Interesting about the damaged Cirrus (Cirri) showing up. As an FBO, one of my main biases toward any composite airplane is the difficulty of fixing minor airframe damage in the field.
If a customer dings a wing tip of a metal airplane, my guys can fix it in our shop. Not so with a composite. We had a fool fly our 172 a couple of years ago without tying down the small step ladder that was in the baggage bay. Then she took some friends a ride, and was doing some mild, negative G push overs. The ladder floated up, hit the rear window, shattering it. Shards of the window hit the tail surfaces, and actually put a couple of nice sized cuts in the sheet metal. One of the shards stayed imbedded in the horizontal stab. Our guys re-skinned the horizontal, painted the new skin, and had the airplane back on line in less than a week. Try doing that in a typical FBO maint. shop with a composite airframe. Jerry E. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of WILLIAM BIGGS Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 11:15 PM To: heavensounds; [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [ercoupe-tech] July Flying Mag I watch the insurance company aircraft salvage sites and Cirrus aircraft show up pretty often. Have also seen a few damaged Cirrus projects on ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: [email protected]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:01:41 -0500 Subject: Re: [ercoupe-tech] July Flying Mag IMHO it's the same that happens to Cirrus. The way it is marketed, and the fact that it has a parachute (which is indeed a wonderful safety feature) tempts pilots not so be as cautious and careful as they should be, so they abuse the safety feature. Apart from the "psychological trap", I don't think the Ercoupe, nor the Cirrus, are less safe than other GA airplanes, quite the contrary. Just MHO Eliacim ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 10:52 PM Subject: [ercoupe-tech] July Flying Mag Have you all seen the July issue of Flying magazine article on Angle of Attack. page 60? Have you ever wondered why our airplanes never achieved Fred Weick's expectation that the non spinable Ercoupe would be a safer airplane? Perhaps this is part of the answer: stall-mush type accidents. Flip over ( trapped inside) and fire may be another factor. How about a vigorous discussion of this issue with some suggestions about how to increase safety ? Jim Graham N2418H -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Earn cashback on your purchases with Live Search - the search that pays you back! Learn More
