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Yes, well I'm planning to anyway, but before I do I need to figure out the legality of it. I know I can build just about anything as an experimental aircraft and I am fine on that as far as the FAA is concerned. My question is what about the fact that Univair owns the type certs for the plane that I will be building. Will I have any legal obligation to them? By the way: If you want the background on this before calling me a nut then read on. If not then just stop now and call me a nut anyway. I've been hooked on flying ever since a kind pilot invited an awestruck three year old me up to see the cockpit of a 747 many years ago. It kind of sets the backdrop for a scene for two summers ago, a 25 year old computer tech working at an airport, with a week of complimentary passes to Oshkosh and two weeks vacation. It was my first Oshkosh and the first time I saw an ercoupe. Oshkosh renewed my obsession with aircraft, flying, warbirds, and the usual kitplanes... but left an odd fascination with an unusual plane out in the grass. N2546H, perhaps the most simply and elegantly unique plane at the show. Yes, it was an ercoupe. Oshkosh left it's mark, I signed up for flight lessons the next week. I didn't think much about the Ercoupe in my original fascination with kitplanes, but it seemed to keep coming up, mostly for financial reasons. When I finaly set about seriously looking for my own plane it turned out that an Ercoupe was about the most elegant plane I could afford. I must thank Steve Christmas for my first ride in an Ercoupe, and it was a wonderous flight. But financial circumstances and the loss of a roommate constrained my budget still further and I was unable to buy it. I sincerely hope that Steve has found a good new owner for that plane and , I wish him the best of luck. I was hooked on Ercoupes but by now my budget was barely up to an ercoupe project. I sought them out anyway, to little avail. Discouraged, I returned to looking at kitplanes, then downgraded even that to looking at plans. Hope eventually started to return, after all I work at an airport, surrounded by enough equipment and expertise to roll a new BizJet off the line every couple of weeks. It also turns out that quite a few people at work have built, or are building, kitplanes, some of them from plans. I might not end up owning an Ercoupe but at least I would end up owning something, and I would get to actually build it.. Bonus. Then a thought struck me, why not build an Ercoupe from plans, it doesn't look too complicated and the plans have to be out there somewhere. I started looking and found them easily enough, though not at Univair where I had expected. The CAC archives had Ercoupe plans, from Engineering Research Co. no less, and it would only cost $37.50 to get a copy. I ordered the plans without a second though, I would probably have done the same even if I didn't plan to use them. So here I am now, waiting on the plans, wondering if anyone has tried this before, pondering the legal fineries of it all, and wondering if it's all entirely sane in the first place. Either way, wish me luck. This looks like the beginning of a grand adventure. Chris Trent ========================================================================== ==== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
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