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Susan
What a great story...the perfect story to read on the first day of a new
year! Congratulations on your new Coupe. I am sure you will
have many, many years of pleasure and great experiences with her.
Happy new year.
Glen Davis CFII
Grumman Tiger N70GD
1946 Ercoupe N3103H
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o o o
Grumman Tiger N70GD
1946 Ercoupe N3103H
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o o o
PS....I keep my Coupe at Spruce-Creek Fly-in in Daytona Beach...would love
to have you and John visit some time.
----- Original Message -----From: SusanTo: Ercoupers FlyinSent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 10:43 PMSubject: [COUPERS-FLYIN] "JSilberman"'s other half saying hello to the list==============================================================================
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Hi all,
I know you are already acquainted with my husband John Silberman who has been a list member for awhile, but I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself - I'm his very fortunate wife Susan.
John bought me a beautiful 1946 415-C Ercoupe (N2141H) to help me achieve a lifelong dream of becoming a licensed pilot and owning my very own aircraft. A nice young Embry-Riddle graduate (CFI) named Travis "flew the Coupe" down here to Florida from Virginia and delivered it the day after Christmas. He got in a little late in the day due to headwinds and turbulence, so he spent the night with us and then the next morning we went back out to the airport. John had flown a Coupe before and just needed a check-out ride to re-acquaint him with them, but this was my very first experience ever in flying in an Ercoupe.
It was one of the best flying experiences of my life!!!!! I love feeling the wind in my face (I loved my flight in an open-cockpit Stearman but I love that the Coupe offers the alternative between Open Cockpit, Closed Cockpit, and In-between), and I love the incredible visibility the Ercoupe provides. And I love to stall it! I had taken some flying lessons about 15 years ago in a 152 and hated to stall, but when I stalled my Ercoupe it was just plain out and out fun! No more fears of stalling and spinning and trying to remember which combination of controls to use to get out of the spin and pull back into controlled flying! Travis said I was the first person he ever met who actually enjoyed stalling and wanted to do it again and again after the initial introduction. We flew around awhile and then I asked him to make the landing because I prefer to get the feel of an aircraft on the ground and especially in the air before I attempt landings or take-offs, and this Ercoupe was completely outside anything I'd ever experienced before. Even though it has rudders, it is confusing at first to adjust to taxiing with the wheel instead of using my feet on the rudders - its hard to remember I'm in an airplane moving along on the ground instead of in a car, but I'll adapt soon I'm sure.
As a brief introduction to me personally, both my parents loved aviation even as children. My mother used to walk out to the airport every weekend to watch the planes take off and land, dreamed of flying in one some day, and worked as a "Rosie the Riveter" during WWII building Wildcats and such (which is when she met my father). My father had gone up to Canada before the U.S. joined WWII and joined the RCAF to learn how to fly. He told me back then, all's he needed to do to become a licensed pilot was go out to the aircraft, start it up, taxi it, take off, fly around the pattern awhile, land it, and taxi it back to its starting point. When the war broke out, he joined the Marines (shortest line of all in the recruiting trains) and became a dive-bomber pilot in the Pacific. After the war he joined up with Bill Cubbage (now of Leesburg, FL) and ran Colt's Neck Airport in New Jersey for awhile, banner-towing and flying air freight and doing odd jobs while my mother helped sew the banners and such. When American Airlines began hiring, he went to NYC and interviewed and they hired him on the spot. He remained with American until he retired in 1979 as an international captain. My father (Captain Frederick J. Young, if any of you were American Airline pilots) had a tremendous love of flying, and he passed it on to me both genetically and environmentally.
I first went flying when still quite young in my mother's womb, and then again when I was just 6 weeks out of the womb (my father flew us to Chicago for dinner to celebrate something or other). Every year since birth, I've flown commercially so it was second-nature to me and no big deal. I had watched John Glenn orbit the Earth when I was in second grade and really wanted to become the first lady astronaut/captain (actually be the flight commander) but those dreams were scuttled when I learned I lacked perfect eyesight and perfect hearing in the 5th grade. So much for becoming a military pilot, let alone a test pilot or an astronaut! So I turned my sights away from the skies and towards other things on the ground (like horses - another great love and joy).
