N81EU
N81EU is the aircraft registration number of a light aircraft of the type Europa XS from the British aircraft kit manufacturer Europa Aircraft, built and certified according to the FAA amateur building regulations, and identifies the first and so far only self-made aircraft built and flown by a German with which the world was circumnavigated.
history
N81EU was built by Thomas Scherer in the USA between 1993 and 1997 and approved for flight operations by the FAA in September 1997.
The aircraft weighs 360 kg and can accommodate two people. During the circumnavigation of the world, the passenger space was used for additional tanks. The cruising speed is 200 km / h, the maximum speed is 280 km / h. Driven by a Rotax 912 engine, the plane takes off fully loaded after a taxiing distance of 300 meters.
In 1999 N81EU received the award for outstanding construction from the Oskar Ursinus Association .
On the occasion of the pilot's job being relocated from Bonn to Ulan Bator , a possibility was sought to fly the aircraft to Mongolia on its own space. Due to the status of "experimental" and the Mathias Rust incident, the Russian aviation authority refused the overflight. Since Mongolia only borders on Russia and China, it was necessary to fly in from China.
The political situation in Pakistan, India and Burma ruled out the south-eastern route. The pilot decided to fly the N81EU across the Atlantic to North America and, after crossing it, non-stop across the Pacific to Japan. From there the flight to China and Mongolia should continue.
The circumnavigation of the world
On July 22nd, 2000 N81EU took off from Bonn-Hangelar airfield and after a short flight reached Epinal in France to take part in the aviators' meeting there. The next day, the Orkney Islands in the north of the British Isles were reached. The next day N81EU flew to Reykjavík in Iceland. It was there that N81EU parked under the midnight sun for the first time and flew to Narsarsuaq on Greenland in over ten hours the next day . After a night in Narsarsuaq, the last leg of an eleven-hour flight completed the first Atlantic crossing with landing in St. John's , Newfoundland.
Two days later, the N81EU reached Oshkosh , where the EAA's annual meeting was taking place. The pilot stood on stage with twelve other pilots who had circled the world in a self-made aircraft.
After a short break, N81EU flew following the Alaska Highway via Anchorage to Nome in Alaska. This had reached the Bering Strait and a new attempt was made to obtain a Russian overflight permit for Siberia.
After the final rejection, N81EU flew back to Anchorage and was placed in a hangar there.
In summer 2001 the N81EU was technically expanded: the additional tank was doubled and a controllable pitch propeller was installed. On August 28, 2001, N81EU took off from Anchorage for Cold Bay in the Aleutian Islands . Due to the weather, only 154 nautical miles were covered the following day, landing in Unalaska . The last Aleutian island of Shemya , used as a military base, was reached next .
After spending the night and collecting the meteorological data, the longest non-stop flight at 20 hours was started. The landing in Sapporo took place on September 2, 2001 at 13:20 GMT with remaining fuel for a 45-minute flight at cruising speed. 258 liters of premium gasoline were used for this flight. The Rotax 912 four-stroke engine consumes 10 liters / hour when cruising .
On September 3, 2001, N81EU flew from Sapporo to Komatsu , Japan, from where it flew to Dalian , China two days later . The landing at the Komatsu military base was forced by a massive thunderstorm. The second major stage of the circumnavigation ended two days later with a night landing in Ulan Bator .
During the stay in Mongolia, N81EU was used for various TV recordings, including a. by ZDF with Joachim Holtz in Adventure Mongolia .
In 2003 the pilot Thomas Scherer was transferred from Ulan Bator to Los Angeles. N81EU flew to Germany via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Romania. On June 20, 2004, the N81EU landed at the departure airport Bonn-Hangelar, completing the circumnavigation of the world.
Special features of the circumnavigation: solo pilot and flight in a westerly direction. This entitles the pilot to use the Earthrounder needle with two stars due to the more difficult west direction due to the wind .
The total distance was 47,932 km. N81EU landed 53 times in 15 different countries in 174 hours of flight.
The following day, N81EU left Germany again and flew on to California via Portugal, the Azores, Newfoundland and Oshkosh.
In January 2013 the N81EU flew from Mosbach-Lohrbach to Yaounde , the capital of Cameroon, where the aircraft is currently (as of September 2014) housed in a hangar. During the six-day flight, the Alps, the Mediterranean and the Sahara were crossed in winter.
Press
- EAA Chapter 309 N81EU World Traveler in: October 2013 Newsletter, page 12
- Sara Furtwängler In a self-made plane to Cameroon in: Heilbronner Voice from January 13, 2013
- Ralf Johnen: World circumnavigator landed safely in port in: Kölner Stadtanzeiger from June 21, 2004
Individual evidence
- ↑ Certification according to the FAA amateur building regulations
- ^ Current and Projected Circumnavigations on the Web. earthrounders.com, archived from the original on March 10, 2015 ; accessed on September 30, 2014 (German).
- ^ List of Solo Flights around the World. soloflights.org, accessed on September 30, 2014 (German).
