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Hello All, There have been two recent Ercoupe crashes due to fuel starvation. One was in trees and a subsequent fall to the ground and the pilot only received a cut on the forehead. The second resulted in a fire and fatalities. There has been no determination as to the cause of the fuel starvation. Both aircraft had fuel in their fuselage tank at the time of crash. The pilot of the craft that landed in the trees had just come out of an annual and the AP told the owner there was some stuff circulating in the fuel. There is no info on the fatality crash as to fuel contamination. My concern is that the cause might be dislodged antisloshing compound that was placed in the tanks at the time of manufacture. After time this stuff dislodges and begins to circulate with the fuel. It is quite possible that some of this entered the fuel line and accumulated enough to block fuel flow to the carb and caused the engines to stop. I purchased the plane that landed in the trees after FAA was done with it. THere is not much left of the craft that burned and it will be impossible to make any determination as to the cause. I mention this as a precaution to all that have Coupes that may have antisloshing compound in their tanks. It would be my recommendation that any remaining such compound be totally removed as soon as possible to avoid any further crashes due to fuel starvation possibly caused by the movement and blockage of fuel to the engine and fuel starvation and possible disasterous results. Forewarned is fore-armed. Take the informaion for what it is worth to you. I have also discovered that it seems to be FAA policy to ensure any crashed aircraft cannot be restored. They arrive with large bolt cutters and cut everything off flush with the firewall, I mean everything. Then there is no care at all in movement of the aircraft. The owner of the craft I purchased took a photo after his plane impacted the ground. Damage was restricted to the spinner and front cowling. Its impact was sufficiently mild that the prop was not damaged. In moving the craft they bent the prop tip forward rendering it non repairable and damaged other parts of the Coupe such that it is not restorable. If you crash, just make sure you have great In Motion insurance and really need to notify the government of the crash, otherwise you risk your plane being totally destroyed. A Navion a while back landed gear up and rather than jacking it up and moving it off the runway, they cut both wings totally off and drug the fuselage off. As the Navion has a single thru spar it was only good for parts after they were done. Lee B ============================================================================== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
