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-----Original Message----- From: Jon Page [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 9:17 PM To: ercoupe Subject: [COUPERS] Pride & Prejudice ... This sport we have can be wonderful or tragic. Much depends on the type of bird we fly and our attitude to safety. So let's fly our woosy, little, three wheeled, co-ordinated controlled, non-spinning, safety planes and stay alive while others play the game and become famous mostly in newspaper headlines or the six o'clock news. Jon Page 415-C #2675 Fred Weick, the Coupe's designer, put a lot of effort into designing a plane that wouldn't turn around and bite its owner. He was largely successful in this. But in the process of building a plane that doesn't turn on its owner and kill them, he found that pilot judgment is much more important in the big scheme of things. In an interview I did with him in 1991, he said he was glad he had designed the Coupe to be as safe as it is. But he thought it was more important for the pilot to have the judgment to not fly in low ceilings and bad visibility. He gave some other examples, which I don't remember now. But when I do a steep turn from base to final (to lose extra altitude from the sharpness of the turn) I recite to myself, "Only in a Coupe, Only in a Coupe." When I load my plane, I remember that a Coupe's good flying behavior depends absolutely on weight and balance being as designed. When I'm flying on a hot, turbulent day, I remember that Fred said the transient "g" loads when flying at high speeds in turbulence can be very high on a 55 year old airplane and I fly above the turbulence or slow down. Fred said, in his last years, that the good design of the airplane is important, but good judgment is MORE important. Ed Burkhead N3802H, Ercoupe 415-D Peoria, IL __________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01 ==^================================================================
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