Coupled with the actual u/c mod, I have performed major surgery to the
interior, in particular the central arm-rest/wheel-well, which has simply
transformed the cockpit comfort levels. This mod, done with the essential
benefit of the stress report from Barry Mellers at Slingsby Aviation, is now
approved by the PFA - if anyone wishes to go the same route, let me know and I
can provide copies of the report on a shared-cost basis - the more, the
cheaper!
The weight penalty appears to be around 30lbs, which may or may not be a
problem, depending on what you started with, the runway surfaces you'll
operate from and engine power available etc.
David,
As someone who is about to purchase Kit 1 of the Europa, I'm particularly
interested in the tri-gear option and keenly read your observations about
handling differences. Can you expand on the following:
1. With the increased power of the Subaru, are the poor, rough field
take-off
characteristics of the tri-gear relative to the mono-wheel overcome? Although
I shall primarily be operating the plane from a hard runway, there will
inevitably be the occasional need to fly into grass strips.
2. What exactly is the central arm-rest mod you carried out? Can you
expand
on what it is and what the benefits are?
3. How did you find the Subaru installation compared to the Rotax? Were
there
any problems I should be aware of? From my own experience I found that the
Subaru to be a wonderful engine. (In Brunei, I had to drive a Subaru a mile
through 3 foot deep floods and, even though the engine was below the waterline
with water coming to the base of the windshield, it still kept going. A
colleague in his BMW wasn't so lucky. Needless to say, I hope that this
operating characteristic won't be required for a Subaru powered A/C, even on
grass strips!)
(I've just thought about that - how's about a floatplane version of the
Europa!?)
Regards
Chris Vowell
|