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Hi, all Just some random thoughts on Ercoupe matters: 1) My coupe #2675, a 415C, has been weighed twice, 1981 and 1989. Both times the empty weight is 793 lbs. 2) I've found with a little work I can land this plane, stop, and take off in 1000 feet on pavement, with pilot and half tanks. How does this compare with others that have tried short landings? 3) I'ved found what others have said to be true. Don't let it get below 75 MPH on approach or it comes down like a lead-lined grand piano. If you have a fair amount of runway to play with, try flaring and giving it about 1500 RPM. Just gently hold it off until it won't fly any more, and you should be able to get a speed indicating less than 60 MPH. If you experiment with this a little, you can get so you land quite slowly and smoothly. 4) A couple of thoughts on increasing low speed lift. This is only daydreaming, so don't all you purists go off the deep end! In Canada we are now able to put our 'coupes and other older planes on what is known as Owner Maintenance. With this category we can do virtually anything to our planes and sign it off ourselves. I know this gives many the shivers, but it does open the door for upgrading our planes without the government's help. The first mode would go something like this: extending the wings, say two feet each, and squaring them off with drooped tips and stall fences on top of the wing to stop loss of air outwards on the wing. Piper has done this mod to many of the short wing planes with very good results. The second low speed air would be to screw the push rods for the ailerons out to give about three or four degrees of 'flaps' in the neutral position. This would put very little additional strain on the wing or ailerons. In fact, much less than a turn at moderate speed. This method has also been proved in Cessna's using the Robertson STOL kits, where the ailerons are drooped and work to help the flaps for low speed control. 5) Lastly, I'd be interested to know how many people have suffered temporary loss of power at cruise. Both the 'coupes I've owned have done this until I remedied the problem. Everybody said 'carb ice', and I know this can be quite real in the small Continentals. Having been involved in all types of mechanical things most of my life, I gave a lot of thought to this. It turned out in the end that the main jet needed to be sized up about .002 inch. End of problem on both planes. Some are not interested in modifying or changing, in the belief that the original plan was written in stone and should never be fiddled with. If this were the case, we'd all be flying Wright Flyers. I'll look forward to all the flack that all those Ercoupe pilots can deliver in a few short but accurate bursts. Jon Page 415C #2675 Canada __________________________________________________ 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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