Rick asked: > What is the Glide Ratio of the 415-CD and best Glide Speed?
We don't have an accurate set of numbers for this. I did very careful glide testing and would have been able to give an accurate answer except that my airspeed indicator was WAY off accurate back then - and I don't know by just how much. In the process, I did learn something about gliding in the Ercoupe. I had an extra interest in this subject after my one forced landing. http://ercoupe.org/Fly-in%20Reports/Gas-line-ice.htm Testing confirmed what we all know - at low airspeeds the short, thick wings on the Coupes produce a high sink rate. The surprise was that at higher airspeeds, the gliding sink rate wasn't bad at all. Making a correction for the faulty airspeed indicator, I found that the best glide ratio occurred in the 75-85 range with the higher speed tail of the curve being only mildly sloped. I'm guessing the true glide ratio at about 78-80 mph was about 10:1. At 10 mph faster, the glide ratio was only a little bit less. At 10 mph slower, the glide ratio was a LOT less. What you need to do FIRST is to calibrate your airspeed indicator to be sure it's correct. We've found that a LOT of ASIs can be in considerable error, usually on the high side. I was very happy with the 115-118 mph my Coupe flew but eventually got suspicious when it I always took lots longer to go both directions in an out and back flight compared to my flight plan. It turned out my Coupe, with its climb prop, was really flying 100 mph at that rpm. Here's more about ASI errors and calibration: http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/airspeed_indicator_errors.htm Ed Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm ed -at- edbur???khead.XXX change -at- to @, remove ??? and change XXX to com
