Dan; Welcome to the Ercouping Empire.
An extremely important step in the buying process is having a good pre-purchase inspection by a mechanic knowledgeable in Ercoupes. I can't stress the importance of this too much. The primary purpose of a prebuy is to let you know the condition of the aircraft from an unbiased source, not to enable you to negotiate on price, although it is something that it leads to. Of course, the prebuy must be performed by YOUR person, not the owners, and someone that really doesn't work on that particular airplane. When an owner says he doesn't know something about the simple workability of an item on the airplane, (which is supposed to be in the operator's manual regardless of it's position or change over the years) what he really means is that he doesn't want YOU to know about it. It also proves that this seller may have done things in the past to the aircraft that were not exactly kosher. If you indeed become serious about it and do not proceed with a prebuy, you are doing so foolishly and are taking great risk. That knob is probably the heater control. If the valve malfunctions, it may allow CO into the cabin. Yea, I know we all fly with the tops down, that's what makes us Ercoupers, but what about the one time you need to close the canopy? Not trying to scare you, just making a point that a mechanic would catch it on the prebuy, and although it may not affect your final price, it's then a punch item for you to repair. ----- From: agilterv To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:27 PM Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Question about the panel There is a pull knob in the far left lower corner of the panel of a 415C I was looking at. It moves a little and makes a scraping sound at the firewall. Owner doesn't know what the knob is for. Since I am in a wheelchair I was unable to follow the cable and determine where it went. Can someone tell me what the knob is for? By the way, is it preferable to send a couple of questions in one post or divide them up so they can be categorized in the archives? Dan
