Ercoupe

Dan wrote:
On Mar 9, 9:42 pm, Dudley Henriques wrote:
Dan wrote:
On Mar 9, 9:04 pm, Dudley Henriques wrote:
Dan wrote:
On Mar 9, 8:23 pm, Dudley Henriques wrote:
I've flown the Ercoupe. Not much to it really. It was fun running the
side windows down and flying along with my arm out on the edge of the
cockpit sort of like in a car.
The landings were a bit different if you had any crosswind at all, but
easily doable in the crab. Take off was the same. As soon as you broke
ground, it weather vaned into the wind with aileron. Sort of a "spooky"
little airplane but it flew quite well and was quite fast for its day.
The one I flew didn't have the later rudder capability. Never flew the Alon.
--
Dudley Henriques
Are you supposed to kick out the crab or land crabbed?
Aside: Maybe the Lufthansa FO learned in an Ercoupe?
Dan
Bertie called it right in his answer to this. It was the weirdest
feeling trust me. You eventually got used to it, but there really was
nothing under the panel on the floor except that stupid little brake
pedal. Some say they got some comfort out of pressing down on that brake
pedal during the last few feet in the flare. You crabbed it into the
wind and flew it onto the ground sometimes looking at the side of the
runway :-)) It kicked itself out ok. The gear was good and tough.
You land the F16 the same way BTW. You can't put a wing down in the
Viper and landing it in the crab is regular procedure. I never got used
to crab landings in the high performance airplanes that I flew. I always
had a tendency to want to lower that windward wing, usually doing that
just a bit anyway to ease the touchdown as much as possible.
Of course aircraft like the Viper have a rudder to help a bit with that.
:-))
--
Dudley Henriques
I'd imagine it was a sudden twist once the mains hit!
I remember watching B-52s land -- there was no way to do a wing low in
a Buff -- the wings were already hanging down even with the belly!
Looking back on the weather they used to fly in, they had brass ones,
those guys...
Dan
The Buff has an ace in the hole. It has a crosswind gear that can be set
to align with the runway while the fuselage stays canted into the wind.
Watching one of those beasts land is a hoot :-)

--
Dudley Henriques

Right! The nose would be pointed 20 degrees left, a/c tracking
straight. Creepy.

They also took off in what appeared to be a nose level attitude. The
big wings would go from drooping to not-so-droop and then the bird
would lift off.

I was in SAC, which meant every so often all the alert birds would do
a rolling runup as they started a takeoff roll.

If they took off, we knew we had about 8 minutes.

If they aborted, we knew it was an exercise.

Good for the adrenal system, that.

Dan

The takeoff of the Buff is one of the strangest things I've ever watched
in aviation. You're right; it doesn't rotate, it just "leaves the earth"
:-)) Unbelievable airplane! I heard recently that SAC had a son in the
left seat flying the same Buff flown by his father years back. :-))

--
Dudley Henriques