Europa Aircraft XS Monowheel Motorglider, Owner'S Manual

Page: 76 / 96

Before flying a Europa on first flight a pilot needs to be sharp and in current
practice on a taildragger aircraft. It is better to have a pilot who has recently
flown many different light aircraft than an airline pilot with 5,000 hours on
737s over the last ten years but nothing else.
Be honest with yourself, it may be much better to let someone with more
experience conduct the first flight on your Europa.
Remember: The primary reason for getting an experienced pilot to test fly
an aircraft is not if everything goes ok but if something goes wrong . The
experienced pilot is more capable of dealing with an emergency.
For the experienced taildragger pilot the job of flying the Europa should be
both straightforward and enjoyable.
It is no “hot ship” in the same category of a Pitts Special in the ground
handling situation but more like a Piper Cub or an Aeronca Champ. The big
difference is that it has a mono-wheel landing gear arrangement with
outriggers that are aft of the main wheel. This means that if the tail wheel is
raised early in the take off run the Europa will then have to be balanced on
one wheel, with use of ailerons and rudder alone for keeping straight
alignment down the runway.
The all flying tail is powerful enough to lift the tail before the ailerons and
rudder have sufficient authority to control yaw and roll.
In practice this simply means that lifting the tail should be delayed slightly
compared with a standard taildragger and the pilot should also “fly” the
ailerons.
Once balanced on the mono wheel the aircraft is in effect “flying” as far as
the control inputs are concerned.
November 2006 XS Monowheel Motorglider
Page 9 - 2 Issue 2 Owners Manual