Ha ha! Feel free to tell them that they are missing a tiny detail.
Virtually all large airliners handle strong crosswinds just like the Ercoupe, landing wings level in the crab, nose high, and letting friction against the fixed main gear turn the plane at the moment of touchdown. In fact, Fred Weick, designer of the Ercoupe and owner of the patent for the tricycle landing gear as it's used since the '30s, told me he expected about half the Coupes to be sold WITH rudder pedals. It was the marketing department's notion that two controls were the Coupe's main stand-out feature (gimmick) and that's why virtually all were manufactured as two control planes. Both two-control and three-control configurations were part of the original design. However, in strong crosswinds, stronger than about 15 mph crosswind component, even a three-control Coupe is best landed wings level in a crab, touching down nose high, just like the two-control Coupes. Send this link to the skeptics for their entertainment. It's video of either crosswind training or testing for BIG airliners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljOxo0s33sI&mode=related&search= or http://tinyurl.com/yaa35r3 Here's my crosswind landing page: http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/coupe_flying.htm ; ety Ed Burkhead > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Donald > Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 11:50 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Funny Tales About Ercoupes > > I have only had my coupe for four months, but when discussing it with my aviator > friends, almost always comes up the question "Does it have rudder pedals?" > When I reply that it does not, invariably the response is "Oh you need to install rudder > pedals, they came out with the pedals later because they found that you cannot land > an Ercoupe in a crosswind without them". > I don't think anyones opinion was changed by my explanation. > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > >
