My Ercoupe is flyin' again... (long)

My annual inspection on the Ercoupe was due in June. What I usually do is
take the plane to the inspector late in the month and then he usually
signs/dates it the next month so I get close to 13 months between annuals.
So, I took my plane from Fairmont (FRM) to Jackson (MJQ) on June 30th
expecting to get it inspected the first part of July and have it back for
the many fly-in breakfasts during July and August.

So much for that plan. When I last fueled up before taking it over for the
annual, I saw in the left wing tank that one of the baffle/ribs had fallen
down inside the tank and just laying on the bottom. I mentioned this to the
mechanic/inspector and he said it would need to be repaired or replaced
before he'd sign off the annual inspection. He called me a couple days later
and said my options were to get the tank repaired or find a replacement and
he had found refurbished replacements for around $1,600 or he could send my
tank in someplace to repair for around $500.

Plan A: I called up Wentworth Aircraft in Minneapolis and they said they had
an Ercoupe tank in stock for $495. I told them I'd stop by and pick it up
the next day; saving the shipping costs and time(?). I drove from Fairmont
to Minneapolis and got to Wentworth at lunchtime. The salesman I talked with
about the tank was out for lunch and no one else knew much about it. I
waited around for the salesman and got the tank and drove it back to
Jackson. This was on a Friday and by the time I got to the Jackson airport,
the mechanic wasn't there but I left the tank there. The mechanic called me
on following Monday morning saying the tank I got at Wentworth had sloshing
compound used on it and that he wouldn't put it on my plane. I guess I
should have checked the tank closer when I got it from Wentworth...

Plan B: During that week I had exchanged E-mails with Montblack about my
Ercoupe tank issue and he mentioned Roger Dufresne in Forest Lake that
repairs Ercoupe tanks. Great! I went over to Jackson and picked up the
Wentworth tank and assisted the mechanic with taking the original tank off.
I took both tanks up to Minneapolis to return the one to Wentworth and
repair the original one. I talked with Roger about repairing the tank and he
said he's repaired a few of them but wanted me to get some fuel tank
sealant. I found the sealant listed in Aircraft Spruce but needed it
quickly. I checked a few places here in Fairmont and also stopped at a fuel
tank (storage tanks) place in Mankato on the way to Minneapolis and no one
had the sealant. This was on a Friday and I was going to meet Roger on
Saturday to work on the tank. After dropping the Wentworth tank off and
getting a refund, I drove up to Anoka County airport and gave Montblack a
call. He said he could come over to the airport to meet me and offered me a
place to stay overnight. When Montblack arrived, he showed me around the
airport and I mentioned about the sealant I was trying to find. We stopped
at one of the hangars where he knew some guys working on a Howard and we
talked with them and they had some sealant in stock that we could borrow and
replace on Monday (called a place in Brooklyn Park that had the sealant but
couldn't make it over there before it closed). I had recognized the Howard
(and the pilots) as the one that flew into Fairmont a couple years ago. Nice
guys!

On Saturday, Montblack and I went up to Forest Lake to get the original tank
repaired. Met with Roger in Forest Lake and he said he had worked on the
aluminum tanks that were riveted but hadn't worked on the terneplate style
tank that I had that was soldered. He got the endplate of the tank
unsoldered and got the baffle/rib back in place but then ran into problems
getting the endplate soldered back on. He suggested taking it to a metal
shop and getting a new endplate fabricated that could be riveted in and use
the tank sealant.

Plan C: I took the tank back to Fairmont and stopped at the first metal shop
that I knew and he said he wouldn't touch it. He suggested the local
heating/plumbing shop so I took it over there. I know the owner of the
plumbing shop (fellow local pilot) and asked him if he could fabricate a new
endplate. He said he was busy with air-conditioning calls (Minnesota heat
wave in July) and would get back to me when he got it done. I kept calling
on him every few days to see how he was coming on repairing the tank. I had
hoped he would have it completed before he left for a few days at Oshkosh,
no luck. When he got back from Oshkosh, I talked with him and he had a new
endplate cut but wasn't able to bend it around the curved part with the
tools he had and suggested another metal shop. I took the tank, the original
endplate, the new unbent endplate piece and some tank sealant to the 3rd
shop. He called me a few days later and said it was ready. I picked it up
and paid him $125 for the repair. He had used the original endplate and got
it silver soldered back on and said he pressure tested it. I drove the tank
over to Jackson and the mechanic looked at it and said it looked OK but
needed to be cleaned out and handed me a hose. I filled the tank with water
and the endplate started leaking! Not a good thing. I guess it was good that
we checked it before mounting it on the plane. I took it back to the 3rd
metal shop and told him it leaks. I stopped by there a few days later and he
had the tank ready, again. I took the tank home, filled it with water -- no
leaks, on the repaired endplate!

