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What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

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h&jeuropa

Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 645

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2022 4:27 pm Post subject: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Starting thread for this week.



We got our repaired EFIS installed and made a nice flight today to KRNP where we enjoyed lunch and a walk along the river.  Our new dog Finn is really adapting to flying.  A beautiful afternoon!

Jim

Area-51

Joined: 03 May 2021
Posts: 391

Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2022 7:41 pm Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Pictures.... can't read without pictures; even a simple stick figure sketch in pencil adds layers of meaningless meaning!!!

Area-51

Joined: 03 May 2021
Posts: 391

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2022 3:15 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Went up for an early morning check flight yesterday; cold as... everybody tucked away in bed; had the whole sky to myself.



Rolled over the prop and had compression on all four pots this time, so will put the previous issue down to carbon fleck under the valve seat.



Sky looked magic... rotated off 23, got to 500' and started hitting bumps, climbed through to 1000' and started getting thrown around like a cork in a kiddie pool; oh well we're up here now, may as well put in some time; wasn't fun.



Flew around for 30min and brought 181 into circuit at 100kt downwind, maintained 1000' and 100kt through base before turning final for undercarriage and flaps and dropping it in rapid at 1000fpm 70kt for a great landing through rough air and tree rotors; felt good to get back on the ground; glad all the great training kicked in.



Engine ran really sweet; ready to sort out and now tune for mixtures.

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h&jeuropa

Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 645

Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2022 3:25 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Here is a photo of Finn enjoying his flight. At only 18 lbs, he fits nicely on top of the cockpit module between the headrests.  Heather says he really pays attention and anticipates what is happening, like engine start, take off, gear movement etc.  He looks out some and then sleeps.



Jim

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n7188u

Joined: 15 Nov 2015
Posts: 404

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 5:26 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Short 15 minute flight for breakfast this Saturday. Nice.



No picture - Sorry.



Getting the itch to begin the painting process. My plan is to slowly do the small parts (control surfaces, cowling, covers) and leave the fuselage and wings to the end.



Yes, I could do all at once but between family and work it's hard to find the time unless I ground the airplane for a long time, which I don't want to do. I used up all my family permitted "work-on-the-airplane" time allowance 



Was considering a trip to Oshkosh but realistically can't (not enough vacation time). Planning to do Triple Tree in September which I really enjoyed last year.



But the airplane is flying great. The more I fly this little thing the more I like it.



Best,

Chris

erichdtrombley(at)juno.co
Guest

Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 6:46 am Post subject: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

I took N28ET up for a test flight last week.   Had a similar experience as Area-51, very windy & bumpy, and here in Las Vegas unpleasantly hot.  It had been well over a month since I last flew my bird.  Despite the conditions, I was pleased that my new carbon fiber bulkhead which supports the AP pitch servo worked as expected.  



N28ET is a Classic Monowheel and I mounted the pitch servo on the aft side of the main wheel tunnel bulkhead as a retro fit installation.  I do not recommend this location.  While I thought it would make for an easier installation, this proved not to be the case.  Access is not very good and setting up the servo was challenging.  Also, the original glass/plywood sandwich bulkhead was too flimsy and would flex during servo activation, which resulted in huge altitude excursions.   The new bulkhead is constructed from 1/4” thick carbon/foam sandwich material a hangar mate had available.  This stuff is incredibly stiff and much lighter than the original.



With only a couple of weeks left until Oshkosh I am making final preparations.  Fred Klein will be accompanying me this year so it should make for a great trip.



That’s it for now,



Erich Trombley

N28ET

Classic Mono 914

budyerly@msn.com

Joined: 05 Oct 2019
Posts: 286
Location: Florida USA

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2022 5:13 pm Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

After two months of home duties and sick grandchildren wife and myself, I  was asked to confer with a few instructors on realistic stall training yet still stay within the FAA and the Global Air instructor guidelines.  I also did a Powerpoint for the local EAA Chapter on retaining proficiency.



These instructors have flown with me before and we often work on how to's, techniques and many questions on why the plane behaves as it does, and what's that for's.



By late morning I was able to haul 12AY out of the back of the hangar, wash it, lube it, service IAW my engine Troubleshooting guide, ground run the engine/systems and do a proficiency ride before supper time.  



12AY responded nearly as ideal as I could hope.  My repair of a delamination in my classic wing is starting to raise up but is still solidly attached to the foam underneath.  It is an odd issue.  Flap rig was slightly off due to onlookers at Sun 'n Fun sitting/leaning on my flaps and wings.  I bent the flap a bit and although it was windy, rainy and hot I decided a cool drink and a quick flight would be within my energy reserves.



