My wings were covered in 1979, fabric still very good. Just looks bad where I tried to paint it with water based polyurathayne (sp.?) aircraft paint. I won't say the brand name. Two of us used this paint on our Ercoupe wings. It cracked on both our Ercoupes and came off mine. What didn't come off by itself, proved hard as the dickens to remove.
I haven't been flying my coupe lately so my wing AD hasn't been done. Since my wings were covered 20 years ago, I have been thinking of recovering them for two reasons. One is to thoroughly inspect them, swiss cheese AD notwithstanding, and the second reason is the aforementioned appearance problem. When I recover them, and they are inspected, I plan only to install the inspection rings to be cut out at the next annual. But, I wish that the AD was written such that in a case like a recent recover where the aluminum is inspected, repaired, washed, corrosion corrected, or corrosion proofing steps taken, that there could be some exception to cutting the holes in the wing the very next annual inspection, wish that we could wait a few years in a case where recover-inspect-repair as necessary had just been done on Ercoupe wings. Those FAA inspectors that grounded someone's coupe on it's tie down for lack of inspection holes, would probably cite a Coupe that had been complied with by recovering and before holes were cut at the next annual wouldn't they? I've been to the Stits fabric covering forum at Sun-n-Fun, bought their video, gotten their free manual, and I like the Stits process for several reasons. One is that Stits won't support combustion, old fashioned dope and fabric will. And Stits seems fairly easy to use. I checked into the several other covering systems and products too for ease of work and cost comparison. Several are good. But for me, I like the Stits products and covering system. It would probably be easy for someone who had done it before. The problem for me is that this will be the first time therefore there is the big learning (and experience) curve to go through. Oh yeah, the most important instrument question, as you roll onto the runway and take off. I thought of everything but the tachometer. I should have know better. Once I took off with the engine failing to develop full power. I had done a runup and all seemed normal but I had weak climb failing to develop full power. Even though I had pushed the carb heat back off after my pre take off check list, the cable had broken and my carb heat was actually still on. After climbing VERY weakly, I circled the airport to evaluate the situation and when I determined what it was, I cruised home fast as it would go at 80 mph! That's what it was, carb heat cable broke and I couldn't turn carb heat off. I don't know anything about a mainfold pressure gauge, but that tach is pretty important. Is that the right answer? Grover (Skipper) Barfield Ercoupe 99398 ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.
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