Exactly. While I don't want to put a Suburu engine in my Coupe or future
RV, I would like an autopilot and some other gadgets in my Coupe. I haven't
done a precise price comparison, but I'm guessing it would cost 50%-100%
more for a TSO autopilot for the Coupe, with perhaps less functionality, and
way more paperwork hassle.
Old is not automatically bad. Neither is it automatically good. I'm tired
of paying hundreds of dollars for refurbed steam gage instruments that then
don't work well. In the last year or two I've replaced the directional gyro
and altimeter with refurbed units. Now on occasion the DG doesn't track and
always precesses a little more than my old one (which quit tracking
entirely). The short, fat 1000' hand of the altimeter slipped somehow and
reads 500' too high (but the longer 100' hand is accurate). Makes for a
confusing view which I'll have to get fixed at more dollars (they're all out
of warranty of course). Not to mention unreliable dry vacuum pumps, and so
on.
I would also like to get better than 20mpg in a plane, which the RVs and
other homebuilts will certainly achieve at must higher speeds.
I've been heavy into computers from the punch card days. Don't let
Micro$soft fool you, software can be very reliable. Sure, computerized
modern instruments, navigation instruments, electronic ignitions, can all
fail and when they do probably not gradually. But the electromechanical
stuff fails pretty often too.
Like it or not, our older certificated planes are getting harder to
maintain. Mechanics who know to work on them are becoming scarcer, parts
are expensive, and so forth. What young kid wants to make a career of 50-60
year old technology? Imagine trying to maintain in full running order, to be
used several times a month, a 50-year old car of which they only made 5000.
Again, I like my Coupe. The design was--and still is--far ahead of its
time. New certificated airplanes are hugely expensive and still don't offer
the performance of some of the homebuilt crafts. The future of general
aviation, if it has a grass-roots future, is not really in the LSAs, though
that's better than nothing. Rather it's in Owner Built-Owner Maintained
aircraft.
I too am 52 years old and not traded in yet by Wife! I've greatly enjoyed
my Coupe and will continue to do so as long as I have it. But I have some
flying I'd like to do that I want to enjoy in a modern, faster, better
equipped plane.
Ralph Finch
________________________________
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of kgassert
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 1:29 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ercoupe-flyin] Re: When is old, old
I did not read anything in Ralph post to indicate he thought old was
bad. I do agree that the experimentals have a great advantage over
all certificated aircraft weather they are new or old. Yes they do
have better performance per HP usually but the big advantage is in
maintenance and updatability. The FAA is pushing people to
experimentals by making field approvals impossible to get. Want a
modern Subaru engine in you Ercoupe, forget it. Want it in your RV6,
no problem. Why is the FAA so afraid of us making our old aircraft
safer by using technology that was not available at the time it was
made.
Kevin
