Ercoupe from Lilliput

wrote in news:717e4608-d7d7-437e-859e-
:


I've been putting together the list of parts for the Texas Parasol. A
guy up in Canada has put one together. He told me he estimated that if
he'd had a whole month of free time he could have gotten it to the
point it is now (which is airframe complete sans fabric). He hasn't
done his engine and so probably has a number of such "full time
months" to go. I think their have been reasonable solutions provided
for those who object to its design as drawn.


Yeah, 90% done and 90% to go!

The plane is fun looking and does enough for a first project. They've
only had one fatality -- poor guy was struggling with his engine all
day, finally got it to start, took it out for a "taxi test". Except he
took off. He wasn't a pilot and had no training whatsoever. He got to
200 feet and ran out of gas with a bad end.



Yipes! I saw that happen at a fly in with a minimax. Actualy i think the
guy "flying" and I use the term loosely, was an inexperienced pilot and
that th eairplane had some issues. He was doing some fast taxi testing
on the runway and it started to bounce. his corrections were only making
things worse, so he eventually opened the taps and took it on it's first
flight. The pitch oscillations airborne were insane. He disappeared from
view for most of the flight various screaming engine noises coming from
behind the trees. he actually managed to get it all the way round the
pattern and put it on the runway where he well and truly ground looped
it. I was asked by the safety officer for the fly-in to go and have a
word in his ear to discourage him from further experimentation, but when
I got over to his camp I could see that this was wholly unnecessary...





On the other hand one guy has done some basic aerobatics in one
(slightly beefed up version).

Well, unless you're fairly proficient. You'd also want a decent stress
analysis to see if there are reasonable margins. He might just be
"getting away with it"

They've been flying 'em since the 80s I think. Uses 503, VW, Geo and/
or Suburu as well.

OK, I thought it was an A-65 powered machine.. No?

I haven't seen many designs that are this simple. It can be built as
an ultralight, or could, but I won't go for that.

I don't see much advantage to ultralights vs homebuilts aside from
sidestepping paperwork.
The Volksplane is probably easier to build, and the Pober Pixie would
probabl be a better airplane at the end of the day., but that looks to
be a nice little airplane too. I did look at the hummelbirds. Excellent
performance on very little HP and I think they're relatively simple to
build.





bertie