At 11:46 AM 12/4/98 -0800, Steve Dold wrote: You can be a safe pilot having never done >spins, just like you can be a good pilot never having flown a tailwheel.
Amen. And conversely (using myself as a prime example) you can be a pretty mediocre pilot having done both! Still, it's fun and useful to have the broadest possible range of experience. By any measure, it makes life richer. > >If someone is taking lessons in something other than an Ercoupe, and has the >means to finish that training, I think they'd be better off doing that >rather than getting the private in an Ercoupe. I'd go one better... ...if you're anywhere near 'finishing up' the private, then do that. Even if you buy the coupe and have someone else fly you around in it (only to the extent that it doesn't interfere with the task at hand, which is FINISHING THE PRIVATE). Switching planes will interfere with that. If you want the 'coupe, then take a week of vacation from work, fly like crazy, and FINISH THE PRIVATE in whatever plane you started in. The reason I'm so emphatic about FINISH THE PRIVATE is that the latter is the key to all the other things you want to do (like tooling around in your Ercoupe). And a lot (meaning MOST) student pilots get caught up in distractions and take longer to finish, or they don't actually finish at all. In your case, the distraction could be they buy process, getting the plane in shape (there *will* be things to get done), and coping with all the exigencies of first time plane ownership. > Isn't there some restriction >to your license if you take the practical test in a 2-control airplane >like the Ercoupe? At one time they did that. Not any more. Guess they figure that adding rudder work to a 2-axis pilot isn't any bigger a deal than teaching, say, a J3 pilot to deal with all the geegaws and goodies that the average 172 possesses. Greg
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