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At 11:41 AM 9/22/2004, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > My question is how good is the cabin heater on Ercoupes. Will it keep > the cabin toasty warm on a 20 degree New England day or should I wear my > long-johns and insulated boots when the weather gets cold? I've had two Ercoupes, one stock and one with a rather customized heat system. If yours is like either of mine, you'll probably have to open the canopy slightly to keep from passing out from heat prostration! (Not a bad idea anyway, considering the porosity of the firewalls and the fact that the plane just isn't designed to keep CO from getting in the cockpit.) Sick, die-hard that I am, I fly with the cockpit open right through the NJ/PA winter, in which case the heater still helps the tootsies. But I wear insulated boots, polypropylene long-johns, a leather flying helmet with sheepskin liner, some really nice soft leather gloves with wool liners, my leather flight jacket with liner zipped in, a warm shirt and pants, and ski-googles in such a case. And of course the harness with which they have to raise and lower me into the plane using a block and tackle :-) If I'd close the canopy, I could fly in shorts and a tee-shirt and probably still sweat. A serious consideration is that you should be clothed to survive for a reasonable time in event of a forced landing which has you making a quick exit and unable to grab supplemental clothing from the cockpit. It would suck to survive the crash and then freeze to death. Greg ========================================================================== ==== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/
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