>58 TIAS? According to my FAA approved airplane flight manual, that's the >stall >speed of the Coupe. Now, if you've been following past discussion, you'll >know >that a Coupe don't stall. So, 58 TIAS? That's fall out of the sky speed. >You >say you climb out at that speed? I say you fall out of the sky. It's a good >thing you didn't get together with the beautiful young woman. It wouldn't >have >worked. She obviously had more brains than you had. I cut my teeth >flying the >mountains in the west. Unless I'm headed for a cliff, or tree, I'll take best >rate over best angle any day. > >Larry
Back in the 60s I aborted a takeoff from Stateline airport near Kansas City. It was a hot day with no wind and a building to get over beyond the end of the runway. I was on a cross country at gross weight, with my wife, a suitcase, and full fuel, and I had not flown from that field before. It was clear to me that my tired old Coupe wasn't going to get off and up in time. When I taxied back to the flightline, a man came up to the plane, and I explained what had happened. He apparently was a flight instructor, or at least he seemed to know Ercoupes a lot better than I did, and he told me that if I used full-up elevator on takeoff I would have no problem. I had a 415E with the split elevator, but I don't know if that was a consideration. He must have been pretty convincing, because I taxied back out and gunned the coupe down the runway with the wheel back against the stop. I don't recall the indicated airspeed, but the full elevator did the job. We got off the ground and over the building with comfortable room to spare. And it didn't fall out of the sky. It felt like it would have kept climbing at maximum angle as long as I held full throttle. Of course, I nosed down to a normal climb once I was in the clear. I agree that a coupe would glide like a brick at 58, but full power is a different story. As I recall, the Ercoupe is rigged with some down thrust, which, together with the limited up elevator, apparently keeps the angle of attack within the flight envelope unless you do something abrupt. Earlier in the trip I had made a high altitude takeoff at Flagstaff, using most of a 7000 ft runway, then found the plane reluctant to go much higher than the treetops. I was about to jettison the suitcase, but the C85 warmed up and began to give me a little more help, and we were able to circle around in the valley until we could clear the hills and head east. Probably the full elevator technique would have helped there; and perhaps not. A better idea might have been to take off with less than full tanks, I suppose, but I had learned to fly in a 12-gallon Cub, and it never occurred to me that it was not necessarily a good idea to always fill the tanks. Harry Gordon
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