I've been approached by Cliff Piper, PFA EC member, about a proposed
training course for Europa monowheel pilots, being planned in
conjunction with the Europa factory. He'd like some feedback from
Europa builders on how many PFA members would be prepared to attend
something roughly as described below, before too much work is done on
organising the details.
The proposal is for a 2-day residential course, probably at some
suitable airfield near the middle of the country (yes that's England
in case there were any doubts). There would be some ground school
given by experienced Europa training pilots, and each attender would
get about 2 hours dual on one of the factory aircraft. No more than
about 10 people could attend each course, to allow everyone
sufficient air time. Preference would be given to people expecting to
complete their own monowheel Europa and have it flying not long after
the course is held. The first course might be in April or May 2001,
followed by another in September 2001 if demand was sufficient. The
cost, including overnight accommodation, would likely be more than
100 pounds, but is hoped to be a lot less than 200 pounds - it would
depend on the venue chosen, among other things.
One output from this course would be advice on what to do next. The
conclusion might be that the budding Europa pilot is ready
immediately for a full Europa type conversion course, or it might be
suggested that some more hours of tailwheel time (Chipmunk, Champ,
etc) would be a better investment first.
It sounds like good value to me (particularly in comparison to the
cost of hull insurance), but what do others think? There are about
100 monowheel Europas awaiting completion in UK, so let's hear the
views of all those potential course candidates who are online here. I
have agreed to collect all e-mail responses from this list and
forward them to Cliff. Please reply direct me under this subject
line. The proposal will also be aired sometime soon in the PFA
magazine "Popular Flying", but this is your chance to influence the
thinking at an early stage.
regards
Rowland
| Rowland Carson Europa Club Membership Secretary
| Europa 435 G-ROWI PFA #16532 EAA #168386
|