Last Wednesday, I tried to call the mechanic in Jackson to say the tank was
ready but he wasn't around. Found out he had flown to Wisconsin and was
weathered in someplace on his way back. He finally called me back Monday and
said I could bring the tank over on Tuesday morning and assist on putting it
back on. Ok, I figured I'd drive the fuel tank over, help him put it back
on, fly the plane back to Fairmont and then get a ride back to Jackson to
get my car. We mounted the tank onto the wing and I suggested that we check
for leaks before putting all the fairings, floorboard and panels back on. I
filled up 2 gas cans with $40 worth of avgas and put that in the tank. The
endplate didn't leak, but the quick drain did... Ok, drain the fuel back
into the gas cans, replace the o-ring in the quick drain and try it again.
This time NO LEAKS. I helped put the faring back on (a 2 person job) with me
standing on my head inside holding the ny-lock nuts while he tightened the
screws from the outside. I reinstalled the floorboards, attached the brake
pedal (glad I don't have the rudder pedals!) and got the inside completed
while he finished up the hardware on the outside. He had replaced the
landing gear donuts and the fuel floats (the old cork floats wouldn't float
anymore) a couple weeks ago and just needed the tank installed before
signing off the inspection. Done. With the replacement of the donuts and
floats while in for inspection, it ended up costing 1 AMU. It was getting
late on Tuesday and I was beat from standing on my head in the cockpit most
of the day. I had the choice of flying in the heat of the day back to
Fairmont and be carless the rest of the day until I could get a ride back to
Jackson to get my car or just driving back and get a ride back to Jackson on
Wednesday.

Some things I've found out about Ercoupe fuel tanks. There are different
types depending on the S/N of the aircraft. Around serial number 813, they
changed the landing gear configuration and the fuel tanks for under that
number need a 'notch' in the tank for the gear. The ones after S/N 813 are
straight across the back edge and are usually aluminum and riveted together.
The older terneplate style ones (like mine with the 'notch') are stainless
steel (or alloy?) with part of it riveted and part silver soldered. The tank
that I had picked up at Wentworth was the 'new' style anyways and wouldn't
have fit even if it didn't have the sloshing compound problem. I have been
calling all over the country the past month getting information on tanks and
trying to find a replacement that will fit my under 813 Ercoupe. I have
found several places that have Ercoupe tanks, either for higher serial
numbers or the wrong side. Since my tank was repaired at a local metal shop
and not an 'approved' aircraft repair place, the mechanic says that he
wouldn't put anything in the logbook about the tank and figures it as an
'owner repair', and will deny any knowledge of it. He suggests to continue
looking for an 'approved' left wing tank for my Ercoupe and replace it. I
guess that's what I get for a 60 year old plane...

My cousin Verlus was available to fly me to Jackson on Wednesday (this)
morning at 7:30. He took me over there arriving about 8AM and he took off
back to Fairmont. The mechanic wasn't around yet. I waited at the airport
until the mechanic showed up around 8:45 and we got the plane pulled out of
the maintenance hangar and fueled it up the rest of the way. It's now back
in its hangar in Fairmont. So, $1k for the annual, etc, $125 for the tank
repair, 2 trips to Minneapolis and a few trips over to Jackson, it's finally
done. I was without the plane from June 30th until today and missed out on
several fly-in breakfasts in the area (and Jay's pre-Oshkosh party?). Next
year's annual will be due at the end of August so it 'should' be done early
in September...

THANKS to Montblack, Verlus, Roger and the others that have helped me with
this issue!

-Greg B.