The Europa Flyer

March / May 2001

 

"EDITOR'S COMMENT"

"Welcome to a new look Europa Flyer, I hope that you like it. There have been a couple of comments recently regarding the typeface that has been used, suggesting one with serifs would be easier to read. With this taken on board I have reviewed a whole mass of magazines and come to the conclusion that if they know their market, then this completely new layout and style should be appreciated. It does involve me in quite a bit more work and the new typeface and size means that a lot more can be put on each page (requiring more input for the same page number), but I am happy for this to continue if you are all pleased with the results. Let me know.

Unfortunately, not long after we went to print with the last issue, Tom Justic lost his fight with the injuries he sustained in the road accident, and died as a result. He was a character almost larger than life and will be sadly missed by all those who had the pleasure of meeting him. As a mark of our respect for Tom the Europa Club have decided that the annual major fly-out of each year will be named the Justic Cruise to. Therefore this year will see us on the Justic Cruise to Croatia.

On a happier note, the Europa Club Christmas dinner was held at Coventry, in mid December and with 50 in attendance it all went well with everyone enjoying the chance at a good mid winter chat. This is the second year that we have been to Coventry and so we will perhaps try a new venue this coming Christmas.

Early in January this year, the Wilksch diesel took to the skies again in Bill Wynne's Europa. This was a more serious session than the December 1999 hop, for on this occasion a series of flights were conducted to more properly evaluate the engines performance. Tests undertaken with the power pegged back to 80hp which was useful as a direct comparison to the Rotax 912. John Brownlow, the test pilot for these flights reported excellent performance, low cockpit noise and turbine like smoothness. Oil and coolant temperatures have shown a need for some radiator and cowling alterations, but these early flights have seen 132 kt. at full throttle 2500rpm and 120 kt. at 2300rpm. A low fast pass showed 155 knots although it should be bourne in mind this all these speeds were indicated airspeeds and will need verification later. The next set of tests, to be undertaken shortly, will be with the second prototype.

On the back cover of this issue there is quite an extensive list of fly-ins, fly-outs and other events coming up that are of interest to Europa Club members around the world (although primarily in Europa I am afraid). However, that list is now so large that I have had to list below some additional events that may well be of interest to you:

Apr 13-16 Mangalore, South Africa

Apr 26-29 Friedrichshafen,

Germany May 5-6 Interlaken, Switzerland

June 1-3 Barkarby, Sweden

June 7-10 Stauning, Netherlands

Aug 17-19 Grenchen, Switzerland

Aug 3l-Sep Spayer Germany

Denis Lowe, the Europa Club Internet Rep has been working hard on the club web Site recently and it is hoped to have d new site up and running very soon with lots of updated information. Early indications by what the committee have seen so far on a trial run have been very good. We have also registered our own Europa Club domain name and when the whole thing is finished and up and running, we will let you have all the details, hopefully in the next issue.

As I say l hope you like the new look, so on with the rest of this issue.