AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2012 - 22

LETTERS

Easy Flyer

ongratulations to Tom Horne. As a proud 97-year-old owner of my second Ercoupe (the first one perished after a night engine failure but without personal injuries) and having been flying regularly since 1938, I thoroughly enjoyed
his article (“Budget Buy: Easy Flyer,” March 2012 AOPA Pilot). Yes, with avgas prices climbing and an airplane that consumes around four gallons per hour, my 415C is the perfect solution to my need to keep doing what the Light Sport pilot rule allows me to do. Horne’s recognition of Fred Wieck’s wonderful creation is a fitting tribute and, I feel certain, is appreciated by all Ercoupe owners. Herb Sloane, AOPA 601331 Montgomery, Alabama nosewheel (if the gear geometry hasn’t already done that for you) and drive it as you would a car. Just don’t try to hold the upwind wing down with aileron; the Ercoupe will promptly turn in the direction of the upwind wing and the turn may lift the upwind main wheel off the ground. I always thought the Ercoupe could handle more of a crosswind than its successor, a straight-tail Cessna 172. Henry Gurshman, AOPA 268597 Metuchen, New Jersey Tom Horne beat me to it! I was going to write an article about Ercoupes, except mine would not be nearly so nice. I have owned two of them. In reality it’s a coffin with wings. Flying an Ercoupe is a bit like flying a kite—with you sitting on the kite. You are at the mercy of the wind, be it straight down the runway, crossways

I thoroughly enjoyed the article on the Ercoupe. I owned one (N99198, my first airplane) in 1971; unfortunately, my daughter kept on growing despite my efforts to teach her to smoke, so I had to sell it and get something that would carry all three (and later four) of us. It was a bit of a hot rod among Ercoupes, having a 90-horsepower engine (apparently the result of some mix and match with top-end engine components and camshafts, which I was assured was perfectly legal). It was a two-control airplane, comfortable (my wife and I are both relatively small), and responsive if not exactly spritely. I thought it was a very cleverly designed and sensible machine with great cockpit visibility in all directions, and I hated to let it go. Gene Olinger is quite right about its ability to handle crosswinds. All you have to do is fly down final in a crab— the stiffer the crosswind, the more you crab—and as soon as the mains are on the ground, the trailing beam main gear and basic physics combine to jerk the machine into running straight down the runway, and you plant the
AOPA PILOT •

to the runway, or at altitude; the poor little things don’t have a chance with the winds. On crosswinds they have the nasty habit of lifting the upwind wing, which causes you to turn into the wind to lower the wing but that turns the nosewheel so that you go shooting off for the alfalfa. If the wind is stiff straight down the runway you are sort of OK if you are really, really good, but as soon as you turn off the runway onto the taxiway you are right angles to the wind. The Ercoupe has to be the only tricycle-gear airplane that can ground loop. I once learned this the hard way; when light on fuel and only me, the entire setup weighs next to nothing. And clouds! Boy, I’ve never seen an airplane that is so affected by up and down currents under those big fluffy clouds; it is not possible to maintain a constant altitude no matter the attitude of the airplane nor the power setting. And Horne is very right that you don’t want to be low and slow in an Ercoupe. A lot of Ercoupe accidents are powerloss events. William C. Buhles, AOPA 5989360 Davis, California

22 • MAY 2012

AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2012

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