However, meeting John Silberman in late 1988 introduced me to a whole new wonderful world of aviation where I could actually take the controls and fly the plane also! The day we met, John asked me what the greatest dream of my life was, and I told him it would be to go up in a jet fighter and play tag with the clouds. I had no idea at the time that he was even a pilot, but I wanted to give him an honest answer to his question.
A few months later, after participating in the Gainesville, FL Airshow in April 1989, John took me for a flight in a Fouga Magister CM-170 (military jet) and we played tag with the clouds. I couldn't stop smiling for weeks. He then taught me how to do Dutch Rolls in a T-34 and allowed me to take the controls for flying cross-country, and I was totally in love - first the Fouga and the T-34, and then sometime over the next few months I suddenly realized that I had gone from considering John to be one of my best friends ever, to falling in love with him entirely. It wasn't just the aviation - it was his love of aviation matching my own, and his understanding my love of aviation and desire to become a pilot and his support of helping me to realize my dreams and make my life the best it could be (within realistic considerations given circumstances). It is a wonderful thing to be married to your best friend!
Now that our daughters are finally out of the nest, I've decided this is a good time to settle down and concentrate on getting my pilot's license. We are basing the Ercoupe out at Williston, FL airport (a wonderful airport - friendly FBO - was an auxillary military training base and has long runways and plenty of taxiways, no control tower, and not terribly busy which is perfect for someone like me who is just learning to become a licensed pilot and airplane owner) which is only 25 miles away. Once we get a few little things done on the Ercoupe to make it a bit easier for me to start and to bring the nose and tail to a more level position, I plan to go out and taxi around awhile to get more of a feel for my "CAVU Coupe" (that's how I feel when I'm flying her) on the ground, and spend some more time flying around in her with John beside me, while I study up in the Gleim Private Pilot book (I'd rather be over-educated than under-educated -- something my father taught me early on) and either the King or Sporty's video tapes.
I will be at least a Sport Pilot. and probably go on to become a Private Pilot. I'd like to learn the precision flying of a Commercial Pilot but I feel no need to go that far in my licensing as at my age (51) it seems like an unnecessary expense for the more frequent medicals and I'm just out to enjoy myself - not make a living at flying.
Now that I've told y'all much more than you really need to know or probably want to know, I'll go back into quiet "learning lurkdom" and let my husband ask the more knowledgeable questions of y'all to help guide us in tweaking our Ercoupe and making it near perfect.
I don't know if this list allows attachments, but I'm going to try to embed a photo of my new pride and joy - this is a photo John took as Travis & I were starting to taxi out for my introductory flight:
I hope you can see her - isn't she a beauty? Cream background, with a beautiful green striping outlined with gold striping. She glows with beauty in the sun and in the sky! It is truly a thrilling experience to be able to show a photo and say with pride and joy, "This is my Ercoupe!"
OK. Enough gushing. John wanted me to introduce myself to the list before he started asking any public questions about my "CAVU Coupe" and so here it is. I look forward to getting to know y'all over time and eventually I'll get over my initial shyness (as I learn more) to come out and ask questions periodically. From all that John has shared with me over the past several months about y'all, it was clear to me that Ercoupe people are very special people, even in the wonderful world of aviation, and it is an honor and a privilege to be an Ercoupe owner.
Still enjoying the memory of my first flight and looking forward to a wonderful future of flying myself instead of always having to beg someone to take me up ...
Susan Young Silberman
N2141H
(1946 415-C - LSA with rudder pedals)
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"It is much better to live in a world that you have participated in defining, than in one that has been defined for you." - Susan Horton
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
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145-4530_IMG
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