Well, I probably would have made an offer on it. I certainly would have had my A&P inspect it before giving up on it.
My comment was directed toward the statement that there was something
special about Ercoupes and corrosion. Most of these airplanes are over
50 years old and many have sat for years and been ignored. Any airplane
of this age will need to be carefully inspected.
I suspect that some 'Coupes have corrosion but I personally have two and
both are clean. I know several Ercoupe owners around Boston and when
they did the Swiss cheese AD they did not find corrosion either so this
prompted my comment that I felt that the corrosion problem was
overstated.
Any airplane this old needs to be carefully inspected and maintained. I
think it is unreasonable to expect the airplane to be "as new" when you
purchase it. My airplane has two patches on the leading edge of the
outboard section of the wing on either side. I tracked down the guy who
owned the plane in the 1950's and he told me he tried to take off from a
too short field and that was the width of the fence posts at the end.
The repair had held for 35 years when I bought the plane so I felt it
was probably ok. A small area of corrosion that has been treated and
can no longer be found does not sound like a reason to not consider the
airplane. I rely on my A&P in matters such as these.
If you want a perfect "10" Ercoupe you probably can find one that has
been totally disassembled and restored but I suspect it will be in the
mid $20's. The one you describe for $12.5 sounds similar to the
condition of mine when I bought it in 1990 for $7.5 Considering the
general price rise over the last 8 years this does not seem too far off.
I have put a lot of $$$ in my plane over this period (new radios,
brakes, glass, hardware, heim joints, magnetos, baffles, oil filter,
etc). At each annual I try to make the plane a bit better/newer than it
was the previous year. This makes it more fun to fly and makes me feel
safer.
The good thing about 'Coupes is that they are pretty simple and you can
see much of the internals.
David
----------
From: Ronald Wooding[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 1998 9:10 PM
To: David Abrams
Subject: Ercoupe and corrosion
Greetings;
In response on dejanews.com you stated that the corrosion
problem was
way overstated in Ercoupes. Of the five samples that I have
looked at
with the thought of purchasing, three had wing corrosion, one
which was
critical. One was clean, and one I am not sure of. It looked
good but
I did not have it checked since the price was in the 20's. This
seems
to me to be a problem. The latest Ercoupe I looked at was a
real nice
one with a reasonable price. But it had an entry in the log
book from
the annual before last that stated 'minimal wing corrosion',
this plane
has the metal wing conversion. The owner knew of a small two
inch spot
of corrosion that sounded from his description that it was
either on the
spar or on an attachment to the spar. We examined the suspect
wing
removing all the inspection plates, I could not find it, and he
had a
problem remembering exactly where it was. He stated that he
cleaned the
spot with a wire brush, treated it with an inhibitor, and the
log book
entry stated that the wing was fogged. I rejected the plane.
Before I
saw that entry I was ready to have a mechanic look at the
Ercoupe and if
it passed the pre-purchase inspection I was ready to give him
what he
asked for it, $12,500. The plane had one lean dent on the right
cowling, other than that the sheet metal was pretty clean. The
total
time on the airframe and engine(C75) was 1200 hours. The engine
had 430
hours since overhaul, 31 years ago. The compression entries in
the logs
were all solidly in the 70's. There was one Genave 1000
nav/com, NO
transponder, no rudder pedals, standard baggage, AH, DG, ROC,
T&B, and a
venturi for vacumn. Overall the plane looked well maintained
and clean.
Logs were missing between 46 and 52. In 52 the first entries
were a
transfer of hours from the first log of 250 hours, a repair of
the left
main wing(major) and the left rudder. With your experience in
Ercoupes, do you think I should have rejected this plane? If
not, what
would you think would be a reasonable adjustment for the wing
corrosion?
REW
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