TED & JUSTIN'S TOP SECRET EUROPA MODS

Hush, Hush.         On no account tell anyone about this page.  These mods are as yet unauthorised :-(

Modifications we have made to our EUROPA AIRCRAFT KIT No:15

Home
Up
Door Latch
Door Warning
Hinge Pins		 Enjoyment for Europa builders  greatbrB.gif (9331 bytes)
wYUROhdr.jpg (34053 bytes) What on earth is your excuse for building an aeroplane?  Never mind, you have chosen the right one. Welcome you are among friends.   Enjoy.

______________________________________________

Door Modifications

To make the doors work perfectly takes all sorts of ingenuity.We are still developing more stuff for them as we have not completed ours yet.Here are some of the mods we have done so far.  There are more to come.

Europa pilots have reported that at higher speeds the centre bottom of the door starts to bulge out and produces a suction on one’s clothing not to mention a draught. It is important to us that the doors fit perfectly as we are maintaining a high standard of drag reduction. There have also been several incidences where the aircraft has taken off with the rear shoot bolt not in its correct position thereby causing the door to be lost in flight (I actually have a video of it happening!!) We are also concerned about the method of escape should the aircraft flip inverted on landing.

We therefore set out to achieve:-

  1. an additional catch to locate the middle centre bottom of the door.
  2. that this catch not be separate but be part of the existing door mechanism.
  3. that this catch would be lightweight
  4. that in no way would this catch compromise the door operation.
  5. in an emergency the doors could be jettisoned
  6. the strength of the door would not be compromised
  7. there would be some kind of warning that the door was not properly closed and that all catches   were correctly in position.

 

Our solution comprises three main parts.

  1. An additional door catch mechanism at the middle bottom of the    door.
  2. Micro switch telltales on the shoot bolts back and front with circuit    to match.
  3. A method whereby the hinge pins of the doors could be removed and the doors jettisoned on landing or, if necessary, in flight.

Back to Top

Copyright and intellectual property rights belong to Ted & Justin.
For further information regarding this contact ted_galdstone@compuserve.com
Last updated: October 08, 2001.