First flight in our "new" Ercoupe...

Ross writes:


As far as the starter goes, a lot of pre-60's model aircraft have those
types of starters. They are actually kind of nice because instead of
having a starter solenoid, you provide that function by pulling out the
starter knob. It's one less thing to go wrong, although sometimes you
need to make minor adjustments to the linkage to get it to work right.



Until you pull the thing and it comes out of the panel like it did in a
C-150 on me one time.

Years ago, a friend related that he was somewhere in a Borgward or
something equally bad; and when he pulled its START knob, there was a rope
attached....

--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

On Jun 28, 3:58 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Now, we're gonna have to arm wrestle to see who gets to fly it to Oshkosh
this year!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Hi Jay, long time no see... I am so glad that you and yours survived
the great flood of '08! The Ercoupe sounds like a great new toy to
boot.
p.s. email is invalid.. new is fasto_tt at yahoo dot com
--
Aaron (ex 9376J)

Jay: Glad to hear you kept your feet dry....Did the airport
and/or its occupants suffer any damage?


--
A host is a host from coast to
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

Jay: Glad to hear you kept your feet dry....Did the airport
and/or its occupants suffer any damage?

Nope -- but our FBO sure sold a lot of fuel to all of us getting out of
Dodge ahead of the flood waters. I haven't seen that many planes flying
out of Iowa City, ever!

It was close -- but neither we nor the airport got wet.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

congrats on your purchase. I was hot for Ercoupes for several years,
but going to an Ercoupe maintanence seminar at Oshkosh 07 cured me of
that. Of course I don't have an A&P for a partner either....

congrats on your purchase. I was hot for Ercoupes for several years,
but going to an Ercoupe maintanence seminar at Oshkosh 07 cured me of
that. Of course I don't have an A&P for a partner either....

Can you share some of what you learned? Other than the wing service
bulletin that requires an incredible 17 inspection panels in the bottom of
the wing, I haven't heard about any real Ercoupe maintenance bugaboos.

It's a remarkably simple aircraft. I helped with the annual inspection, and
there was nothing that didn't come apart easily, and everything seemed very
robust. It was designed as an "Everyman's Plane" (kinda like the original
Volkswagen cars), and was designed to be simple to fly and easy to maintain.

Of course, it *is* 60 years old. Luckily, ours has many new parts.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Jul 2, 12:47*am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
congrats on your purchase. *I was hot for Ercoupes for several years,
but going to an Ercoupe maintanence seminar at Oshkosh 07 cured me of
that. *Of course I don't have an A&P for a partner either....

Can you share some of what you learned? *Other than the wing service
bulletin that requires an incredible 17 inspection panels in the bottom of
the wing, I haven't heard about any real Ercoupe maintenance bugaboos.

Mainly intergranular corrosion. I learned that, except for the Alon
models, all the Ercoupe spars were made in one batch in the 1940s,
whichever year it was that most 'coupes were made (1947?) , and that
same batch of spars was passed from type owner to type owner over the
years and continued to be used. Now it's turning out that they have
significant manufacturing defects (I think having to do with the
interface between different metal types) and they are all rotting from
the inside out. Since the corrosion is internal and intergranular,
it's pretty hard to detect without specialized equipment, and once it
can be detected visually, the spar is already a total loss. Also,
because it's intergranular, no amount of keeping the spars dry or anti-
corrosion coatings will help.

Note that this is not the same as the conventional corrosion that
prompted the swiss cheese AD, which was thought to be caused by leaks,
mouse urine, etc. Like I said that may not be as much of a problem
with an A&P for a partner, but it was enough to scare me off.

However on the bright side, last year at OshKosh someone announced
that he had completed an STC to bring the sport pilot eligible
Ercoupe's gross weight up to the sport pilot maximum -- a 60lb
increase.

I agree with you that the 'coupe is a blast to fly, screw the snobs
who hate it because of no rudder pedals, or its ability to land at ANY
airspeed (as long as the gear and tail heights are rigged right), or
its other "quirky" features -- flying is supposed to be fun, right?

