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Rigging/Derigging

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schmidtroland(at)web.de
Guest

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:48 pm Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Hi all!

I'm interested in buying a Europa XS Trigear. I have the opportunity to keep it at home.

Since the factory advertises it as no problem, rigging the aircraft within 5 Minutes and drive home with it, this is really an issue to reduce the running costs. Onother advantage would be the possibility to fill up the tank at the filling station much cheaper and do maintanance at home.

Is there anyone of you who rigs his aircraft before any flight? How long does it take you from the trailer in the air and is it inevitable doing this with two persons?

Any comments most welcome!

Roland

Visit -  www.EuropaOwners.org

frans(at)paardnatuurlijk.
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:54 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Hi Roland,



 	  Quote: 	
		   Hi all! I'm interested in buying a Europa XS Trigear. I have the

 opportunity to keep it at home. Since the factory advertises it as no

 problem, rigging the aircraft within 5 Minutes and drive home with

 it, this is really an issue to reduce the running costs. Onother

 advantage would be the possibility to fill up the tank at the filling

 station much cheaper and do maintanance at home.


	


These were exactly our (me and wife) considerations. Although we are not

yet flying, we are already very customed to rig the airplane (for

various purposes during the build process). Rigging can easily be done

within 5 minutes, provided you take care during the build. Especially

important is it to make sure the pip-pins go in smouthly, and to make

the proper wing spar guides.

We estimate that the overhead in time of keeping the airplane at home is

very small. We have to drive to the airport anyway, with or without

plane. If the plane would be kept at the airport, we would most likely

loose a lot of time by shuffling around other airplanes so ours could

get out. Also, filling up the tanks would be faster at the local gas

station (on the way to the airport) rather than doing this at the

airport (with an additional start- and shut-down sequence, additional

paperwork), provided they have mogas at all.

Also, doing maintenance at home (where all the tools are kept) will be

much faster than to do it at an airport, where you have to carefully

estimate which tools you need to bring from home, probably forget

something, and have to drive quite a lot between airport and home.

Another advantage is that we can easily decide to take off from another

airport, in case our default airport is covered in clouds.



The possibility to keep the airplane at home was one of the main reasons

we choosed to build an Europa.



-- 

Frans Veldman

g-iani(at)ntlworld.com
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 2:53 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Roland



We operate G-IANI from her trailer.  This normally remains parked at the

airfield but we could just as well drive it home.



It really does only take 5 minutes to derig the aircraft and close up the

trailer.  This is with two people who know the aircraft well (both pilots)

and is on grass.  Single handed rigging is not something we have tried and

would be quite difficult on grass.



Rigging the aircraft takes a little longer as we combine rigging with the

"A" check for the day.



Ian Rickard G-IANI XS Trigear, 250 hours

Europa Club Mods Rep (Trigear)

e-mail mods(at)europaclub.org.uk   

   or direct g-iani(at)ntlworld.com

rsementi(at)gmail.com
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 3:26 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Hello Roland,

I rig and derig my Europa XS tailrdragger by myself. It does not take

5 minutes, even with 2 people, plus I have "wing walkers" that hold my

wings in place. It takes me 15 minutes just to line up one wing

exactly where I want it so I can just slide them in

Are you building a plane or are you in the market to buy one? Mine is for sale.



Thanks,

Richard Sementilli

N141EW



On 2/21/09, Roland <schmidtroland(at)web.de> wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   



 Hi all!

 I'm interested in buying a Europa XS Trigear. I have the opportunity to keep

 it at home.

 Since the factory advertises it as no problem, rigging the aircraft within 5

 Minutes and drive home with it, this is really an issue to reduce the

 running costs. Onother advantage would be the possibility to fill up the

 tank at the filling station much cheaper and do maintanance at home.

 Is there anyone of you who rigs his aircraft before any flight? How long

 does it take you from the trailer in the air and is it inevitable doing this

 with two persons?

 Any comments most welcome!

 Roland

 Visit -  www.EuropaOwners.org




	


-- 

Sent from my mobile device

dg.watts(at)talktalk.net
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:05 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

For the first few years of operating our Europa monowheel we trailered it 

every flight (200 hours a year so a lot of flights).

We were timed on several occasions by various people and on each occassion 

it took less than five minutes from switching the car off to being ready to 

fly. The same at the end of the flight.



Dave Watts

G-BXDY coming up to 1400 hours



 	  Quote: 	
		   



 Hi all!

 I'm interested in buying a Europa XS Trigear. I have the opportunity to 

 keep it at home.

 Since the factory advertises it as no problem, rigging the aircraft within 

 5 Minutes and drive home with it, this is really an issue to reduce the 

 running costs. Onother advantage would be the possibility to fill up the 

 tank at the filling station much cheaper and do maintanance at home.

 Is there anyone of you who rigs his aircraft before any flight? How long 

 does it take you from the trailer in the air and is it inevitable doing 

 this with two persons?

 Any comments most welcome!

