I had a Classic Europa that was converted to a Trike. It handled well, and
stalled straight ahead - provided the ball was in the middle. I got a bit
lazy once, had the ball out to the left, and sure enough I had a wing drop
(about 80deg in about half a second )- in other words the incipient stage of
a spin.
Standard recovery worked well,( as a reminder:- stick forward to break the
stall, smoothly up to full power, roll wings level.) lost about 300 ft. and
the aircraft recovered immaculatly. Please also remember the "stall speed"
is only wing level and unaccellerated stall speed. Wings actually stall due
to the angle of attack ! OK review over - for which I appologise.
In short the stall/ spin is pretty benign, with no nasty habits, HOWEVER, as
you point out these are hombuilt aircraft, and vary greatly from model to
model. The only way to be sure is to test fly it ( with plenty of altitude,
and a suitably experienced pilot).
BTW what is the registration of the aircraft ur looking at, and what's your
local ?
Dave
2008/9/5 zwakie <mz@cariama.nl>
>
> As announced in my first posting here from two weeks ago, I am looking to
> buy a Tri-Gear, and as it happens I have my eye on a Classic Monowheel that
> was converted into a Tri-Gear back in 1998.
>
> Reading this forum and from talking to a couple of Europa owners/builders,
> I've come to learn that some Classics have a really nasty wing-drop when
> stalling. It's my understanding that this is mainly because when building
> the Classic wings, it is near to impossible to produce port and starboard
> wings to be 100% symmetrical (if there are any other reasons, I would love
> to hear them too of course!).
>
> Since I don't want a plane that has a nasty wing-drop, I was wondering:
> except for flying the plane and performing numerous stalls at a really safe
> altitude in different configs, are there other ways to find out if a
> specific Classic might have a nasty wing-drop when stalling?
> And: will such wing-drops always manifest when doing stalls, or is it just
> every now and again?
>
> Being a novice in this area, I f.i. could imagine that a heavy wing in
> cruise and level, the presence of an aileron-trim, the absence of
> stall-strips or a tendency to yaw in straight and level might be 'indirect
> indicators'. Or is this way of thinking a stupid one?
>
> Any tip or trick to identify a plane with a nasty wing-drop is welcome!
>
> Marcel
>
> (PS: no need to talk about speed here, I am fully aware that flying well
> above stall-speeds in a coordinated matter is a sensible thing to do :wink:)
>
>
> Visit - www.EuropaOwners.org <http://www.europaowners.org/>
>
>
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