Ilona & Frans
Welldone - IY looks perfect and we are sure it is!
We wish you many safe and enjoyable flights.
Marke & Raimo from Finland
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frans Veldman" <frans@privatepilots.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 8:50 PM
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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