Podcasts about ercoupe

This week Greg Your Co-Pilot makes real progress with his flight training in a Ercoupe. Plus we preview Beechbash in the Bluegrass and Sun-n-Fun.

It was supposed to be an airplane for the people.

How cold is too cold the fly? Mike, Paul, and Colleen answer this question, and help an owner solve radio problems, advise an owner to fix his probes, and describe the process to become an A&P in the latest episode. Send your questions and comments to podcasts@aopa.org for a chance to be on the show. Full notes below: Chad has a Cirrus and he's looking for some cold-weather guidance. A mechanic told him that subzero temps aren't recommended for a piston. The POH says that flights below -23 degrees Celsius need the cowl inlet plates. The hosts agree that there's no problem flying in cold weather, but cold starting requires some care and preheating. Mike said the only problem with low oil temperature is that it doesn't boil off the moisture, and low cylinder head temperatures could bring lead scavenging problems. Colleen said that lead deposits only matter on valves because it could prevent them from seating properly. But, that can be cleaned off if it occurs. Andy has an LX7, a turbocharged airplane. His TIT sensors don't seem to be working. He's been using CHT and EGT as a proxy for TIT and he wants to know if that's a problem. Why not just fix it, Mike says. Andy said he is planning to fix it at the next annual, but Mike said to deal with it now. They recommend a range of troubleshooting options, but agree that it's not a probe issue. Darrell has a radio in his Ercoupe, but above 1,200 rpm it is static-y and unreadable. He's checked the antenna, the coax, the mags, and more. Paul said it's most likely a connection issue. He recommends starting with the Veclro microphone key switch. Next move to the microphone plug, which often oxidizes. The hosts also recommend checking the P-lead. Chase wants to get his A&P based on some of his own owner maintenance, refurb work, and building an airplane. He wants to know how to log his time. Mike said this is highly variable based on the inspector's preferences, so he recommends calling the FSDO to ask what they want. When Mike went through this process he went back and recreated some of his previous experience on an Excel spreadsheet. Paul helps his employees get their A&P by recording the N-number, date, description, and time in a logbook. It's important to note that there's no calendar time limit of how far back you can go.

Jessica Cox, World's first armless pilot! Pilots with disabilities: Her journey and future! She doesn't let anything stop her. Her mission is to help inspire others, especially those with disabilities, that they can "fly" too! We discuss her memorable Oshkosh cross-country journey, her first experiences in an airplane. We also talk about why the Ercoupe was her airplane of choice and her newest airplane project! She's working towards that RV grin. Want inspiration? Want to support Jessica? Listen and find out how you or your aviation community could help her realize her goal of encouraging other pilots with disabilities to keep aiming for the sky! Find Jessica Cox here: Facebook: @JCMSofficial Instagram: @rightfooted Website: www.jessicacox.com

A small number of legacy aricraft have been sanctioned by the FAA to fly under LSA rules. That's a good thing as it allows you to fly using only your driver's license as your medical. The Ercoupe is the pick of the legacy litter as it has tricycle gear and is the easiest for most of us to fly. Learning to do the rudder dnace is required to get all the other off the ground and bring them back to earth. The Ercoupe is worth a look and in my mind a purchase if you can find a good one.

