Jim,
I've never flown a Cherokee 140 so perhaps some comparison with a Short Wing Piper would give you some information. A friend had the 2-place version of the Tri-Pacer, the Colt. At very low airspeeds, the Colt could sink even better than the Ercoupe, but it was in the same ballpark. The sink rate at very low airspeeds is amazing in those thick wing aircraft. So, while flying mine for a couple of decades, I didn't fly at very low airspeeds near the ground except when doing very, very careful tests. When flown near of faster than the best glide speed, Coupes, Short Wing Pipers and thick-wing-Cherokees are quite well behaved. So, pay attention and do it right. And, in a feeble attempt at humor, that is different from any other airplane type how? Yes, the Coupes are noisy. I recommend always using hearing defending headsets. Take a good set of those and beg a ride in a candidate Coupe and see if it's acceptable to you. I found it to be in the tolerable range with my pre-active-noise-reduction Telex HearDefenders. The bubble windshield on the Alon will be a bit quieter than the bent flat-Plexiglas windshield on my Ercoupe. Also, the later planes had more sound insulation (and thus also, a bit more weight) than my earlier plane. A big advantage of the Ercoupe, Forney Aircoupes and some Alon Aircoupes is that they have full vision canopies with no "roof." Yeah, the sky overhead isn't as interesting as the ground, but I love the full arc visibility of the sky around me. The later Alon Aircoupes and the Mooney have the top of the canopy painted or something as if it were a solid roof. You're back in the cave like in so many other aircraft. Pfuey! Yes, the Cherokee will be roomier and quieter than any model Coupe. Perhaps that'll fit your mission better. Coupes will burn about 5.4-5.6 gph or, with an O-200 about 6 gph or so. To me, most importantly, my observation is that Coupes are more fun to fly. Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm ed -at- edbur???khead.yyy change -at- to @, remove the ??? and change yyy to com
