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Tim: All I can say is, 'we need you.' We need people who show us solutions, as much as problems. We need lead A&Ps and AIs who can offer us the kind of guidance and mentoring we need to find *solutions* that don't make Coupe ownership more expensive than Bonanza ownership! Part of that is to be able to offer guidance to the mechanics who work on Ercoupes. It used to be that every A&P probably worked on 10 Ercoupes on a regular basis. Now 1 in 10 A&Ps has ever touched one. On top of that, in a lot of areas of the country the A&P community is so unstable that we have no choice...our favorite mechanics retire, the FBOs go out of business, and so on. We can't necessarily afford to educate a new A&P on every operation at $60.00/hour. We have to be able to give them resources to come 'up to speed' quickly. My old Ercoupe was 'adopted' by her AI, who fell in love at first sight. We've been doing owner-assist annuals for a couple of years. Then he up and moves to Florida, taking my (former) baby with him! On top of that he gets a job right where I suggested! Hell's bells! So now I again know the feeling of being at loose ends. Greg At 05:12 PM 6/28/02 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >I am the guilty party for getting this started. Thus it would be wrong of me >to keep bow out now and leave some of you on your own. Here is my story. A >few facts to start with. >1) I am a brand new coupe owner >2) This was my first Ercoupe convention >3) I am an A&P and IA >4) I have owned two 1940 Piper J5A's and a 1946 Cessna 120 ( In other words >antique aircraft) Plus several other newer airplanes. >5) I thought the Coupe convention was great and I was very glad I went. >6) I thought the maintenance seminar was very informative and depressing at >the same time. > My original comments were brought about by the feeling that after the >meeting I might have wasted my money by buying the coupe. I think that no >one wants serious information swept under the rug. It's information that >helped me reinspect my airplane when I got home. Fortunately I have no >problems at this time. My way of thinking is that, yes we all need >information but on the other hand there are different ways of presenting this >information. I thought that when Jr. sat down and John Sr. took over I >learned a whole lot of useful information. I was in the Piper type club >during the time when wood spar AD's where coming out requiring more >inspection holes. Aronica has had the same problem. The information was >presented that "hey we have a problem, but we are all going to work through >it and keep our airplanes in the air". My perspective after the meeting was >that most of the airplanes here are not airworthy and unless you have a >thirty-thousand dollar airplane it's probably scrap. Also the idea that the >FAA is out to put us out of the air is crazy. The FAA has reason to believe >that more inspections are needed on the spar center section. Is this reason >to think they are trying to get us out of the air? From the talk I heard, >you would think the feds are making us cut our airplanes up and burying >them. The statement was made during the meeting "that we do not need to give >the FAA any more information about the ercoupe so they can have ammo for >ad's" and that was later followed up by the statement " I have talked to the >FAA about issuing an AD on the steering rod" >In conclusion: We do not need to be calling the FAA and Univair people >morons and fools and painting a dooms day picture for coupes. We should be >giving out all the information available about these problems and get our >heads together to overcome them. I have never had a problem getting a field >approval or a 337 passed through the feds. Maybe it's because we treat each >other with mutual respect and talk through our disagreements. I have >repaired Moony B's with spar cap corrosion and many other airplanes with >corrosion. We can overcome this problem! We can! Lets be more optimistic. >I want my coupe to fly on it's 100 birthday. > >Tim >================================================================== >TO UNSUBSCRIBE go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm ================================================================== TO UNSUBSCRIBE go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
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