iscover
Britain's Europa Aviation Britain's Europa Aviation is offering its two place Europa kitplane for around $A45,000. The Europa was developed by former Jersey European Airways pilot Ivan Shaw, and features good STOL performance, is demountable so that it can be transported on a trailer and stored in a single car garage, and has a large central undercarriage unit and balancing outriggers on each wing (which retract in flight with flap operation). The Europa is powered by an 80hp (60kW) four cylinder Rotax 912 which at its best can travel 18km per litre (50mpg). The Europa cruises at 130kt (240kmh), has a range of 930km (500nm), a takeoff and landing speed of 42kt (77kmh) and a takeoff run with two people on board of 180m (600ft).
Newsdesk — General Aviation
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Ga Liability Laws Reformed:
General aviation has won a major victory with the signing in August of the General Aviation Revitalisation Act by Us President Bill Clinton This marks a successful conclusion toa long, hard and often bitter battle to reform the Us liability laws as they apply to Ga, laws which all but killed off a oncethriving industry. Opposition to the reforms has been strong and well organised, most of it coming from the powerful Us Trial Lawyers Association, which hada vested interest in things remaining asthey were. Many lawyers sit in the Us Congress and Senate. The new laws limit a manufacturer’s product liability exposure to the first 18 years of a light aircraft’s life, thus preventing lawsuits being brought against amanufacturer for an alleged design or manufacturing defect in an aircraft or component which is older than that. A shorter statute of repose was hoped for, but the new situation is still a vast improvement on the old. Specifically, the new rules apply to aircraft of fewer than 20 seats which are not used for scheduled passenger carrying operations. The Us General Aviation Manufacturers Association estimates that at a stroke, about 180,000 aircraft (or 60% of the current Us fleet) have been removed from exposure. The previous laws were nothing short of ludicrous in many cases. One case involved a 1950s model Cessna which had changed hands on numerous occasions over the years, had been subject to several illegal modifications, had not had mandatory Airworthiness Directive modifications installed and had a doubtful maintenance history. When it crashed (due to proven pilot error), the manufacturer and suppliers of components were held responsible and successfully sued by the dead pilot’s family! As reported elsewhere in this Newsdesk, Cessna has said it will return its Models 172, 182 and 206 to production when the laws are changed. Hopefully, this extremely important move will help revitalise the Ga industry worldwide as other manufacturers follow suit. For the record, shipments of Us built Ga aircraft reached 409 units in the first six months of 1994, compared with 378 for the same period of 1993. These comprised 224 pistons, 84 turboprops (including small regional airliners) and 101 jets. All were slight improvements on the previous year, as was the value of these sales — up 1% to $Us970m. Exports decreased, however, to 131 aircraft worth $Us263m from 154 units worth $Us340m last year.
Goodbye Schofields:
In yet another blow for general aviation, Schofields Aerodrome west of Sydney will close later this year following an announcement that the site on which it is housed — the former Hmas Nirimba — has been sold to the Nsw government for $20.8m for development into an education precinct. A mixture of employment and residential uses are proposed for the site, which are described by the various federal, state and local government politicians involved as “exciting”. The Ga fraternity would probably use a different word, as Schofields had great potential as an aerodrome which could take some of the loadoff Bankstown if developed properly, particularly as Hoxton Park survives on borrowed time, Camden will ultimately besurrounded by housing estates and Badgery’s Creek will purely be the province of the airlines. Ga in Sydney in 2020 might well be a case of ‘remembering the good ‘ol days!”
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