 Roland

 Visit -  www.EuropaOwners.org

hagargs(at)earthlink.net
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:05 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Roland:



I have gone through the  routine quite a few times and 5 minutes seems

quite a stretch. You spend more time  opening a hangar up pulling the plane

out and closing the hangar up.  As noted somewhere else the  initial build

is very, very important unless you want to spend a bunch of time  bumping

and jiggeling things to get them to line up. A two person operation will be

the  most expedient way.  I spend 5 minutes just unsecuring the plane from

the trailer and removing fixturing.  I figure 15 to 20 minutes before I can

start doing the preflight.  Then again I have  a mono and  have a dolly 

that holds the plane up without the  wings on .  That takes a couple of

minutes to remove.

The biggest pain is handling everything.  No matter what there are always

the  small dings, bumps, and scrapes.  You just about have to wear clean

cotton gloves to keep everything looking good. 



Steve Hagar 

A143

Mesa, AZ



 	  Quote: 	
		   [Original Message]

 From: Roland <schmidtroland(at)web.de>

 To: <europa-list(at)matronics.com>

 Date: 2/21/2009 12:51:23 AM

 Subject: Rigging/Derigging



 



 Hi all!

 I'm interested in buying a Europa XS Trigear. I have the opportunity to

keep it at home.
	


 	  Quote: 	
		   Since the factory advertises it as no problem, rigging the aircraft

within 5 Minutes and drive home with it, this is really an issue to reduce
	


the running costs. Onother advantage would be the possibility to fill up

the tank at the filling station much cheaper and do maintanance at home.

 	  Quote: 	
		   Is there anyone of you who rigs his aircraft before any flight? How long

does it take you from the trailer in the air and is it inevitable doing
	


this with two persons?

 	  Quote: 	
		   Any comments most welcome!

 Roland

 Visit -  www.EuropaOwners.org

frans(at)paardnatuurlijk.
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:18 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Richard Sementilli wrote:



 	  Quote: 	
		   It takes me 15 minutes just to line up one wing

 exactly where I want it so I can just slide them in


	


How is that possible? We don't care about lining up the wing, we just

push it in and it has nowhere to go, except for just the right spot.

When the wing can not be pushed any further, no other manoeuvring is

necessary, we can just slide in the various pins to secure the wing. We

have glassed in a small ridge that guides the spar to its destination,

and made funnel shaped flap root extensions so they catch the pin

without any intervention.



 	  Quote: 	
		   Are you building a plane or are you in the market to buy one? Mine is for sale.


	


Well, you just let the cat out of the bag about the time it takes to rig

your airplane... 



Anyway, I guess with some small modifications it would be possible to

make any Europa easy and fast to rig.



-- 

Frans Veldman

craigb(at)onthenet.com.au
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:41 pm Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

I am still under construction on my trike, but I would say 5 minutes

would be about right for a trike. I have to pull the plane out of the

workshop

first then get the wings one at at time. I slide the port wing in first and

push the pins half way in. then starboard and lock both pins in fully. the

tail

planes are about 30 seconds each. Mind you it did take me a while to get the

hang of it but i have it sorted now during my build so come flying time i

figure

it will be easy. the manual does say its worth making guides to help align

the

spars which I did. before the guides it was awkward to rig even with two

people.



craig



--

schmidtroland(at)web.de
Guest

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:09 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Thanks a lot for telling your experiences, that make me quite optimistic that my plan will work out in real life. Since I will buy a used aircraft, I won't have any influence on on the building process. It seems to me, like I should then set one focus on the rigging, though some mods are retrofittable. 



Richard, thanks for your offer, but I'm looking for a european registrated XS Trigear and not by now.



Happy landings

Roland[/quote]

Visit -  www.EuropaOwners.org

mp.gamble(at)tiscali.co.u
Guest

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:44 am Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Steve, I too have a mono xs in the final(!!) stages of construction. Would 

you have construction details and/or photos of the dolly you use to support 

the fuse while adding the wings. I can see that this would be very useful.

Thanks

Mike Gamble

UK

---

john.heykoop(at)googlemai
Guest

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:56 pm Post subject: Rigging/Derigging

Mike, like you I have a mono xs in the final (!!) stages of construction. I have a very good dolly and other rigging aids, made by William Mills (I bought his trailer and his rigging aids from his widow). You are welcome to come and have a look at them and take measurements. I am not far from you in West Sussex. Send me an email off forum if you are interested.

   

 If like me you are going for single-handed rigging then you are going to need some means of ensuring that the flap,pin is in alignment with the torque tube. If you haven't already done so, get in touch with the LAA and ask them to send you the drawing for mod 10303 (one of the 'approved for all of type' mods).

   

 John Heykoop

 G-JHKP 

 On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 4:42 PM, mike gamble <mp.gamble(at)tiscali.co.uk (mp.gamble(at)tiscali.co.uk)> wrote:

 [quote]--> Europa-List message posted by: "mike gamble" <mp.gamble(at)tiscali.co.uk (mp.gamble(at)tiscali.co.uk)>

 

Steve, I too have a mono xs in the final(!!) stages of construction. Would you have construction details and/or photos of the dolly you use to support the fuse while adding the wings. I can see that this would be very useful.

 Thanks

Mike Gamble

UK

---

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