I was wounded in Vietnam 1969 and ended up in a wheelchair for life. I heard about the Ercoupe with no rudder pedals and I started looking for one to buy. Bought Ercoupe 87101 in 1975. The emergency brake handle on the dash I would pull to try and stop the plane. Problem was I couldn't stop it . The Ercoupe has a little brake drum that actually had a small inner tube that went around the hub and then there were little square brake pads that sat on top of the inner tube. The brake drum slid over that inner tube with the little brake pads. When you push the brake pedal fluid would blow the inner tube up and drag the brake drum to stop. I found a disc brake setup I installed on my Coupe and solved my braking problems. I own the STC ( Supplemental Type Certificates ) for that braking system adapted to the Ercoupe. I flew my Ercoupe for over ten years until the FAA made me turn in my medical card due to high blood pressure. I did had a heart attack some years later but got away with just two stints and no damage to my heart. Flying my Ercoupe was without a doubt some of the best times of my life. Back during the time I owned my Ercoupe everything was really country. The airport I flew out of was once a milking farm and out in the country. Today that area isn't country anymore and that hurts to see traffic, cars, houses etc. all around the once little airport. Thanks for the memories!

@glenward2439

3 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you got to fly despite those issues. The Ercoupe sure is a fun plane to fly. I couldn't stop my Ercoupe too well either, so I never operated on shorter fields. I got in on flying right at the end of the old times when more regular people did this. These days, all the little airports around here are almost abandoned! The only thing doing well seems to be high end jets and Cirrus, etc. Oh well, I am glad I got to do it.

....I flew a '46 415C for many years....it had disc brakes but the back plate on the caliper would 'suck in' when the brakes were released so the action of the piston was undermined by the movement of the backing plate....I solved this by putting the battery spring from a flashlight inside the bore of the caliper, which kept the backing plate from 'sucking in' and greatly enhanced the brakes....I found it to be one of the most under-rated small planes ever, I used a 1400ft one-way dogleg grass strip on a regular basis, I landed on sandbars on the Fraser River (with a passenger) and even flew under bridges. (I WAS a lot younger then)....It was polished with yellow fabric wings....The only upgrade was a double fork nosewheel...When I had the prop dressed and balanced it smoothed out 95% of the vibration and felt like a car with a new set of tires....I took it to 12,100 ft 'just to see'....The climb rate mid winter in Northern Ontario was great at -20F , and was pretty good on the warmer west coast as well.......If you haven't done it yet, get your prop redressed and balanced....you'll thank me....fly safe....

Still one of the cheapest way to fly certified, a little cheaper than a 150 still. Schools don't buy them because of not so effective rudder pedals (or lack of it on earlier models) and no of flaps. Some people make fun of the ones who flies them but I never met a person who flies them and doesn't love them. Easy, forgiving and fun. Like a little old convertible for the sky.

Brings back memories if the late 60s to mid 70s when I was growing up. My dad had a Luscombe and his two friends that flew one had a 59 Tri-Pacer with a 150HP engine and the other had a an Aeronca Champion. No one had a Pilot's license back then and the friend who taught my dad had the Tri-Pacer and he would fly that plane like a stunt plane doing hammerhead stalls, snap rolls, inside/outside loops, figure 8's, and buzzed a lot of houses. My dad bought a 50-acre farm when I was 9-years old, bought a 1937 Galion roadgrader with no brakes and went to work cutting trees and grading the land to put in his own landing strip. It was great growing up at that time because planes were always dropping in and his buddy would take me up and perform stunts in his Tri-Pacer. No licenses, no talking on radios, and having a 12 pack of Stroh's Beer in a cooler in the plane's back seat. I couldn't even imagine them doing that today with all the rules and regulations. For having no formal training they flew those birds like Aces. They're all long deceased now but I remember my dad telling me about 15-20 years ago that he doesn't know how he and his buddies flew in the manner that they did. He said he wouldn't have the balls today. The air strip was only 1800FT long running North-South with only 1600FT being usable. Sometimes when they would take off they'd clear the telephone wires by mere inches on those hazy, hot, humid days. I believe his airstrip is still registered with the FAA under J & B Sky Ranch. Rode past it the other day and its all grown in with high weeds. I can remember mowing it every week for my dad. Sure miss those days.

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

That's how flying used to be! It used to be people were just so free. Any plane could be looped, right? Except the Ercoupe - very bad idea, the elevator was limited. Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed that. I think your dad's field was not too far from here.

@jerrymead8156

Жыл бұрын

@@glenward2439 you

I remember this coupe. Salem is my home airport. Unfortunately Salem is a ghost town with little activity, like many GA airports these days.

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

I'm sorry to hear that. Everyone there was very nice, especially the instructor who ferried the plane over here for me. It seems the only GA which is doing well is the high end.

Interesting story

You can still find quite a few around, and there still very cheap as far as aircraft like that go. I've seen them as low as 12K and the highest I've seen is 30K. I've always wanted to get a pilot's license and with the new Light sport license you can get now I'm strongly debating doing it now...and I've had my eyes on a few Ercoupes.....

@glenward2439

5 жыл бұрын

It's best to just buy a nice one, even if it costs twice as much. A cheap one can easily end up costing 20-30 thousand dollars to get fixed right. Of course, few fix a cheap one up right, and that's how they end up being such beaters like mine was. I could tell stories that would give you nightmares about what was hiding in mine. But, that's life, and it flew well anyhow. I had a good time. You can't go wrong with an Ercoupe and the ease of flying it does make it a lot better compared to a taildragger.

