Many congratulations Frans,
The plane looks beautiful too. For the records, can you please tell me the
name of the test pilot, the final empty weight and the estimated build
hours.
The minor adjustments needed seem pretty normal to me. Down elevator trim
in the cruise is completely normal.
Regards
Brian Davies,
The Europa Club
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
[mailto:owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com] On Behalf Of Frans Veldman
Sent: 20 April 2010 18:51
Subject: Europa-List: PH-DIY first flight!
Hi everyone!
Today, at 12:25 LT on EHHO, PH-DIY made his first flight.
Conditions were vulcanic ash, 17-22 KN head wind (straight on the runway).
According to the test pilot, the PH-DIY flies beautifully, straight and
balanced, can be flown hands-off, with a very slight tendency for left (but
this can be attributed to the asymmetric load). Only the rudder seems to be
a bit out of balance: there is always some "right rudder"
required. A trim tab would solve this. This needs some investigation.
Stals:
The stall is, clean and dirty, benign. Some buffetting, and then nothing
really happens, he just parachutes down. Absolutely no wing drop. "Like a
Cessna" according to the test pilot.
Stall clean is at approximately 50 Knots, with full flaps it is 42 knots.
Performance:
The pilot was amazed at the performance of this airplane.
Climb was 1500ft/min with 80 knots, with the power to 100% (not 115%).
Cruise was with 4200 rpm and a manifold pressure of 28 good for 120 knots
IAS (the airspeed indicator has been calibrated to a maximum deviation of 1
knots).
Conditions were somewhat turbulent, but performance data was verified in a
sequence of tries (because the pilot had some trouble to believe this data,
he tried it a few times at some distances apart to rule out local updrafts).
We have had some temperature problems on the early ground runs, but although
the temperatures on the ground still have a tendency to rise, during flight
the temperatures were actually quite low (this was with the cowl flap 3/4
open, I asked the pilot to leave it at this setting to keep things simple
and comparable).
Quirks:
The PH-DIY needs constant right rudder. If anyone has a good idea what the
cause can be and/or what to do about this, let us know!
In cruise, there is some down trim necessary. Trim setting is not in the
middle of the scale. I believe that this is a common thing, but I have not
yet checked the Europa forum archive for this.
Comments:
After some horror stories of Europa's that flip upside down on the stall, we
are very pleased with the benign stall characteristics of the PH-DIY. The
performance data is better than we expected, and we will of course repeat
the tests. (We have Fred Klein's wing root fairings, a radically trimmed
down and optimized cooling duct, and of course this "can't be true" 2-blade
high twist large diameter prop, so we expected performance to be on the good
side of the scale, but this is more than we accounted for).
Well, tomorrow we will give the PH-DIY a thorough check, so if weather
cooperates we will saterday fly ourselves (first with an instructor of
course).
Pictures of the first flight can be found on our website at
www.privatepilots.nl/europa/firstflight.htm
Ilona & Frans
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