FOQA is a voluntary safety program that is designed to make commercial aviation safer by allowing commercial airlines and pilots to share de-identified aggregate information with the FAA so that the FAA can monitor national trends in aircraft operations and target its resources to address operational risk issues (e.g., flight operations, air traffic control (ATC), airports). The fundamental objective of this new FAA/pilot/carrier partnership is to allow all three parties to identify and reduce or eliminate safety risks, as well as minimize deviations from the regulations. To achieve this objective and obtain valuable safety information, the airlines, pilots, and the FAA are voluntarily agreeing to participate in this program so that all three organizations can achieve a mutual goal of making air travel safer. From AOPA: The FAA requires ADS-B Out capability in the continental United States, in the ADS-B rule airspace designated by FAR 91.225: Class A, B, and C airspace; Class E airspace at or above 10,000 feet msl, excluding airspace at and below 2,500 feet agl; Within 30 nautical miles of a Class B primary airport (the Mode C veil); Above the ceiling and within the lateral boundaries of Class B or Class C airspace up to 10,000 feet; Class E airspace over the Gulf of Mexico, at and above 3,000 feet msl, within 12 nm of the U.S. coast. From AvWeb Insider: If I were more diligent about keeping logbooks, I could look up the date when my airplane partner and I flew up to meet John and Martha King in Jacksonville for some kind of event or another. When we got to the airport to depart, the weather was crap; probably ¼-mile and indefinite ceiling. It was night. This was—and probably still is—just the kind of instrument flying I love. I remember John saying he agreed and was happy to see someone else actually doing it. Despite that avuncular presence on the green screen, Mr. King's inner wild child is revealed by another comment he made earlier that day when we were discussing the five bad attitudes the FAA is always trying to browbeat us with to warn that a mild-mannered podiatrist can metastasize into a psychopath at just a whiff of 100LL. You remember them, right? Anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho and resignation. “Hell,” John observed, “you have to have three of those just to want to be a pilot in the first place.” My three are that I have resigned myself to my anti-authoritarian impulsivity and so far my machismo has rendered me untouchable. I guess I'm over budget. And here, I'll segue into the Martha Lunken story Russ Niles filed this week and which is otherwise bouncing around social media like a rubber check in a tile bathroom. Summary: Ms. Lunken, a well-known Ohio aviation personality and Flying Magazine columnist, decided, on a whim, to fly under the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge that carries I-71 over the Little Miami River in Oregonia. Ohio. Here's a picture, so you can see the appeal. It's the highest bridge in Ohio. If your reaction is, “that would be a cakewalk,” you're not alone. But the act is indefensibly boneheaded, which she admits. But for one line in the FAA enforcement letter, it's not wild-eyed crazy, either. The line is: There were people under the bridge. It provides no further detail so we don't know if they were in boats or having picnics on the shore. For me personally, if I were willing to take on the bridge stunt, I'm not willing to risk the remote chance of having the flaming wreckage with me in it land between the chicken and the potato salad of the Stooldrear's Sunday outing. That, if you'll pardon me, is a bridge too far.   I'm not too worried about knocking the bridge over or hitting cars. Still, I wouldn't try it for reasons related to the thrill-versus-consequences ratio. The potential ^%$ storm Ms. Lunken is now inevitably enduring, with this blog being another predictable gust, is hardly worth the payoff. Now if I were flying with Michael Goulian inverted … give me a minute on that. Nor would I accept the argument that one bridge buzz job is necessarily emblematic of a pattern of bad judgment or a gateway drug to yet more demented acts, say, like buying an Ercoupe. Being a columnist and all, Lunken is an opinion leader of sorts and thus expected to be, if not a moral guidepost, at least not too much of a knucklehead. It is a kind of burden to bear, earned or deserved or not. Readers develop a perception of a media persona as somehow an exemplar. Perhaps showing yourself to be all too human is the on-ramp to redemption. Nonetheless, one needn't bore holes under a major interstate artery to reach that higher plane of aeronautical wisdom conferred upon those of us who sin, repent and rejoin the flock. The more mundane runway excursions, fuel exhaustions and taxiing into hangar doors should suffice without the prospect of a permanent chair on the beach because you appeared to show criminal intent. The eye-opener is that the FAA raised the charge to Murder 1 because they claimed Lunken intentionally turned off her ADS-B to avoid detection. She says she did not. This shows the low standard of proof in administrative law. You are presumed guilty if the government says you are and the burden is on you to prove otherwise. They revoked all of her certificates. She has to start anew if she wants to fly again. Odd calculus indeed. If I had to go through all that just to reinstate my certificates, I'd rejoin my bowling league. That said, there might yet be a pretty good T-shirt business is this. Aviation, like motorcycling, has its outlaw contingent. Her case also shows the uneven way penalties are assessed. The day before we reported this, I got a call from a reporter in Oregon asking about a case where a local pilot—the mayor of a town—was suspended for 200 days for operating a Skyhawk that was two years out of annual and without having had a flight review in six years. He appears to have run the airplane out of gas and landed on a beach causing grievous injuries to one of his passengers. Scroll to 11:11 in this video to see it. In my view, he got a light sentence despite a persistent pattern of bad judgment and noncompliance. While we're at it, don't let it escape notice that ADS-B is now an enforcement tool, even if isn't working. And I did not know that if the FAA decides you turned it off to evade detection, it's an automatic—or at least potential—revocation. And since bad things come in threes, I learned of another accident this week in which ADS-B may be a factor. A flight school Skyhawk crash landed on a golf course after an ADS-B track that may show impromptu aerobatics. Even if that isn't true, the ADS-B will be the music for a rug dance for the pilots, I'm sure. There are two blades to this dull axe. On the one hand, if knowing that ADS-B is the all-seeing eye it may appear to be serves as an inhibition to doing stupid stuff—like flying under bridges on a whim—that's not a bad thing. On the other hand, the data might be compromised or made to somehow catch you in a marginal act leading to enforcement that wouldn't have otherwise happened. I'd much prefer they spend their resources trying to find causes for all those unknown engine failures. Of course, if your airplane has no electrical system, like my old Cub, that's different, isn't it? (It does have the 1930's style three-foot N-numbers under the wing, however.) I'm still not doing the bridge thing. Bucket list or not, I've never liked explaining myself and I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna start now. Don't want the time, not doing the crime.  

