Looking at an old Ercoupe today...

A friend recently painted his formerly polished aluminum plane. It was
beautiful as polished aluminum, but REALLY labor intensive, to the point
where he blamed his rotator cuff on that continuous maintenance! Pretty
as the polished aluminum is, it would drive me crazy to have to worry
about every little fingerprint and follow people around with a cloth
whenever anyone is near the plane. Besides, it would be fun to be able
to CHOOSE a paint scheme. Any ideas?

Plenty. But first we have to buy it!

The seller is out of town for the weekend, so we've got a few days to hammer
out the paperwork in the flying club we're setting up...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In the first place, if you tell me that Greyhound (or ilk) doesn't go
between Iowa City and Muscatine, I'd find it hard to believe. Or other
public transportation.

Nope. No public transportation (that I know of) between here and there.
(And, quite frankly, I wouldn't let Becca ride a Greyhound bus alone at age
14 anyway...)

Third and last, I'm sure that you are in the Iowa Hotel Club (or whatever
you call it). If members have a swapsie policy (you stay at my place and
I stay at your place swap) then Becca could do ten flights in two days
with an overnighter in between relatively easily.

Sadly, stupidly, there is no such thing. I've talked to our Chamber of
Commerce about setting something up, but the friggin' gummint has everyone
running scared about the tax ramifications of barter.

Just some random thoughts, mindya.

Appreciate it, too. I'm afraid she'll just have to wait and do her Private
when she's a wizened old 16-year-old, just like her brother...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
Nope. No public transportation (that I know of) between here and there.
(And, quite frankly, I wouldn't let Becca ride a Greyhound bus alone at age
14 anyway...)

As I mom, that was my first thought as well...not to mention having
"someone" from the sailport picking up and dropping off a 14-year-old
girl -- you arrange for the owner of the place to do that, but he's busy
so he sends someone else, etc. And on the other side of it, in today's
times, would YOU go to the bus stop to pick up a 14-year-old girl?
Creepy, and off topic, but part of the proposed scenario, nonetheless.

Appreciate it, too. I'm afraid she'll just have to wait and do her
Private when she's a wizened old 16-year-old, just like her brother...

And if SHE really wants it, it's not as if 16 is an old lady! And she
could drive herself.

However, it should be noted that there are some Ercoupe STC's that will
allow a gross weight of 1320 lbs, thus remaining sport pilot legal...



"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:PNLXj.114467$TT4.57548@attbi_s22...
Jay, as someone else mentioned, many Ercoupe 415Cs have had the STC to
raise the
gross weight and are thus no longer Sport Pilot eligible. Have you
verified
that this isn't one of them?

Yep. Another wonderful thing about partnering with an A&P/IA...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I certainly agree that soaring is not for everyone.

It certainly has the disadvantage that you can't just drive out the
airport and do a four hour flight any day of the week. On the other
had 90% of my flights are in excess of 3 hours. However due to my work
schedule I only fly a few days a year from my local airport. So I
often take a week or 2 weeks off to go to some Ideal soaring sites
for soaring contests or Safaris. On these trips I can easily do 25
hours per week of flying.

Accessablity is also another issue in that you often have to drive
quite a ways to get to soaring site. I don't live anywhere near a
glider port, I would have to drive over 300 miles to rent a glider.
But we have arranged for years with our local FBO's to get glider
tows. Soaring isn't for people that can not make time for it. A
soaring flight is often an all day event. As with most things though
it is the simple trade off of time vs Money. For getting a glider
rating.. If you don't have time you pay your money and go to a
commerical operation to get you rating in a few days. If you don't
have money you take your time and commute to a club operation where
you can volunteer you time and take a few months to get you rating.
For Soaring... If you don't have money you either rent or buy a
$7,000 glider and commute to a gliderport to glider tows. If you
don't have time you buy a $80,000 motor glider and self launch from
your local airport.

Of course there all kinds of compromises and and variations of in
between costs.

Jay could easily fly sailplanes if he wanted to. He already has an
adequate tow plane and a tow pilot available. There would be some
initial costs or course. But he has decided this not what he really
wants to do at this time, and that is just fine.

I can also agree that getting a private license in a glider can be an
expensive. In fact I often recommend prospective glider pilots to get
either time in power or a Private power license so they can transition
to gliders rather than do it from scratch. I have often figured that a
person could get a glider and power rating for about the same cost as
getting just a glider rating. There are exceptions of course. I train
many more power pilots than I do glider pilots.

My pet peeve is when both glider and power pilots say the flying
gliders is to expensive. These are the same power pilots that then go
get into a $60,000 airplane. The argument I often see from glider
pilots is that if we can afford a glider then we should be able to
afford a Transponder or 406 ELT or ADS B etc. Many of these cost more
than my Annual Soaring Budget and often more the 10% of the value of
my glider.
As I previously stated Soaring can be expensive but it doesn't have to
be. It does usually require more time commitment than power aircraft.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

On May 17, 7:55*pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
In the first place, if you tell me that Greyhound (or ilk) doesn't go
between Iowa City and Muscatine, I'd find it hard to believe. *Or other
public transportation.

Nope. No public transportation (that I know of) between here and there.
(And, quite frankly, I wouldn't let Becca ride a Greyhound bus alone at age
14 anyway...)


To bad, But if you/she really wanted to do it you could cut the
commute time down a bunch by taking Atlas or the Ercoupe. As noted she
could probably solo in a few days. But then of couse you probably
don't need any excuses to go flying.

Brian

Brian wrote:
[snip all good stuff]
My pet peeve is when both glider and power pilots say the flying
gliders is to expensive.

As I previously stated Soaring can be expensive but it doesn't have to
be. It does usually require more time commitment than power aircraft.

I agree with everything you said.
One comment: My pet peeve is when people say glider flying is
inexpensive without adding any of the clarification that has been
discussed in this thread. As outlined, you can make it inexpensive *IF*
you have the time *and* some of the options discussed available to you;
if not, staying current *can be* an significant expense. None of that
negates its value, of course, but again, depends how much time and $ a
person can/is willing to spend for it.

On May 15, 11:07*am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
- 400 SMOH
- Out of annual for 1 year (the owner has another plane, and a very busy
work schedule; he's sort of lost interest in the plane)
- Flown 30 hours since 2000
- Sat for 15 years prior to 2000 (owned by current owner's uncle)

The red flag for me is the age of the engine. It sat for 15 years
then was flown for only 30 hrs in 8 years. It had 400 hrs SMOH with
only 30hrs in the last 23 years so this MOH was done probably over 300
moons ago. Of course I am not an A&P but having to overhaul the engine
of our Cardinal after finding 3 cracked cylinders in the first annual
(after about 100hrs), I am now quite leery of old engines. Even if
the compression checks are good, I'd add the cost of the new engine to
the offered price.

Hai Longworth

The red flag for me is the age of the engine. It sat for 15 years
then was flown for only 30 hrs in 8 years. It had 400 hrs SMOH

Me, too. One thing I forgot to mention is that it had a top end overhaul in
2002, when it was brought out of its 15-year sleep.

Even so, we have adjusted our offer to reflect a mid-time engine rather than
a 400 hour engine. We also understand that the camshaft could be a rusted
POS that trashes the engine in the next 40 hours.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:el6Yj.170137$yE1.10000@attbi_s21:


We also understand that the pilot
could be a rusted POS that trashes the engine in the next 40 hours.



There. i fixored it.


Bertie