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Before you all get excited about a European adventure, it's "Denmark" on the south coast of West Oz, (Google Earth it!) not the one with the beautiful Nordic-looking girls.
Just got back today after the local SAAA long weekend fly-in there.
You may recall Denmark is the place I was trying to buy a little farm last year.
Unfortunately that fell through but I did manage to get an airport plot of land (from a release of only 9) that happened last month. The local Shire is very GA friendly - a rare thing in our part of the world - and they are developing these lots to encourage people with aeroplanes to the area.
The rent is a token $1 per sq metre per year fixed for 10 years (told you they were friendly!) - my lot is 225m2 - the only restriction is that you must build a hangar within the next 2 years.
Still looking for a property but getting the hangar lot was a step in the right direction.
Back to the fly-in . . . about 50 aeroplanes, 40 of which were RV's - but I went down in a Europa . . . you know those Pommy things with a single wheel and outriggers - we call them wheelbarrows.
My very good friend Joe the Wog offered me a ride so I couldn't refuse. (he's French or Italian or something - we're not all that politically correct in our Chapter)
Anyway the weekend was excellent - magic weather, lots of food, far too much red wine and my first experience with a Europa. I have to say I'm not all that impressed.
Uncomfortable - very upright seating position and not enough legroom - not all that fast and only 60 litres of fuel. The worst feature is their ground handling.
This became very apparent when we had to make the short hop from Denmark across to Albany (about 35nm to the east) this morning to get fuel. We landed with a bit of a cross wind which the plane, and Joe, couldn't deal with.
After a couple of bounces the thing weathervaned to the left, skidded down the tarmac with the wheel locked up and eventually speared off into the dirt at 90 deg to the runway. After coming to a stop in a cloud of dust and tyre smoke, we sat there for a few seconds trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.
The engine stalled as we came to a stop but fortunately no prop strike, so we restarted and taxied in. There was a flight of RAAF PC-9's with their crews on the apron plus a few of our guys, but amazingly no one actually saw what had happened. We fueled up, had a quick pee and took off before having to explain to anyone . . "oh, no big deal, it always does that!"
I'm amazed that the little fibreglass outrigger thingy under the right wing didn't tear off - I looked out my side during the sliding, skidding turn and the wingtip was only just clear of the runway. It was your typical slow motion event - I saw it all happening and just accepted that it was going to collapse and we were headed for a belly slide with a spiralling end-over-end as we hit the dirt sideways.
I've always thought Europas looked a bit awkward, and now I'm convinced of that old saying "If it looks weird, it probably fly/handles weird"
I didn't take my camera but I'm sure there'll be some photos of the fly-in (not the ground loop!) circulating eventually so I'll post a couple when they appear.
Note to self:
- get the Falco finished so you don't ever have to fly in dangerous aeroplanes again!
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