I'd just like to concur with Dave's remarks. A work colleague (not a plane
builder) asked me how good the factory support of my endeavour was. I
replied that I couldn't imagine building my plane without it.
Please allow me to offer an example: I rang Neville today with three items I
wanted to discuss:
1) At the weekend I ran out of peel-ply while doing the seat-pan ribs and
had to resort in a hurry to an old England flag left over from the Golden
Jubilee (I know, I know,...). Did I have a problem other than the cloth
being so weak it just tore? Neville talked the possible issues through and
the end result is that after 4 hours of sanding tonight I have no problem.
By the way, whatever you do, do not start a job without having enough peel
ply...
2) I'm thinking of fitting a 2-axis autopilot. The roll servo mounting will
be no problem - I can use the basic design from the Europa Club mod for
fitting a Navaid wing leveller. Had Neville any suggestions on where to
mount the pitch servo and how should it apply its drive? As usual, his
answer was a) eminently sensible, and b) one I had not thought of.
3) I recently got the latest factory Parts and Accessories Catalogue, but to
be honest I'd no idea what half of the goodies on offer were (e.g. what is
the cranked control column Mod 54 about?). I now have all the info I need
and will order my bits a) when I get back from Sun 'n' Fun, and b) when I
work out how much money I have left after a) :-)
That's just a conversation with Neville, but Andy is equally as good. A few
weeks ago they gave me contradicting answers to a question - and it turned
out that they were both right...
Would I criticise them? Yes - they let me yabber on on the phone too much.
So, apologies if I sound like a fully-paid-up member of the Europa Factory
Support Line Fan Club. That's because I am and I make no apologies for it.
Finally, I've in the unfortunate position of having to make a business trip
to Orlando for next week, and flights into Orlando are so hard to come by I
have to fly out this Friday (no kidding, I didn't arrange this, my employers
even asked if I was OK kicking my heels in Florida for the weekend!). I look
forward to meeting some of the US contributors to this excellent Forum 40
miles down the road at Sun 'n' Fun.
Kind regards,
Jeremy
Jeremy Davey
Europa XS Monowheel 537M G-EZZA
>I believe if you are not interacting with John Hurst, Andy and Neville
during
the building of your airplane, you are making a mistake.
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