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Re: Europa-List: Good news, bad news

Subject: Re: Europa-List: Good news, bad news
From: Rman <topglock@cox.net>
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:00:19

Steve, my tri-gear is certed at 1450 and flys well at that weight.  
Empty weight is 925 and CG is almost dead center at 60".  With the wife 
and I and a full load of fuel, we can carry baggage to gross without 
getting out of  CG.

I don't remember what the Airmaster is running for fine pitch, and the 
book is not handy, but I'm thinking somewhere between 13 and 17 degrees...

Jeff - Baby Blue
166 hours

Steve Hagar wrote:

>
>I took today off as vacation and accomplished quite a bit of Europa work.  The
plane got its first ride on the  dual axel flatbed trailer I fabbed up for it.
It went to Falcon Field and  back and came out unscathed. (good news)   The
trailer probably weighs almost 2 times that of  the plane and it sits higher 
than
a lot of the traffic.  So the plane is protected pretty well.  The prop has
gotten dynamically balanced and there was a noticeable change even on ground
runups. (good news).  Initial taxi tests were undertaken and the plane tracks
very well.  I didn't have to do a bunch of back and forth  tap dancing on the
rudders to keep it straight on the line as had been my experience in a  Cessna
140 and 2 other Europas I had taxied.  However being more at ease in my own
plane may have led to more measured footwork may account for the  better 
tracking.
(good news).  On the other hand my low speed taxi was more of a medium speed
taxi.  With the throttle pulled back to its high i
> dle (1500-1600) the taxi rate seemed to be approaching a very fast run by a 
> healthy
teenager.  Brakes were being dragged almost the whole time. (bad news).
I haven't set the prop pitch stops yet on the Airmaster and I hope that is the
issue.  A very cursory quick check showed about 30 degrees on the backside
of the prop and an inability to get up to 5000 rpm on one quick full power run.
What are those with Airmasters running for fine pitch?
>
>The weight and balance was completed and  the aircraft as it sits now primered
for fly off  but now  final paint has its Cg about  7/10 of an inch behind the
forward limit. (good news).  I  haven't permanately mounted the battery yet.
Right now the battery and its box of sorts in sitting centered  under the right
access panel of the baggage bay shelf.  Where are other's CG's at with an
empty weight?  I need to do the calculations for all the  people, baggage, fuel,
aux tank combinations to see if I need to do some fine tuning with the location.
Now for the (bad news) the empty weight is just about 900 lbs. Which is
about 50 lbs more than I was hoping  for,  91 % of the weight is on the mono and
9 % on the tailwheel.   With some leeway available in the US for certing the
gross wt  I would like to call it 1420 to get a good solid 500# payload.  I
can fill it up with gas and still tote a 175#  woman around.  Just think of what
I could carry with a 125# woman aboard . . .!  ! ? 
>   I'm 205 sopping wet and I should be 195 so adjusting me should be a  lot 
> easier
than drilling holes  in everything to get more payload.  How many out there
have their gross weights certificated for greater than 1370?
>
>
>Steve Haga
>A143
>Mesa AZ
>Getting closer!
>
>
>Steve Hagar
>hagargs@earthlink.net
>
>
> 
> 
> 
>
>
>  
>



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