Not a Robin build, but I’ve heard the Jodel DR1050 Robin design floats for quite a long time. The hollow box wooden mainspar will stay sealed even after water has filled the wing. Full tanks wouldn’t have much, if any, negative buoyancy.
A Europa should be even better, with foam core wings.
Um….wouldn’t full tanks still be buoyant? .7 comes to mind.
Timothy wrote:
Um….wouldn’t full tanks still be buoyant? .7 comes to mind.
Yes, but air is pretty close to .0
(And .7 x say 200 ltrs fuel = 140kg = 140 ltrs of additional water displacement (of the wing and fuselage) required according to Archimedes …which if an assumed water plane area of say 20m^2 results an additional draft of 0.7cm…which may or may not be enough to submerge the wings (and dramatically reduce the water plane area)…
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Mentoring yes. Forums, I am ambiguous
I think maybe in forums things are taken out of context. You get lots of opinions, but since the backgrounds between each individual are so different, and also unknown between forumites (for all practical purposes), things aren’t understood, or are easily misunderstood because the context isn’t clear. You see the “opinions”, but you have very little knowledge of where that opinion is coming from. Trying to put those “opinions” in context, you inject your own personal view of things, and it all becomes a bloody mess.
Mentoring on the other hand is 100% “to the point” and cannot be misunderstood. But mentoring doesn’t teach you what you really need; learn to stand on your own two feet, making the right decisions based on airmanship.
I think PPL lessons have to stay within the FIR which precludes foreign trips as part of the training that counts towards the license.
Mentoring yes. Forums, I am ambiguous
Actually it is very clear (unambiguous) that you are ambivalent 
I think pilots are mostly individualistic and not too open to mentoring. Many are probably afraid of being judged – sometimes with good reason. Not because of their lack of skills, but because of many people’s proclivity to further their egos by bashing others.
There is little demand from young pilots. And for the mentoring to be successful, the pilot must want it, there needs to be some “connection” with the mentor, and the mentor must accept that his role is not to impose his views, which is fairly difficult for many. And if they fly together, a command gradient must be avoided.
So you cannot just say to someone, “this is your mentor. Make good use of him”.
I am curious as to how you organise your mentoring program, Timothy.
The main problem is that a lot of instructors, clubs and schools keep their people on the short leach and discourage flying further away than 100$
For those who are too young on EuroGA to remember @Vieke, I recommend reading the report of her trip to Istanbul.
That, and stuff like this were why mentoring never really took off, at least in the UK, and I suspect the politics are the same everywhere.
Mentoring works best with fresh pilots, and that is exactly the most controversial area. After people get their bit of paper, most (not all) are fed up with training and just want to get out on their own.
Mentoring is not training. The mentee is in command. The mentor does not “tell the pilot what to do.”
In an ideal flight, the mentor will only give information (often about what else might have happened, had the weather or runway been different, for example, or how Immigration or ground handling works at different places.)
If advice is asked for, it is given.
If things are going a bit pear shaped, or the decision making is getting a bit shaky, then unsolicited advice might be given, but only if it cannot make things worse.
Only in extremely dangerous circumstances would I take control, and then I would keep it until a landing could be made, and a cup of tea and debriefing had.
But I have never been anywhere close to that. It has always been a pleasant and fun experience for me and the mentee.
I get bored with excessive “what ifs?” If things get difficult, you deal with it.
