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-----Original Message-----
From: William R. Bayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 6:38 PM
To: Ed Burkhead
Subject: WRB Re: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Sun N Fun Ercoupes
From: William R. Bayne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 6:38 PM
To: Ed Burkhead
Subject: WRB Re: [COUPERS-FLYIN] Sun N Fun Ercoupes
RLYFLYIN (WRB via Ed Burkhead's computer-I can't post directly)
Please send responses directly to the list or to me, Bill Bayne @
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi Darick (WRB speaking)
This is the "spring gear" which was "factory" on some later Alons and M10s.
A gear utilizing spring action first appeared on a coupe when the Air Products company engaged Met-Co-Air, of Fullerton, CA, and Tom Hebert to engineer a retractable gear for the production Aircoupe. His design, however, dropped straight down from the spar mount and turned back to support the axles. While it never made it into production coupes, Alon later produced the double-curve"spring gear" design installed on N5640F.
Unlike the ERCO trailing arm/oleo main gear, the "spring" type main landing gear had no moving parts to wear or maintain in normal use. That's the GOOD news. The BAD news is that a spring has no shock absorbing capability. That's why autos have "shock absorbers" (and ERCO used the oleo). Push it hard in one direction until it will go no further and it will return every bit of the energy thus forced into it back in the opposite direction the first chance it gets! The original ERCO design is much more likely to return a good landing from a poor approach, and less likely to suffer (permanent) damage at excessive vertical arrival rates. It was certainly the better choice for rental or training fleet aircraft.
A HARD landing converts the "spring gear" into the "bent spring gear" with a permanent "toe out", although shims were made available to compensate for such damage up to a point. The incentive for Alon was lower manufacturing cost, as weight and drag were similar. Some Ercoupes were retrofitted with the spring gear via a 337. I seem to recall Ken Heath's was one.
Regards,
William R. Bayne
<____|-(o)-|____>
(Copyright 2004)
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On Apr 30, 2005, at 11:47 AM, Darick Gundy wrote:
N5640F, the landing gear appears much different than any other coupe I've seen. Is this a factory variation?
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