1st April each year. Enclosed with the
March newsletter, members receive notification of their subscription status
and a copy of the information currently held about them by the Club. That
notification is required to satisfy certain requirements of the UK data
protection laws. The Club and its newsletter is not connected with the
Europa factory or its newsletter.
The Europa e-mail list on the internet is open to anyone to join. There is
no charge. Like most things on the internet, it is not controlled by
anyone. Neither Europa Aircraft nor the Europa Club have any power over
what goes on there, although representatives from both take part from time
to time. It's simply a forum for discussion among Europa enthusiasts. Many
of the useful nuggets of information appearing there are reproduced in the
Europa Club newsletter for the benefit of members not on-line. The list
(and the Europa Club website, see below) was set up as a service to the
Europa community by a Europa Club member, and it (and the website) is now
maintained by another Europa Club member. The time available for list &
website management work is anything left over after family, Europa
building, and day job have had their allocations.
Both the Europa Club <http://www.avnet.co.uk/europa/> and Europa Aircraft
<http://www.europa-aircraft.com> have World Wide Web sites, and there are
links between them. The Club pages provide access to the archives of the
Europa e-mail list, and some past copies of the FACTORY newsletter, but NOT
the CLUB newsletter - that is available to Club members only.
PFA 16532 EAA 168386 Young Eagles Flight Leader 017623
Europa builder #435 G-ROWI
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