Ed. If Fred Weick expected half the fleet being sold with rudder pedals, why would a designer go through so much work and develop the complicated and then so easy mechanism for the two control plane? The twin rudders were a result of the developments for the two control, as is the canted engine mount. All to assure that the aircraft flies straight even without the input of the rudders. Really, if I expect half of my customers wanting to have a three control aircraft, why not stick with the single rudder tail of the prototype, the model 310 ?
However, from what I read, the airplane was designed around eliminating pilot errors. One is the unintentional stall that is mitigated with the elevator limitation, the other is cross controlled stalls by making the plane a two control aircraft. Rudder pedals are against this idea. I read that in the thirties most airfields were just that - fields. You could always land into the wind, thus eliminating the need for landing in cross winds and hence the need for rudder pedals. Maybe it was the other way around. The marketing department pushing for rudder pedals to give the folks what they were used to. My experience is that I rarely have to combat a strong cross wind. Runways are aligned with the prevailing wind directions and usually things work out just easy. I value the peace of mind of the two control airplane more than I would add rudder pedals for these rare occasions of cross wind landings. Landings by the way are one thing, take offs in a strong cross wind another. Here I might point out that adjusting the trim for cruise helps a lot keeping the nose down and the plane aligned in the take off run. Hartmut From: Ed Burkhead Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 10:39 PM To: 'Donald' ; ety Subject: RE: [ercoupe-tech] Funny Tales About Ercoupes 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 > > >
