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At 05:29 PM 11/25/00 -0800, Patrick Thompson wrote:
> I was alarmed to learn that,
>according to Jon, "Ercoupes have had one of the highest rates of flight
>power failure of all the light planes." Being a brand new coupe owner
>('58 Forney F-1), I'm anxious to learn if this is true. Can anyone
>corroborate this statement, or comment on Jon's information in any way?
Aviation Consumer reports this to be the case.
I think you have to go beyond being alarmed and get to root causes.
1. For a long time, the Ercoupe was the cheapest plane going. More
than any other plane, they tended to sit disused for many years and
then get flown all of a sudden.
2. The Ercoupe has a baby Continental. They make ice. It has always been
so. Pilots have always been a bit negligent about carb heat
application.
3. There is no fuel drain on the header tank of early Ercoupes, and there
is a fuel gauge that can wick water into the tank. Plus, they have
been
known to sit out (see 1) for years. That tank needs to be cleaned out
if it has water in it.
4. See (1) above. As the least expensive plane going, many Ercoupes had
less
than stellar maintenance. So the engines tended to quit.
A well-maintained, properly operated Ercoupe is going to be as reliable as
a
J3 cub or Aeronca Champ, or Cessna 140 or 150. The trick is making sure it
is so.
Greg
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