I read Mike's posting with interest as his observations match the
statistical evidence.
As the first Europe's took to the air in the UK in the mid '90s, reports of
"incidents" started to filter through the "grape vine". I started monitoring
and downloading every UK CAA Air Accident Investigation Bulletins relating
to the Europa.
After about six years I had a health stack and being devious by nature,
decided to compile some statistics - which among other things illustrated to
my great surprise, that the type of pilot most likely to "loose it" (usually
on landing) was the high time airline professional.
For your interest - here are those statistics:
Pilot
Average Age: 55 yrs
Average Flying Time: 2687 Hrs
Variant
Monowheel: 94%
Tri-Gear: 6%
Flight Phase
Take Off: 25%
Flying: 6%
Landing: 69%
Of these, 38% involved un-commanded gear retraction or (in the case of more
than one high time professional) forgetting about the gear altogether!
By far and away, the greatest problem is "Loss of Control" at take-off and
landing.
Once the Europa is in the air, it is a remarkably safe aircraft. The only
problems are running out of fuel (not really the planes fault) and cockpit
doors departing if the PFI has not been carried out to ensure that the shoot
bolts are home.
There was a spate of in-flight engine stoppages with the NSI (Subaru)
engine, but these never seemed to get reported - so are not reflected in
these numbers.
Nigel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Parkin" <mikenjulie.parkin@btopenworld.com>
Subject: Re: Europa-List: wheel landings [was: Flying a heavy Europa XS?]
................An instructor of mine once told me that to get a true
feeling for the
experience of a pilot, divide his total flying hours by the number of pilot
seats multiplied by the number of engines the aircraft
has...........................
Mike.
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