Thank you very much Hartmut, your answer and posted material is, as always, excellent. I really appreciate your answer.
Best Regards daniel ________________________________ From: Hartmut Beil <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, April 30, 2010 4:01:23 PM Subject: Re: [ercoupe-tech] Raising the tail: Two more questions Daniel. First have a look at these page here : http://www.ercoupe. info/?n=Main. MainGear It shows the difference between the early style steel gear and the later style aluminum gear. The very first 100 or so Ercoupes had aluminum gear too, but I don't have good enough pictures of those. Then look at this page here : http://www.ercoupe. info/?n=Main. MainGearServicin g It shows how to service the later style gear and also the spacer in question. For the early style gear the same principle applies, the gear just works upside down, with the donut pack on the oleo piston . See the drawing here: http://www.ercoupe. info/uploads/ Main/drawings/ a-655.jpg To your second question. No raising the tail height should not make the handling worse, it rather makes it easier for the pilot in ground operation. Maybe the pilot was still compensating for the non-existing tail position , e.g. pushing the yoke down on take off to get the tail up, but he then doubled the forces since the tail was already up and the steering was hard to do then. Maybe. I recommend for a tail low Ercoupe to always trim for cruise (nose down) before take off. Trimming the ship that way will generate gentle forces that keeps the nose on the runway, while the tail is being lifted a bit. That compensates for some tail low condition and comes in handy for steering at higher speeds, especially on grass runways. I always trim for cruise when taking off in a cross wind. Hartmut From: Daniel Arditi Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 7:30 PM To: ercoupe-tech@ yahoogroups. com Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Raising the tail: Two more questions Hi group, I have two questions regarding this topic about raising the Cupe's tail: 1.- Does anyone have some photographs so we can see the differences between these two models (earlier ones and later models) ? 2.- This one has to do with the flight difference experimented after raising the tail to the correct high: For those who got accustomed in taking off and landing with a "low tail" (especially during take off): Did you have any problem or something to tell about the difference? I once heard that after rising the tail, and on a short grass field the pilot had to abort a take off because he felt uncomfortable as it was a bit hard to rotate in that same field as he used to operate ? Has the rod that commands the elevator a possibility to change to a second (more sensitive) position ? Thanks in advance Best regards daniel arditi Grupo Ercoupe Argentina ________________________________ From: Kevin <kgass...@fuse. net> To: ercoupe-tech@ yahoogroups. com Sent: Fri, April 30, 2010 1:56:53 PM Subject: [ercoupe-tech] Re: Raising Tail on early coupes On the later gear the space between the bottom of the stack of donuts and the clip ring is fixed and you cannot insert an extra donut. But you could make the spacer out of donut like material for extra cushion and replace it as it got compressed. It would not be very thick and would not last long I would think. Kevin1 --- In ercoupe-tech@ yahoogroups. com, "texasaviator" <texasaviator@ ...> wrote: > > > Yes there are several differences. > > The earlier coupes have the steel MLG bolted on to the front of the spar and the later aluminum ones are bolted on the back. > This complicates spar replacement of the earlier models because the spars are different. > > The steel trailing link is longer to make up for the difference of attachment point and come up with the same wheelbase distances. The travel is longer which I think gives a better hydraulic cushioning on landing. It might even have better cross wind landing qualities. ( speculation ) > > The steel spacer will work in raising the tail if inserted together with the donuts. This is much easier to do with the early gear as it does not have the "*%&$" clip ring that needs to be inserted while compressing the stack with a hydraulic press. > > With the steel spacer inserted, the tail will rise. However, by inserting one extra donut in the stack, ( as explained in the 337 procedure I used... I hope it is the one uploaded in the files here), the additional spacer is now also compressible adding to the spring action of the rubber donuts. Rubber donuts are cheaper than the steel spacer as well as lighter. Everybody probably has an old donut somwhere from the last change, A lightly used one may work just great for a small increase in tail height. > > As for using an extra donut with the aluminum MLG, I don't see why it would not work also. A spacer is a spacer.. and it makes more sense to increase the spring factor of the donut stack with an extra rubber spacer than a steel one. Both will stiffen the stack but the steel one will also reduce the travel. > > > Alan Fairclough > N87333 > N94694 >
