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The majority of small aircraft accidents are stall spin accidents according to the statistics - These accidents are happening in most cases within the traffic pattern , at heights where a spin will be fatal. The two inventions of the Coupe - elevator restriction and a well, very well balanced two control system - removed the danger of that part in flying. Why did others not follow him? Some did, some licensed the 2 control system , Mooney M20 has a aileron rudder linkage and many others too. I see the problem more within the fact that humans can not mentally understand aerodynamics and other laws of physics. They just understand what they see. If someone in a taildragger manages to line up with the runway in a stiff X-wind, he feels safer than if he would sail crabbed, sideways in a Coupe toward it. It just feels wrong in a Coupe. But in reality, the Coupe is as safe as the tail dragger, if not safer. Provided you know how to fly. If someone has a drifting problem on the runway after touchdown, he did something wrong. Even with my wing lifting problem in extreme X-winds , I always managed to run straight down the runway. (the wing lifting was caused by a bad rigging of the plane) No, no the laws of physics let the coupe follow it's path of direction it had before touch down. If you managed to arrive at the runway in a half hearted crab (or thought, your pedals would do more than they did) then the line of travel might lead you somewhere else. But here is the similarity between a rudderless plane and a plane with rudders. It is all about lining up with the runways centerline on approach. In one plane it happens in a crabbed position, in the other you are straighten out with the rudders. In both cases, if you fail to fly straight on touchdown, you are set up to experience problems. The Erco 415 C-F is a wonderful plane and can be flown hands off AND feet off if properly rigged and powered with it's intended power unit (C-75) The Alon is a nice further development, but followed the market's demand of rudder installations. This is what I read from articles from those days. The Management initially wanted the two control system only in the plane, but since most pilots were used to rudders they decided to develop the alon rudders in anticipation of a better sale. I personally find steering the Nose of the plane with my feet not very intuitive, the tail yes, the nose I prefer to steer with my hands. I fly both kinds of planes and I like the simplicity of the Ercoupes flying. Hartmut [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > ----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- > > > > Has no one devoted to rudder pedals the guts to say this?FRED WEICK > WAS IN A MAJORITY OF ONE when he designed the pedals OUT of Ercoupes, > Why has no other manufacturer followed him? > You may guess I do not wish to fly an Ercoupe sans pedals, it ruins > your correct flying of all other types as I have witnessed recently > with a rudderless person. I still consider a landing in a strong > crosswind in an Ercoupe without pedals to be a "controlled crash" > Let's face it, at the point of touchdown you have no control of the > airplane, inertia overtakes you and unless you have correctly sorted > out the drift on the approach you will not continue down the > centerline, nor do you have the ability to deal with a rising into > wind wing which may start to lift.Buy an Alon, they sorted out so many > of the shortcomings of the Ercoupes and they are a delight to fly > (with pedals).Dave Vernon > > ========================================================================== ==== > To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm > Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/ > > > > ========================================================================== ==== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/
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