I do not own an Ercoupe; but looking for one. I have learned a lot
from the Yahoo group (mostly just watching the conversations). I
joined EOC just to support it.
Your second paragraph pretty well explains the problems of the first
paragraph. Maybe a survey of the members would tell if you want to
continue the paper
newsletter or just put everything on the Internet. Another option
would be to go to bi-monthly or quarterly on the paper newsletter for
those who do not have
Internet/computer. Vansairforce, Cherokee Pilots Assoc., etc.
"succeed" because someone has a driving ambition to do it....without
that it is pretty hard to "hire"
or beg someone to do it for no pay and lots of work.
Dan
On Dec 30, 2007, at 8:09 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Al,
I somewhat share your feelings about the current owner's club. In
fact, I just got a renewal notice and I don't think I am going to
renew the membership. From my perspective, the only benefit that I
see out of belonging to the club is the monthly newsletter, and to
be honest, I can usually read everything in the newsletter that is
of interest to me in about 3 minutes per copy. With all of the
people restoring, rebuilding and upgrading these planes, I don't
know why there isn't an article in there every month about a
restoration, rebuild or upgrade project. I have sent in an article
or two over the years, and they have been published, but it's
pretty obvious that nobody is going out and soliciting any
technical material for the newsletters. Lately there have been
reprints of articles pertaining to insurance issues or legalities,
that while useful, are not related specifically to the Ercoupe/
Aircoupe. I consider these arti! cles to be "filler material" in a
type-specific newsletter, and they rate just about one step above
the advertisements that usually fill about 4 pages of the
newsletter. I can read all of that generic stuff online or in the
EAA, AOPA, Flying, and Flight Training magazines that I get. (Of
course, EAA has recently started taking up space in Sport Aviation
(emphasis added) to let us know which new Very Light Jets are being
brought to market, and how fast the top of the line Mooney's are.
What either of these have to do with Sport Aviation is beyond me.)
I would love to see the existing club, or a new club, publish a
better newsletter, conduct fly-ins, promote the airplane, and be
more proactive. I don't mean to slam the existing newsletter or
club management. I've been involved in publishing a couple of
newsletters for work, and it's not a trivial task. Twisting
people's arms to get them to contribute articles can be a job in
itself. It also takes lots of dedication and commitment to publish
a newsletter month after month, especially after the novelty of it
wears off. And to EOC's credit, Coupe Capers has been published
for many, many years.
It would be interesting to hear what the others on this mailing
list think about the club and the newsletter. Make the old one
better? Start from scratch? Leave it all as is? What do you
think? Maybe what we really need is a really good Coupe website
like the RV crowd has at www.vansairforce.com. This website has so
much to offer that I read it weekly, and I don't even have an RV.
Of course there are lots more RV's than Coupes out there.
Best Regards,
Wayne DelRossi
Alon N5618F
Hours logged since restoration: 347.5
"Nobody has ever scientifically proven that life is supposed to be
serious."
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