Europa Weekend Workshop

My wife Gillian and I attended the Europa Weekend Builders Workshop on 18th-20th February, 2000 at the Europa Factory in Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire. I won't give you a blow by blow account of the weekend here as there is an excellent article in the December issue of The Europa Flyer by Rowland Carson that you can read. However, I will say that we had a really good time. Andy Draper showed us how to make the Europa chock and it was a surprisingly satisfying process. I was also surprised that the epoxy work wasn't as messy and smelly as I had imagined.

We were taken for a short flight in either the monowheel or tri-gear aircraft - those flying with Ivan having an exciting time! We were joined by Peter Kember and Dave Watts in their aircraft during my flight and managed an impressive four Europa formation.

Saturday evening was given over to much eating and drinking in a local restaurant. Great fun, except maybe for some of Ivan's jokes.

Sunday was given over to completing our chocks and going over electrical systems and metal work. And then at the end of the day I got to load up my car with the first part of the kit and it suddenly hit me then that I am really going to build an aeroplane.

Below are some pictures from the weekend and if you are about to build or considering purchasing a Europa, I would thoroughly recommend this workshop. Click on the image to see a larger version

The Barn Hotel
Hutton-le-Hole
Neville's Ferretworks
Making chocks

Glassing a chock
Fuselage in factory
The workshop group