You bet your ass! "Caveat Emptor" indeed! I learned that if you go slumming for a "deal" on a 415C, you'll find a slum lord somewhere just waiting to give you one. And don't let so-called "fresh annuals" sway your decision. Unfortunate but true, there are enough A&P IAs out there that will sign off on a truly unfit aircraft and mark it as airworthy when it's anything but. And then owners like me, who didn't use a trustworthy independent inspector to do a pre-buy, get stuck with a piece of crap airplane that we unknowningly pass on to the next owner who also goes by the sign-offs and doesn't do his or her own due diligence.
IMHO, I would never buy another plane, Ercoupe or otherwise, unless it was inspected by my own guy or gal who had no financial interest in the aircraft; further, I would never agree to sell an aircraft to someone unless he or she paid for their own pre-buy before taking delivery. I'm more interested in maintaining a name and reputation that is known as honest and truthful than buying or selling a so-called "bargain." There, now I'm off my soapbox for today. Carl LaVon --- In [email protected], jh <j...@...> wrote: > > jackwhickman wrote: > > I am new to the group and looking at Ercoupe's to buy. I want an LSA. I > > have two questions about mods. (1) Do metal wings on a 415C, indicate it > > is no longer an LSA, or another way to ask the question, can you metalize > > the wings without driving a 415C out of the LSA category? > yes, you can metalize the wings, but watch out for the extra weight, > which reduces the net carrying capacity of the plane. I think the Weight > and Balance will have to be redone as well. > > (2) Can you modify a 415C to get a 90 or 100 HP engine and still qualify > > as an LSA? I am obviously new to Ercoupe's, any help is greatly > > appreciated. > > > This is more a question of whether it's allowed for the plane by what's > called an STC, than whether it qualifies as LSA. The Ercoupe is > certified in the "normal" class. Installing an engine that isn't > certified for that plane makes it an "experimental". I don't know the > ramifications of that. > > If I may offer some candid advice, I've been searching for a reliable, > reasonably priced 415 C or CD for months, and have perused the complete > records of several. There's a lot more going on with regard to the > quality and reliability of Ercoupes than I naively thought when starting > out. After all, the FAA is taking care of us, aren't they? > > Take a look at the Web page; > > http://www.ercoupe.org/Prepurchase_inspection.html > > for an eye opener of all the potential issues. > > And, go through the archive of this discussion list searching for the > words "crash" and "failure". Furthermore, 3 Ercoupe 415s crashed between > April and June, I think it was. 2 of them were fatal. Pilot error, > mechanical failure, both? I don't know. > > The other thing is, in this market, where so many are looking for > inexpensive LSA airplanes, the Ercoupe 415Cs are in high demand. Prices > are $10-$15K higher than comparable non-LSA Ercoupes. What's worse, many > of the 415Cs were converted to 415Ds, which is a legal change. But, the > 415D isn't LSA compliant. It has a MTOW ("gross weight") of 1400 lbs. > And, the FAA won't allow them to be converted back, even though it's > easy to do. > > I hope this is helpful. > > It's certainly caveat emptor out there. So, be careful and be safe. > > Regards, > > Jim Hart > > > > > >
