Ed, I bet this response brings some lurkers out of the woodwork. See below,
Ed [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Heres a question bound to generate some interest. About how many hours does > a person spend flying an Ercoup before they might be considered really > good at Ercoup flying? I know that weather would factor in big for X-wind > landings, and lets keep this with no rudder pedals for simplicity. I have > about 25 hours PIC in a rudderless Ercoup and feel like I have good control > and reasonable understanding of the flight characteristics. I dont want to > get overcondfident of course, whadda thimk? ED That depends mostly on how much time you spend studying and practicing the ercoupeness of it all and how much just cruising around and enjoying yourself. In the air, they are pretty much like other planes, they just aren't so likely to bite you with a surprise spin. Coupe take offs you can master in 10 repetitions, easy. I'd say you can get pretty much on top of crosswind landings in 20 or 40 repetitions if you are paying attention. Approach control in various conditions would take, maybe 40 to 80 repetitions because of the wealth of different situations. If you are *studying* and *paying attention* to what you are doing, those are my best-guess numbers for getting "really good" at "Ercoupe" flying. Then . . . __________________________________ Once you've pretty much mastered these, then you can work on the complacency challenge which "gets" more people than early ignorance. (Ever seen those statistics that show the risk staying fairly low until you get to the 200-400 hour range when the "average pilot's" risk per hour is the highest in their flying career?) And always keep in mind that your safety TODAY depends on your application of your knowledge and judgment TODAY. Fred Weick said to me that he mis-judged how much of aviation safety was in the design of the plane and how much is in the judgment of the pilot. If you don't fly into those questionable weather conditions, then ... If you don't do a low fly-by of the airport or your friends' house then ... If you don't stretch the on-board fuel to "just that next airport," then ... If you don't load those extra items into the baggage compartment, then ... ... you will not be a participant in 90% of the small plane accidents. When you make the decision to NOT do --> those <-- extra things, you'll be a "good" Ercoupe pilot. (Remind me I said all this when I get into the plane the next time, would you please? The most important part of this will apply to me each and every time I take off in the future.) -- Ed Burkhead, 800 or 900 hours in my Coupe Peoria, Ill. Ercoupe N3802H, 415-D Never open an attachment with a ".exe" or ".com" or ".vbs" suffix. To be safe, turn off Microsoft's Visual Basic Macro execution option. Consider not using Outlook for mail - lots of viruses target its security flaws. __________________________________________________________________________ ______ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
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