Dave, I think most of the traffic you read on this list discusses "past" experiences with Ercoupe maintenance, repair, or restoration and not daily headaches. My 'Coupe has been in the restored category for four years now. I have _not_ had to do anything to mine outside of regular maintenance and annuals. I expect to get many more years of service from the plane before I need to address any major problems. My advice is, since you probably want to fly now and not wait for a finished restoration, is purchase an Ercoupe that has been recently restored from a complete tear-down of the fuselage and wings to recent overhaul of the engine (get the engine _you_ want, i.e., 85hp, 90hp or 0-200). Make sure _everything_ important to you is new or nearly new. You'll pay a premium price ($17,000 to $25,000) but you'll have many years of enjoyment. Like someone said, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later BUT, you _will_ pay." Jim N-87112 AZ -----Original Message----- From: Dave Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Monday, December 06, 1999 10:01 AM Subject: Buy Ercoupe?
>After subscribing to the Ercoupe thread for several months, I would like >to get some opinions. My perception is that the Ercoupe and derivatives >are maintenance hogs, or hanger queens. Perhaps the only 'coupe owners >who are active on the thread are those having problems or enjoy >tinkering and the large majority are silently enjoying their coupes, >with no significant problems. Also, after checking Trade-A-Plane for >quite a few months, I find that there are only a few Ercoupes listed >each month versus a several pages of C-150/172's. Of the 5000-6000 >built, are they so popular no one wants to sell or are most of them >derelicts, beyond hope of redemption. > >I am retired AF and fly with the local military aero club where I can >rent C-172's and T-41's for $45-50 an hour. I'm getting really tired of >the scheduling conflicts and BS that goes with any military organization >so I'm looking for an alternative. If I can't own and fly an Ercoupe >cheaper than that, I'll stick with the aero club and perhaps build an >experimental. > >I hope my perception is wrong and these are simple, fun, inexpensive >planes to fly, and don't spend 99% of the time torn down in the hanger. > I'd sure like to know before I jump in with both feet and buy money >pit. > >Any comments, words of wisdom, etc. would be appreciated. >Thanks to all, >Dave in Alamogordo, NM
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