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Chris wrote:

> It is not legal, but I would prefer to have my 415C

> rigged so the dang elevator goes all the way, say 20

> up, 12 down.  And why not, from a flying standpoint?

 

 

Chris,

 

With the full span elevator, the slipstream pushes down on the tail a lot.  With the split elevator, much of the slipstream goes through the cut-out and therefore does not push the tail down excessively with the full power slipstream.

 

At 13° elevator up travel, the Ercoupe has the designed characteristics – a slow touchdown speed for its class and a benignly buffeting inner wing stall which helps prevent the tail from going down far enough to generate a fully developed stall while still having a well flying outer 2/3rds wing panel which maintains adequate control.

 

That’s good because the Ercoupe’s wing airfoil gives very good lift but it does not behave well in a fully developed stall.

 

I would guess that your chance of executing a safe go-around would be greatly reduced with the full span elevator and full power.  Similarly, if you went to full power when you were in the stall that probably WOULD develop at 20° elevator up travel, you’d be in deep kimshee.  If you were to do this, you’d be a test pilot in a plane that was not designed to survive your test conditions.

 

Balanced against that, the Ercoupe’s 415-C and CD fly quite nicely with the designed 13° up travel.

 

Please skip the 20° up travel mode.  If you were to come to grief, it could adversely affect a thousand or two other people.

 

Just my unproven thoughts. . .

 

Ed Burkhead

http://edburkhead.com

ed -at- edburkhead???.com          (change -at- to @ and remove "???")

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