However I do sort of agree with your insurance company on training,
they are very easy and fun to fly but some things (like xwind
handling) are different enough that someone trained on a conventional
airplane has to unlearn a few things, or at least do some things that
feel very uncomfortable at first (taking off in a left crosswind is,
umm, fun). It would probably be easier without years of conventional
two-control airplane experience under your belt .

Mainly intergranular corrosion. I learned that, except for the Alon
models, all the Ercoupe spars were made in one batch in the 1940s,
whichever year it was that most 'coupes were made (1947?)

Big snip

Thanks for that. The intergranular corrosion issue is a huge one, and not
just for Ercoupes. Cherokee spars have experienced it, too. It's fatal,
and expensive to fix. Service bulletin 1006 addresses it, and performance
should be a mandatory part of any pre-buy inspection. If it hasn't been
done, either do it (it's not hard) or pass on the plane.

Luckily, intergranular corrosion is fairly easy to spot, once it's
started -- so it's easy to rule out a plane that's got it. Unfortunately,
it can be lurking inside any spar, unseen.

However on the bright side, last year at OshKosh someone announced
that he had completed an STC to bring the sport pilot eligible
Ercoupe's gross weight up to the sport pilot maximum -- a 60lb
increase.

Yep, that's another reason we passed on the LSA Ercoupes. I can tell you
right now that if you see two full-grown men flying in a '46 model, that
aircraft is over gross. How in the heck any CFI gives instruction in those
models is beyond me -- they must just look the other way at the FARs and go
fly.

However I do sort of agree with your insurance company on training,
they are very easy and fun to fly but some things (like xwind
handling) are different enough that someone trained on a conventional
airplane has to unlearn a few things, or at least do some things that
feel very uncomfortable at first (taking off in a left crosswind is,
umm, fun). It would probably be easier without years of conventional
two-control airplane experience under your belt .

I spent some quality time with our insurance policy yesterday, and was
delighted to discover that the company had listed ME as "Honeck, Sr" and my
son as "Honeck, Jr." Since *I* am "Jr.", and my son is "III", I was
mis-reading my insurance requirements to show that I needed a bunch of dual.
I don't.

So, today we're off to fly the 'Coupe!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Jul 2, 11:10*am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Luckily, intergranular corrosion is fairly easy to spot, once it's
started -- so it's easy to rule out a plane that's got it. * Unfortunately,
it can be lurking inside any spar, unseen.

You mean it's fairly easy to spot once it makes it way out, right?
What I learned was that once it's spottable, it's unrepairable because
it's worked its way from the inside of the metal to the outside. This
may be different between Ercoupes and Cherokees depending on how deep
inside the metal the interface is? I'm not an expert, only speaking
from a 1 hour seminar at OSH.

On 2008-06-28, Jay Honeck wrote:
pull starter seems odd but remember that contemporary aircraft of the
Ercoupe -- Taylorcrafts, Luscombes, Cessna 120s -- all had to be
hand-propped, so this set up was way ahead of its time.

The Cessna 140 had a starter from new (it was the posh version of the
120), with probably a very similar pull handle for starting!

Glancing nervously at the wings (that we so recently had moved on a
trailer), I was gratified to see no signs of flex or twist. The little plane
kept accelerating, slow but sure and we were soon climbing out at a whopping
300 feet per minute. Sedate, to be sure -- but with 420 pounds of "guys on
board", and hot weather, we were happy to see even THAT anemic rate of
climb.

Now imagine crossing the Sierra Nevadas in something like that :-) Our
140 had a cruise prop. I did cross the Sierra Nevada in it. It took
about 100 miles distance before I had sufficient altitude after leaving
Sacramento!

Leaving SLC on a 90 degree day (elevation 4000') was interesting too. To
gain extra climb rate, I slope soared the 140 off the mountains. It made
a huge difference to the climb rate. The highest airfield I took the 140
into was Four Corners, elevation 6000'. The climb rate was impressively
unimpressive. But once at 11000 feet or so, it used 3.5 gph at wide open
throttle doing just under 90 kts.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
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