I flew a typical profile for me: (See my website techniques section for a paper on gaining and staying current Power Point is too large for my website and the matronics attachments.) After a normal takeoff and climb to the working area I did slow flight, stalls, accelerated and configured, and found I needed to repeat some of these exercises to get the rust off.  I was sloppy and flap rig was still off. It was cloudy, gusty and very hot and humid, and I only shot two touch and goes and a full stop.  The last one scared a couple of instructors watching and grading landings, as I made a quick short final nose down and back up to correct a sloppy glide path.  Landings were good but the flaps required attention.  I was burnt out by the time I landed.  Today I adjusted my flaps and repeated the scenario and was impressed how much better the airplane flew the profile.  It was still terribly hot, but the winds and clouds allowed me to work up about 5000 feet in the cool air.  Tomorrow, I have grandkids swimming in the pool (birthday party) but intend to re-fly again on Thursday to check a drop of oil on the bottom of the cowl (most likely from the air filter full of oil and a pesky valve cover gasket) and to get some more short field and no flap landings dialed in.  I overworked my stall warning horn on today's flight, and it decided to stop working (the light is working fine but my cheap Amazon/Chinese piezo electric buzzer died).  I have another, but I think I may add an intercom audio tone or a voice warning circuit.  Instead of a buzzer, I may use an ISD 120 voice recorder/playback and pipe a soothing voice saying ("Oh Pilot, you are stalling, unload, and start doing some of that pilot stuff to get us out of here.)



During the Zoom meeting Tuesday night I misspoke about Mod 74.  It is a Classic Mandatory mod but at Custom Flight I did this mod for a number of our clients with XS aircraft that were really heavy as a shop mod (Europa did not want to do this on the XS fleet but the glider has it as standard due to higher stresses, so I considered it as an option for the XS).  The XS does not require Mod 74, but if the wing is damaged, I consider it an upgrade worth doing especially if the owner has a fat Europa with a MTOW of 1450 pounds.



Best Regards,

Bud

Area-51

Joined: 03 May 2021
Posts: 391

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 4:23 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Winds have been gusting up to 45kt lately; so lots more tea drinking and watching the clouds zoom by; watched lieutenant kingaby launch his storch into the air with a 3ft rollout and almost vertical climb up to circuit height; it was a real giggle to witness... used the down time to add a gopro 360 camera into 181's cockpit... very impressed with the new gadget...

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rparigoris

Joined: 24 Nov 2009
Posts: 792

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 8:48 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Hi Bud

Was your flap rig off with flaps up or down? If they were off down, how did you adjust them? Thx. Ron P.

n7188u

Joined: 15 Nov 2015
Posts: 404

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 11:42 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Since someone mentioned the inclusion of pictures, this one was taken as I was landing at my home field after our breakfast flight this past Saturday.



I think the airplane looks a little wider after that hearty breakfast 



Chris

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n7188u

Joined: 15 Nov 2015
Posts: 404

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 11:52 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

I know. This is supposed to be a Europa forum but this is such a neat picture of my "other" as I was landing it last weekend (or two).



Anyway, I do think that Ivan was inspired by his LongEZ when he thought of the Europa (he wanted it to be fast and efficient, right?). After all, the Classic (and somewhat in the XS) inherits a bit of Rutan-ish construction methods.



Still, I think it is a cool pic.



Chris

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Area-51

Joined: 03 May 2021
Posts: 391

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2022 1:53 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

AHHHHGHH!!! WASP IN THE BEEHIVE!!! WASP IN THE BEEHIVE!!!! 🙆‍♂️🙆‍♂️🙆‍♂️🙆‍♂️🙆‍♂️

rparigoris

Joined: 24 Nov 2009
Posts: 792

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2022 2:31 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Hi Chris



Hmm, so you have two planes with most aft wheels that are fixed!



Very nice pic. Boy is that paint white compared to your Europa!!



Ron P.

budyerly@msn.com

Joined: 05 Oct 2019
Posts: 286
Location: Florida USA

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2022 12:11 pm Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Ron,

About a degree flaps up and flaps down on the port wing.  



Not a bad stall difference, just not normal for my bird.  Tweaked it a bit and flew today.  Damned adequate now.  Still not perfect.



My cover over my TCU works quite well at a ramp temp of 100F and full power climb at 90 KIAS to 7500 feet.  After landing the temp never got above 100F on the footwell with the fan running.  It is supposed to run for 15 minutes but the battery only lasted about 5 (three-year-old battery).   Looks like my Chinese NiCd fan battery died/is dying.  Still the footwell thermometer never went above 101F.  Well within the TCU temp limits.



My Stratux ADS-B stopped seeing traffic last flight.  Most likely programming/boot error or the old style receivers can't take the heat in the aft fuselage.  Still dead today.



Perhaps it is time to go back to Digikey/Mouser/Allied and get quality made electrical components/parts.  Cheap Chinese are just that for electronic components.  Good for experimenting but not for longevity is what I am finding.  I could be wrong.  I could have paid more for name brand.  12 volt components running at 13.8 volts may be the issue also.  Time will tell.  Resistors in line may be all I need to drop the voltage a bit.

h&jeuropa

Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 645

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:04 pm Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 7/9 - 7/15

Four nice VFR flights this week.  Worked out the last couple EFIS settings.  Did a couple approaches, practiced 90 kt flight for Oshkosh arrival.



Jim Butcher

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East coast of Lake Michigan looking towards South Bend and Gary Indiana.

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