Favorite airplane?

[DRC458]

Never was a fan of the rudder pedal mod. The rudders aren't terribly effective anyway
being that only one deflects at a time and they're small. Adding pedals serves only to ruin
the fun of crabbing it right down on the ground.
Which is not the way most of us were trained
but incredibly entertaining and perfectly safe.

To be honest, I don't know how many of these 'advisers' had actually flown an Ercoupe, and how many were just offering their opinion. My biggest concern was always, how well do they do in a vicious Oklahoma cross wind? I remember one time specifically when I was still working on my Private ticket and I had to deal with the worst wind shear I have ever experienced, and I was solo. My instructor happened to be flying with another student and he was in the pattern watching/coaching me. It worked out well, but there was certainly some pucker factor!

 

[Dave70968]

Addition of rudder pedals was a common modification to the originals. A lot of folks tried to talk me out of buying one at all; but, if I was going to, they said to be sure it had the rudder pedal mod. Too bad it never worked out.

I'd never heard of the mod for the Ercoupe, just the subsequent design of the Aircoupe. Neat!

Convair B-36. I've only seen one. It was on static display at the old Chanute A.F.B. in Chanute Il.

There's one at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH. Big damned airplane! "Two turning, two burning, two smoking, two choking, and two unaccounted for!" 336 spark plugs; anybody want to be a maintenance chief on that bird?

 

[RVCooper]

To be honest, I don't know how many of these 'advisers' had actually flown an Ercoupe, and how many were just offering their opinion. My biggest concern was always, how well do they do in a vicious Oklahoma cross wind? I remember one time specifically when I was still working on my Private ticket and I had to deal with the worst wind shear I have ever experienced, and I was solo. My instructor happened to be flying with another student and he was in the pattern watching/coaching me. It worked out well, but there was certainly some pucker factor!

These things can handle more crosswind than you can imagine. Crab in to the wind and plant it on the mains, still in a crab.
Its a trailing-link main gear so the airplane pivots around straight ahead once you've touched down. Plant the nose wheel right after
because you cant steer it until you do. There's not enough up elevator travel to keep the nose up for long anyhow. In proper rig, the
airplane sits on the ground with a negative angle of attack so it will run along the ground at a good clip and wont fly. I have heard my nose wheel squealing on pavement during a cross-wind takeoff before but its not there for long, at least. Kinda weird though!
Saw a youtube once of somebody landing in what looked like every bit of a 60 degree crab. wish I could find it again. That was some breeze. Some of the guys in the owners club claim they can do it in a 45kt. direct. Id buy a ticket to watch that. And mine lives on a grass strip which makes us look better anyway! The biggest scare I've had is getting too slow close to the ground. Those short wings sink! And as I mentioned, little travel in the up elevator to save your patooty. Airspeed is life.

 

[dennishoddy]

 

[gerhard1]

Personally, I've always had a soft spot for the Boeing 707. I was there at Renton when the last ones were being put together and it is such a pretty airplane. Production ended in 1979.

 

[DRC458]

@RVCooper - you make me want to start flying again!

 

[skyhawk1]

These things can handle more crosswind than you can imagine. Crab in to the wind and plant it on the mains, still in a crab.
Its a trailing-link main gear so the airplane pivots around straight ahead once you've touched down. Plant the nose wheel right after
because you cant steer it until you do. There's not enough up elevator travel to keep the nose up for long anyhow. In proper rig, the
airplane sits on the ground with a negative angle of attack so it will run along the ground at a good clip and wont fly. I have heard my nose wheel squealing on pavement during a cross-wind takeoff before but its not there for long, at least. Kinda weird though!
Saw a youtube once of somebody landing in what looked like every bit of a 60 degree crab. wish I could find it again. That was some breeze. Some of the guys in the owners club claim they can do it in a 45kt. direct. Id buy a ticket to watch that. And mine lives on a grass strip which makes us look better anyway! The biggest scare I've had is getting too slow close to the ground. Those short wings sink! And as I mentioned, little travel in the up elevator to save your patooty. Airspeed is life.

I've always been told that if you learn to make good landings in Oklahoma you can land about anywhere. That's one reason the Army Air Corp had so many training fields in Oklahoma (which are a lot of the small town airports we have to day!)

 

[Dave70968]

Personally, I've always had a soft spot for the Boeing 707. I was there at Renton when the last ones were being put together and it is such a pretty airplane. Production ended in 1979.

Did you ever see the video of Tex Johnston rolling the thing?

"As this video shows, the whole stunt was filmed, and Tex was called into the office of his supervisor. When his boss asked him what he thought he was doing rolling his plane in the air, Tex replied, 'I’m selling airplanes.'”
https://www.avgeekery.com/fbf-day-tex-johnson-rolled-boeing-707-jetliner/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_M._Johnston

 

[skyhawk1]

Got an hour in the back seat, Doc Hisey let me have the stick for about 30 minutes!View attachment 112606

here is after the flight

 

[RVCooper]

@RVCooper - you make me want to start flying again!

Well, I've got the Coupe for sale!