24 Year old Kieran Tookey recently rebuilt his 1947 Ercoupe. He sat down with us to talk about this shiny airplane, and the various adrenaline fuelled hobbies he enjoys.    Kieran: https://www.instagram.com/ktookster/ Brian: https://www.instagram.com/intheblueyonder/ Scott: https://www.instagram.com/holmes540/

Pilot and motivational speaker Jessica Cox, who was born without arms and uses her feet and toes in place of hands, talks about flying an Ercoupe across the U.S. to help celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act.

This episode is a story of a family trip to Oshkosh AirVenture, a very unique family trip to Oshkosh. James Good lives in California, and he, his wife and son went to Oshkosh AirVenture 2019. While that is certainly special, what’s unique about their story is that James flew his two seat 1948 Ercoupe, while … Continue reading 25 – California to Oshkosh Family Adventure

We talk with Joey Shreve, who’s a relatively new Sport Pilot. Joey flew in to Airventure Oshkosh 2018 for the first time in his 1946 Ercoupe 415-C. Talking with Joey is a fantastic example of how Oshkosh is more than airplanes. There’s so many interesting people to meet there too! Joey shares his adventure of … Continue reading 22 – Sport Pilot Flies to Oshkosh (2018)

In his talk, Alan Meyer provides an engaging account of private aviation, taking the audience inside a community that required exceptionally high skill levels, celebrated facing and overcoming risk, and encouraged fierce personal independence. Meyer uses the rise and fall of the Ercoupe, a personal plane lauded for its safety and intuitive operation, to show how ideas about pilot skill influenced the market for small airplanes in the postwar era—and the makeup of the flying community. Despite the Ercoupe's revolutionary—and life-saving—design, it was largely spurned and ridiculed by this community of mostly male aviators, who valued the high barriers to personal flying. Through the failure of the Ercoupe, Meyer explains how the technology of flying continued to reinforce these values.

When most aviation people hear the phrase “Ercoupe Racing”, they may pause, they may chuckle a bit, and they’re usually quite intrigued and want to know more. William Dubois pilots “Race 53”, the Ercoupe in “Ercoupe Racing”, and he races that Ercoupe in the Sport Air Racing League. What I think you’re going to find … Continue reading 04 – Ercoupe Racing

A las 6:10 pm (18.10 horas) el 28 de junio de 1980, José Maldonado Torres y su amigo, José Pagán Santos, despegaron del Aeropuerto Internacional de Las Américas en Santo Domingo, República Dominicana en una avioneta Ercoupe marcada N3808H. El Ercoupe era propiedad de José Pagán Jiménez (padre de José Pagán Santos), un Oficial de la Policía Aérea de Puerto Rico. Ellos se dirigían a su casa en Puerto Rico. A las 8:03 pm (20.03 horas) en el sitio “Las Mesas”, varios aviones recibieron transmisiones de radio de la avioneta N3808H: “Mayday, mayday, Ercoup tres, ocho, cero, ocho, Hotel. Podemos ver un objeto extraño en nuestra ruta, estamos perdidos, mayday, mayday”.

A las 6:10 pm (18.10 horas) el 28 de junio de 1980, José Maldonado Torres y su amigo, José Pagán Santos, despegaron del Aeropuerto Internacional de Las Américas en Santo Domingo, República Dominicana en una avioneta Ercoupe marcada N3808H. El Ercoupe era propiedad de José Pagán Jiménez (padre de José Pagán Santos), un Oficial de la Policía Aérea de Puerto Rico. Ellos se dirigían a su casa en Puerto Rico. A las 8:03 pm (20.03 horas) en el sitio “Las Mesas”, varios aviones recibieron transmisiones de radio de la avioneta N3808H: “Mayday, mayday, Ercoup tres, ocho, cero, ocho, Hotel. Podemos ver un objeto extraño en nuestra ruta, estamos perdidos, mayday, mayday”.

PIREPS: Stu describes the odd feelings flying an Ercoupe. The Stews also discuss some new aircraft including a Decathlon and perhaps a Cesnna 310 light twin. Cavanaugh Flight Museum offers flight training in a Stearman, T6 Texan, or a P51 Mustang. Mike relates his recent exercise in flight planning where his most valuable tools were highway web cams. Mike also discusses an FAA Safety course he took with which he disagreed on some of the "best" answers. The crew discusses personal minimums and the best approach to marginal weather that bumps against personal or approach minimums.