Tom, I'm sorry you got a bad impression of John Wright, Sr. One thing I ask on our forum is that no one describe anyone else in a disparaging manner. We insist on maintaining a civil tone.
In this case, John is someone whom I respect very highly and he has been helping people on a purely voluntary basis for thirty years, that I know of. Not to mention, his shop rates are way lower than the going rates in many (?most?) shops. My observation is that John's knowledge of Coupe mechanics is in the top three in the nation. After I moved from Iowa to Illinois I was only 70 miles from Springfield where John lives. I had him do extensive work on my Coupe to bring it back to full safety and we discussed each issue and cost, often in person, and my conclusion was that he treated me more than fairly and did not charge me for many of the hours he spent and I was, indeed, topped out on what I could afford. (I've heard other A&P / AI mechanics say they don't want to work on our planes because we, as owners, are unwilling or unable to pay what the work is truly worth.) After his retirement from being a civilian mechanic for the Air Guard, John spent full time working on planes, probably about two thirds of them Coupes. (Local friends prevailed on him to do their planes and club planes which accounts for the rest.) Requests for John to work on Coupes (and other planes) are probably double to several times more than he can accomplish and he is (and needs to be) very choosy about which jobs he does. He has slowed down a lot due to age and even more after medical problems a few years ago. He has to be choosy about what jobs he accepts and friends and long time EOC members get some priority. Then there are those who ask him to do pre-purchase inspections and other work. John's work capacity is limited and I doubt that he needs the money. He does this as a hobby and a favor to those who need it up to the capacity he can manage. He has no employees and it can hardly be called a business. He can't be pushed into doing work and being pushy with him would likely produce negative results. I think I've heard of John replacing center section spar assemblies. I don't know any of the mechanics of doing this (I am not a mechanic and I'd sure better not play one on the Internet). If John says it takes a jig, there may be a lot of truth to that. To replace a center section spar probably requires great care for alignment. I don't know how tight those alignment requirements are. Perhaps, if you measured alignment on a couple or three good-condition-Coupes with a Smart Level (electronic level, accurate to 1/10°) and aligned your assembly to match the other, you'd be good enough. I don't know. It's true that most aircraft construction is hand work. However, ERCO was a leader in automated aircraft manufacturing equipment and, perhaps, they had some means of drilling those spar holes that would make alignment easier if you had a used spar. I don't know. I have heard of other spar replacements being done around the country. I don't know how well. Remember the case in Alaska cited by Paul Anton a few messages back. Wish I could give you a more definitive answer on whether it really takes a jig or whether it's really better to use a used spar with existing holds. On those issues I can't help. On dealing with John, I'd advise that he is worth knowing and trusting. Ed Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm ed -at- edbur???khead.XXX change -at- to @, remove ??? and change XXX to com
