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I've sort of got an Ercoupe that I share with my great uncle (sort of because he lives in Pittsburgh, and I live in Texas, and he keeps the plane). Our plane has rudder pedals. The plane my uncle had before this one (years ago before I was born) didn't have pedals. I've only ever been in one with pedals, so I can only write from that viewpoint. As far as I can tell, they don't do a whole heck of a lot. Yeah, they let you slip to lose altitude on final. But, like everyone else has said, the best way to land a coupe is crabbed into the crosswind. Plus, with the nosewheel being steered by the yoke, you can't position the ailerons to keep a crosswind from getting underneath them when taxiing- not that it's much of a concern if your tail's at the right height.
A definite negative to having the rudders, and I'm not sure if this goes for all conversions or just ours, is that you lose the foot brake. All we have now is the hand brake, and it doesn't work nearly as well. It has a tendency to lose its effectiveness over time, with all the slop in the cable. We'll readjust it, and it'll be good again for a while, but then it'll start losing effectiveness again.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention that since nobody else'd brought it up.
-Jeff Lewis
http://www.jefflewis.net
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