How do you keep it touch with what is happening in the Europa world? As we noted in the introduction to the club “The objective of the Europa Club is to bring together as many builders and operators as possible, to share knowledge and experience for mutual benefit”. How you get involved will be governed by your inclination, your time and the resources you have available. What we try to offer is outlined below.
The Europa Flyer
This is our full colour, magazine published three times a year. It is published on paper and on line. All back copies are available on line.
The Internet
Europa Club website - Well, you have already found this or you would not be here.
Europa Discussion Forum - Members and non-members alike are welcome to join the Forum to discuss building, flying and owning a Europa. Access is normally available via both email and a browser interface.p. This is the place to ask a question or raise an issue. Among the forum members there is usually someone who knows, or knows a man who knows, the answer. Being worldwide you may get an answer to a question very quickly when all your local support is sensibly asleep. Those who prefer email can partake by email, those who prefer a browser interface can do so that way.
This is a central place to ask a question or raise an issue. Among the forum members there is usually someone who knows, or knows a man who knows, the answer.
The topics covered are many and varied so do not hesitate to ask your question. We are a polite bunch and even if the answer is to reread the manual you will get a reply pointing you to the correct page or diagram. Conversely you may have a question with no simple answer or subject to differing opinions. Then you will probably spark a worthwhile discussion which will leave you better informed to make your final decision.
Disclaimer: This wonderful Matronics forum is not under the full administration of The Europa Club, neither is it covered by the the pan European concept of GDPR as the servers are in the USA. Therefore your personal information is not defended by the Information Commissioner's Office, as guide to Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and further information is available U.K. Data protection law. The laws of the United States of America are very different. Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)
We do ask that you refrain from blatant advertising but do not be inhibited from stating your aircraft (or parts) is for sale or telling us about goods and services you have found useful. Similarly politics except for issues specifically effecting aviation is something we try to avoid. The Forum is hosted by Matronics, a small avionics business based in California whose proprietor, Matt Dralle, also operates hosts for homebuilder and other special-interest aviation groups like ours. These lists are user-supported and each year, in November, Matt sends out fund-raising messages soliciting contributions to the running costs of the lists. These are voluntary.
All postings to the forum are automatically emailed to all subscribers. Only subscribers can post to the forum however, to protect you from spam. Subscribing is very simple (see below) – you can, of course, unsubscribe at any time.
Subscribing: You can subscribe to the email Forum either in “real time” or by receiving a daily “digest” of the messages. If you just want to be aware of what is going on the single daily “digest” message is fine. If you are involved in a discussion then you will probably want the messages in “real time”.
Go to the web page http://www.matronics.com/subscribe/
On the right you will find instructions on how to join. On the left you will see a list of all the forums. Tick the “Europa” box. You will be asked to supply your email address. Only this address will be allowed to send messages back to the Forum.
Other matters, email the Club Secretary : secretary@theeuropaclub.org
The Club AGM is held on the Zoom platform
DOTHs - When possible the Club promotes “drop of the hat” (DOTH) fly ins. These are usually arranged no more than a day or two in advance on the basis of “lets meet for lunch at ——“. This is a good opportunity to meet other owners and share experiences.
WhatsApp The Europa Club WhatsApp Group open to all Club Members who wish to join. Many Thanks to Roland Schmidt who had the original idea for this Group, and donated the idea and his original Group to the Club. Roland will continue as the main Administrator of the Group. Please be aware that in order to join this Group, you must have agreed to share your details with other Club Members by ticking the box on the Club website profile page. If you remove this tick at any time after joining the Group, you must inform the Group administrator, and leave the Group. In this way, the Club will be following data protection rules.In fact, you will only be sharing your telephone number by joining the Group, it will be up to you if you wish to pass on any other personal details to other Members. If you do, you should do this by private message, NOT through a posting on the Group. The main purpose of the Group is to allow members to communicate with other Group members, almost in real time. In this, and other ways, it is different from the Matronics Europa site Matronics which it is NOT meant to replace. Messages posted on the WhatsApp Group will only be visible for 30* days, after which they will automatically disappear. Whilst there is a basic search facility within WhatsApp, messages are not archived nor searchable in the very comprehensive way they are through Matronics. The Club hopes that members will continue to use Matronics for more technical and in-depth posts, as these provide a valuable source of searchable information.
By bringing this Group “in-house” the Club provides another useful way we can communicate and interact together to the benefit of all Club Members.
We would respectfully request you limit your postings to Europa building, flying, or meeting up messages, and avoid posting frivolous items or matters unrelated to the Europa.
If you wish to contact a Committee Member on Club business, please do so by direct e-mail. If you wish to join the Europa Club WhatsApp Group, please send an e-mail to whatsappadmin@theeuropaclub.org , and by doing so, you agree to the Terms detailed above. You have the ability to leave the Group at any time you wish. The Group Administrators have the ability to suspend or remove you from the Group for a breach of these Terms.
(* This was 7 days, but changed to 90 days on the 16th October 2025.)
Administration reasoning
WhatsApp not appropriate for data storage. Searching on WhatsApp is difficult because information is not held by thread, i.e. it is not necessarily under the same heading as it is on the Matronics website. Furthermore on WhatsApp its easy to miss superseding data
With Matronics there is no risk as it not operated by the Europa Club. Light touch US jurisdiction GDPR does not apply. So compared to WhatsApp little potential liability to the Officers of the Club
A member could decide they don't want their data held anymore, however after a period of time it’s not possible for them to delete their own message. Hence it then becomes could be an issue. E.g. may have quoted their home address in a message. Did not seem important at the time, but does in retrospect
On our own Europa Club website we can amend mistakes immediately the WhatsApp we can’t as we don’t own the data. Hence “x” day deletion removed worry
Long term ambition to replace WhatsApp & Matronics by expanding the Europa Club website
If a Club member doesn’t like the idea of a particular piece of information vanishing, they have an option where they could easily click and save text and images locally elsewhere on their computer if they wanted.
We have Group admin monitors. We have an implicit obligation to call out inappropriate activity on WhatsApp. We do not have that burden on Matronics as we are not the monitors.
News item WhatsApp warning in December 2023 The amount of space consume by images etcetera is too great. The massive memory storage pressure reported by some iPhone Users could now be felt by android Users. Google and WhatsApp jointly announced that WhatsApp chat and media backups on Android devices will now be included in users' Google account cloud storage usage. The change rolls out in early 2024, and Users will be notified 30 days in advance. For many this would constrain them to pay for more storage and or have a more modern phone with up to date operating system.
We can only set and control the “*” day deletion rule at set up of a WhatsApp group. That was the reason we deleted the original informal WhatsApp group and replaced with today’s version. Much testing proved this after a huge effort.
Our current promise to the Club Member that they have signed up for confirms we will delete messages. It confirms how it would be administered.
Facebook, Tik Tok, etceteras and all other Social Media groups: A multiplicity of member inspired groups by invitation only hosted by individuals. Enjoyed by many. Caution: The Europa Club has no oversight over the content or the participation . Some of the parties are Europa owners and Members. Some are unknown.
Zoom: See seperate sub page. Zoom
