----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----


 

Ron Hynes wrote:

> Hey man, let's see you drop your [Ercoupe] flaps for a

> soft field or a short field landing on ice covered runways. 

> How about a very short field take off, especially on ice

> coated runways ???? 

> na  na na na     just joking

 

 

Ron,

 

Been there, done that!  You remind me of the fun days.

 

I bought my Coupe in January, 1979.  That’s the winter we had a huge amount of snow near Des Moines.  The temperature hovered below or near zero for weeks.  I had to hand-pull my Coupe over about an 3’-5’ crusty surface drift to get to the hangar for final maintenance before I could fly it the first time.

 

The snow pack on our runway was probably a foot or two thick and somewhat polished – in spots.  The runway had started about 100’ wide but each successive snow couldn’t be pushed past the previous ridgeline of plowed snow so the runway got narrower and narrower.  By the beginning of February, when I made my first Coupe flights, the runways were maybe 50-60’ wide, bordered by white, lumpy concrete ridges about 10’ high.

 

Since the runway was down to a bit less than 1800’ usable, you can understand that precise approach control important.  My first three (no instructor with me) Coupe landings were, even so, right on the money.  There are benefits to doing your last 20 hours in prep for the check ride under those exact same conditions the week before.

 

I managed to takeoff and land my Coupe in distances pretty similar to those big-flap Cessnas over the years at that little airport.

 

Gosh, those were fun days!

 

Ed Burkhead

http://edburkhead.com

ed -at- edburkhead???.com          (change -at- to @ and remove "???")

 

==============================================================================
To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm

Reply via email to