Why the Europa?

 I could list all the numbers for the Europa versus the other top kit aircraft but that would not be the full picture. The story of "Why the Europa?" goes back to around 1992. During that time I was working in Saudi Arabia for an oilfield service company and had been taking my summer vacations back to the states based around the EAA Oshkosh fly-in dates. A couple of us from Saudi made it an annual pilgrimage to attend Oshkosh each year.

As Saudi Arabia does not allow general aviation of any type, we had a sort of support group formed for flying junkies in Saudi called “Hanger Flyers”. We would meet each month and talk airplanes, have professional pilots and some of the Air Force pilots come give talks or we would show aircraft videos or just “hanger fly”. (Hanger Flying for those not privileged to partake is sort of like telling fairy tales but we leave out the once upon a time stuff.)

We slowly worked our way to wanting to build an airplane. After several trips to Oshkosh in the early 90’s the general consensus was the Europa had the most usefulness and fun rolled into one aircraft. The plan was set in motion to see about building a plane in Saudi Arabia. After a few attempts to figure out ways around the Customs requirements for importing a kit aircraft into Saudi Arabia it was painfully obvious to us that building a kit in Saudi Arabia was out of the question. At this point the kit plans were put on hold and “real” work continued.

The big change came in 2002 when I traded jobs within my company and took up a new position in Houston, Texas. The stage was now set for the dream to begin. It took about six months to get settled in our new home and then a quick phone call to Europa’s sales office in Lakeland, Florida, and a money transfer, and the kit was mine. Now all I had to do was wait for it to arrive. Waiting was hard but was teaching me the patience I would need over the next two year to build my first airplane,

That date came when my kit finally arrived in the U.S. The kit was shipped from Europe and arrived at the Europa sales office in Lakeland, Florida. I had the entire kit moved to the Flight Crafters builder's assistance center near Tampa, Florida. Flight Crafters is a builders’ assistance center and was the staging point for the beginning of my kit's construction. Flight Crafters is located just east of Tampa, Florida and helps builders get a head start on their kits by building the aircraft under direct supervision so mistakes are minimized and learning is maximized. This supervision allows for the quality building and safe construction of the kit as you learn the skills needed to build a composite aircraft kit from the ground up for the first time. Once you have done a week or more with Flight Crafters you have acquired most of the skills you will need to complete the construction of your kit without having to learn from your own mistakes. With the kit now mine I had made plans for its construction. Knowing my limited aircraft building skills I have decided to go with the full quick build options and to spend several weeks working with Flight Crafters prior to taking the kit to Houston to work on the kit at home. The photo pages document the kit's transformation from a bunch of strange looking fiberglass bits with some nuts, bolts, rivets, and things that I am not even sure what they are into a flying, quality-built and safe aircraft.