Alan, and the group,
What a refreshing change it is lately,
to hear some Europa performance figures which match the opinions of
Europa owners and flyers I have met and talked talked to about their
aircraft at various airfields around the U.K.
I have been interested in the Europa since I first saw the adverts
claiming that cruise speeds of 174 kts were attainable, quite
impressive, I thought , faster than an RV6, which was the other kit I
was looking into, and you can de-rig it too!
However, during my 'research' I have yet to meet anyone who has achieved
these magical figures, but have met quite a few who have echoed Alan's
words regarding cruise speeds of 120kts, and that 110kts and 15
litres/hour are realistic figures on which to base journey calculations,
and many have talked of having had higher expectations when they bought
the kits.
On the subject of speed mods and props, I spoke to a couple of Europa
pilots who travel with each other quite a lot.
One with a pretty basic, early kit with standard equipment, the other
with a later kit with a bit more horsepower and different prop., they
both agree that there isn,t a vast difference in performance between
their two aircraft, certainly not the sixty kts. it would require to
achieve the advertised cruising speed.
I am not against buying, building and flying a Europa, and have not yet
made my final decision, but inflated performance figures and hype , as
Alan says, only serve to mislead current and prospective builders and
lead to disappointment.
Paul Wilson.
paul@wilsonnet.flyer.co.uk
europa@avnet.co.uk <>----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Stewart
Subject: Performance discussion - an opinion
10 litres/hr at 120 knots TAS in a Europa shaped aeroplane just seems
to break
all the rules. It is just sooo easily to over estimate TAS.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. IMHO, most unmodified
Europas appear to fly
at around 120 knots TAS and just over 3 1/2 Imp Gal/hr. (with a good
deal of
throttle). Throw in the intangables of head/cross winds, course
errors, climbing
and decending, and control zone avoidance and 110 knots is probably a
good working target for return day trips.
What really concerns me about all the performance hype is that
current/future
builders are being misled into having grossly unrealistic expectations
(as I was !)
of what will be for them, a huge investment in time and money.
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