@falconman9554

5 жыл бұрын

@@glenward2439 Thats just where they seem to sit at right now, I wonder why they are so cheap though..the most expensive one i've found was 40K I think

@glenward2439

5 жыл бұрын

@@falconman9554 It's a very old airplane now. I love Ercoupes to death, but you have to research them and know what you are getting into. It is pretty "antiquey". No matter how good one is, it still has the metal tanks on the leading edges and most 'coupes retain the nose tank over your knees, too. And some other old-timer issues which are no fault of the plane besides the time when it was designed and built. I probably would not buy one now unless I wanted a project instead of a plane to fly. I'd look at an AMD Alarus, instead. All of them are less than 25 years old.

@williamerdman3349

4 жыл бұрын

I bought a very rough 415-C in the late 70's for $3500. Fixed it up, used to build hours and took my check ride in it. Metal wings, no pedals and a hand brake lever under the dash. Sold it for $6500 and bought a Sundowner. Being 6'4" I did like the roominess of that Beech. I had to sit sideways in the Ercoupe to be comfortable. I think it is still out there somewhere.

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

@@williamerdman3349 Yep I remember as a boy looking at all the coupes and Colts in TAP for $4,000 or so. Really they still are a great deal, considering. I just can't take the stress of flying anymore. But the memories will last forever.

Nice old video, love flying my Ercoupe.. No rudder pedals for me. On a warm day I can get 1000fpm with metal wings, a cold day like my last flight I got just over 2000fpm at 80mph. I guess it depends on the healthiness of the engine.

@glenward2439

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Joey. I don't know where the Ercoupes stand in the scheme of things these days, but back when I had mine most of them were pretty rough, and had been for decades. There was one around with really rough metal wings, with great big rivet heads and illegal landing lights installed in the leading edges, too. It looked like a complete home-brew job. It would barely climb with two people on board. Another around had been converted to an O-200 with no STC and the wrong prop. It was dangerous. Most Ercoupes I have seen around more recently are really nice. It looks like people finally valued them and fixed them up right. I'm glad, because they were much better planes than most anything from that time period. I owned a Taylorcraft for a while and it was a good plane, very good, but the Ercoupe was decades ahead of its time.

Seems really loud inside .

I'm looking at a 46 415c. It's in good shape overall but it's out of annual 3 years and needs a little love. Owner told me about the oil pump losing prime if it set longer than a few weeks which has me a little worried even though it was checked during a top o/h. Did you ever experience that with yours?

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

No, I never had it happen. I don't think it's rare but still, be very cautious. You can buy an old airplane for $20k but when you go to get it fixed, the work is priced just the same as if it's a new $250k plane. To fix my old coupe up right would have cost $45,000, on a plane I bought for a little over $10k. Get a really good AP to look the plane over and remember not to put too much stock in logbooks and "fresh annuals." These planes have been around for so long that most have had a bad patch where they sat outside for years with rats living in them.....

@MSchwartzNWV

4 жыл бұрын

@@glenward2439 Thanks for the advice!

are you able to return it to one of the original types?

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

It actually came from the factory with rudder pedals. They were okay but the brake pedal was terrible, just a little triangular piece of sheet metal under the pedals - it should never have been allowed by the FAA. My plane was bought new by Orville Rice of South Carolina.

Why is it that these aircraft don’t get into spins?

@glenward2439

Жыл бұрын

It involved very limited up elevator travel, lots of down/right angle to the engine, the twin verticals which kept the prop blast off the rudder, and more. Honestly, the no-spins thing was not a big deal! It was possible to set up an incredible nose-high descent instead without realizing the yoke was pulled back to the stop. The record for landing accidents was actually not so good. I felt the plane would have been even better without the no-spins certification and the things done to achieve it. But, in the mid 1930s the spin accidents were an issue and the place was designed to address that. It was all very clever!

Are there two rudders? Since the tail is gone.

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, but they do only a little.

@32deuce5

4 жыл бұрын

I owned N99997, a 415C, Converted to D by installing a stainless steel panel behind the firewall, over the header tank and up travel of the elevator. Have flown from West of Seattle to Chicago twice, into Canada an on to the Mexican border. Delightful flying plane! Met Fred Weick on several occasions at Oshkosh. Sat around the campfire talking Ercoupe and flying before WW11 and during the war! History revisited live.

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

@@32deuce5 That's beautiful. I never met Fred but knew many who did. For the time it was designed, it was a work of genius.

What about carb heat?

@glenward2439

5 жыл бұрын

Don't worry, I was using it. It was mandatory with a Stromberg carburetor!

My

takes off at 70, flies at 90 and lands at 70,,,, something wrong here,,,,

@williamerdman3349

4 жыл бұрын

Not really. At least it flies faster than it takes off at. The most fun was putting the windows down and resting the arm on the edge like cruising in a car. Drive it on the ground, drive it in the air.

@glenward2439

4 жыл бұрын

@@williamerdman3349 I did subscribe to the "drive it like a car" mentality, but if I ever fly an Ercoupe again I'll try and slow down on approach. It's not so safe to set down at blistering speeds, and it's also very hard on the gear. Thanks for posting guys.

@williamerdman3349

4 жыл бұрын

@@glenward2439 Yeah I learned the hard way and had to rebuild the nose strut. Helps being an A&P. Hold it off with full back stick to keep weight off the nose while it slows.