John,
Good choice!! Various people have modified their Europas like you say, and
obviously that is mostly tri-gear owners who don't have the big wheel in
there. The tunnel is part of the structural strength, though, so you do need
to be careful.
Over there in the US you can do pretty well what you like, even if it takes
away a lot of strength and eventually kills you, but over here in the UK we
have to follow a formal modification approval procedure that makes sure we
don't do anything dangerous. You may want to liaise with Ian Rickard
g-iani@ntlworld.com on this - he has an engineered and approved mod on his
tri-gear that recovers a lot of the tunnel space for radios, storage, etc.
He is very busy at present getting G-IANI ready for first flight on 17th
December - indeed, I haven't heard from him for about a month - so don't
worry if you don't get a response immediately.
Also, the factory are producing a mod that increased the elbow room on the
door side - only a small amount, but apparently it's significant, if only
for the removal of the uncomfortable edge and replacement with a sculpted
face.
Finally, is 600-800 hours reasonable? If you got the accelerated feathers
and cockpit module, didn't do a load of mods, and have some plane-building
experience, yes it probably is. I had neither accelerated kit and enjoyed
doing them myself, am doing a lot of mods, and the only planes I've ever
built were from Airfix. The result is I'm about 50% done at 1100hrs, smiling
---From ear-to-ear with the sheer pleasure of building, and have no regrets
about not speeding my way to first flight.
Of course, if you want a noisy tin can that drinks like George Best and
looks the same as every other homebuilt in California, build an RV!
HTH!
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy Davey
Europa Monowheel 537M G-EZZA
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of john
butterfield
Subject: Europa-List: modification
<jdbutterfield@yahoo.com>
hello all:
I have been trying to decide which aircraft to build
and i am down to the europa and an RV model. All
things point to the europa as my final choice. I am
going to get the tri gear model.
i am wondering if it is possible to modify the cockpit
module so that the area which housed the mono wheel
can be changed so that more room will exist between
the seats. i read somewhere that it is part of the
sturcture and is required for total aircraft strength.
if anyone has any info on this matter i would be
grateful to hear it.
is 600-800 hours really reasonable to build one of
these beautiful machines?
best regards
john Butterfield
los angeles
|