Today I was attending a Civil Air Patrol class on mountain flying
in Winchester Va when an Ercoupe landed and was getting fuel. As
most of us do - I walked out to visit with the pilot and to look at
his Coupe, comparing it with mine. As he was sliding the pilot side
window down it cracked near the back track and slowly the crack
moved along the window. He had just picked up the Coupe and stopped
for fuel before flying home to Rhode Island.
As everything was closed since it was a weekend I found some clear
shipping tape in the Admin building. We taped the window shut,
sealed the crack as best we could, he entered the Coupe from the
right side and away he went towards home. I put several layers of
tape on the crack in different directions to hold it in place. We
looked for duct tape but no luck.
Hopefully he will make it to his home base without any more
problems. Never know what you will be confronted with on a nice
Saturday afternoon. Especially when an Ercoupe makes your day.
Jim Truxel
N3439H
415C
Frederick, Md
I feel bad about taking so long to reply, but I'm still kind of
recovering from: Fri. - motoring from RI to WV, Sat. getting to
hostile mechanic's place about 10 AM and my friend loaded my spare
parts into my van while I tried to sort out the "new" bird and deal
with the mechanic, the paperwork and his extortion. As some of you
know, I killed my first Ercoupe 8/08 in Wisconsin and bought a
project plane from a fellow in VA and this guy was recommended to me
to take the good stuff from my smash-plane and make a good one out of
the two. Medium success... I had hoped for something pretty cherry,
but it turns out to be kind of on a par with what I had from '05-'08,
but new paint (but not the design I specified...) and nice paint on
the panel, except for his five big gouges in the new panel paint (and
lots of overspray just for good measure). Like the song goes, "you
don't know what you've got 'till it's gone" or something to that
effect. Anyway, having not flown since 8/08, it was a little
terrifying flying out of the guys short grass strip (the deal was
that he was to fly it to Winchester for me... so I would start with
it at OKV - 5000' there) (I'm still good with my last Flight Review,
so it was quite legal), but I got it up & out and into Winchester
where I needed gas (thank goodness it was pretty light getting off
the grass). In trying to get out, the side window was all bound up
and I could not correct it - it broke. About that time, Jim Truxel
showed up and took mercy on my plight. He got a roll of tape and
taped the window together. THANK YOU SO MUCH, JIM!!!!!! So I got my
100 LotsaLead, did three in the pattern (now around noon) and went to
Carlisle and topped off. Then direct to Westerly, RI, fill up and
got it in the hangar, and my wife helped me get the junk into the car
and she drove me home in the dark. Then I got a meal, having nothing
since breakfast around 8.
Bottom line, we seem to have a wonderful ersatz fraternal order here
and it is obviously a wonderful thing. When Jim showed up with
Ercoupe on his polo shirt, I asked if he was on the "jungle
telegraph" and he said yes and told me his name, which was familiar.
When I got back, Lynn Nelson kindly helped me with information on my
elevator rigging (now have split on my 415-C, but rigged wrong), and
Mike at Skyport was super this morning, giving me the size of the
window - I now have two sheets of plexi from a local shop (my brother
got my mind right and told me to do both sides). Thanks again to all
who helped!
Jim Beach Brennan
NC93963
415C
Westerly, RI
And the project resumes... replacing the window(s), cleaning the
overspray, getting the elevator rigged, and so on and on and on.
Maybe someday it will be fine... thought it would be all done, but
now it feels like I am starting all over again. And so it goes...
Hope to see y'all in Illinois this fall. I will post a photo of the
"new" plane when I have something.
