Here's a few questions on a couple subjects for coupers: We all know that one of the virtues of the coupe is the ability to fly with the canopy open (i.e., windows rolled down). How well-shielded from the wind are you? Well enough that your baseball cap won't fly off, taking the headset with it? Well enough that your sectional won't get sucked out the moment you let it sit on your lap? What's the effect on drag, and therefore on speed, rate-of-climb, etc.? Is the sliding canopy of the Alons (and Mooneys, I think) differently behaved as regards to flying with it open? Seems like it would be a lot more drag-inducing.
There's a lot of opinions on rudder pedals.
To me, their real use would be allowing one to side-slip down final
in order to dump altiude quickly. Could be, I guess, a real safety
enhancement in the event of one of those dead-stick situations where
you find you've under-estimated your glide and have too much altitude
to land and stop, but not enough to go around. Since the Ercoupe has
nothing like those big Cessna barn-door flaps, it's about the only
choice.
So, for you rudder-pedal equipped coupers, is there enough authority
there to establish a big, fat, energy-dumping slip, or do the designed-
in control limits make the resulting slip hardly worth bothering with?
Greg
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Greg Bullough | AFM Local 1000 AFL/CIO
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | K2GWB
| PP-ASEL
www.eclipse.net/~gwb for Compass Rogues & NY Chantey Sings
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