I picked up a really nice Ercoupe CD in Iowa a week or so ago and
flew it to Florida, stopping in Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, Enid
Oklahoma, Hot Springs Arkansas, Hattiesburg Mississippi, Marianna
Florida then direct Naples Florida. What an airplane. What a trip.
The airplane ran flawlessly and was good for an over 100 mph cruise
which ain't bad.
I learned a couple of things along the way. First, after takeoff in
temperatures that were about 17 degrees above zero, I noticed the
cabin heat was marginal and was getting colder as time wore on. I
finally looked straight up and saw the sliding canopy halves had
vibrated about 4 inches apart and cold outside air was rushing into
the cockpit. I earlier had noticed an orange plastic set of
carpenter clamps in the cockpit and had no idea what they were for.
Bingo. Clamp the two canopy halve together dummy. And it worked.
Another surprise was flying across the Flint Hills in Kansas. Now,
I'm not saying that I was scud-running, but a partial obscuration to
forward vision did develop temporarily and I had to descend a little
to stay well in the clear. I had a Garmin GPS Map 296 (new one with
color) and I noticed the warning box for low terrain/obstacles lit up
in the lower left corner of the screen and large white crosses were
depicted all over the warning screen. Hmmmm. If they were towers,
they would be the same symbol as depicted on sectional charts but I
wondered what was with the white crosses? Then, I broke out from
under the obscuration and a mile dead ahead looked like a scene from
Starwars and what appeared to be a couple of dozen giant white
Imperial Stormtroopers. What they were were windmills - the new kind
for generating electric power. And they are not small either. I
later found out that they are 300 feet tall and the blades are 100
feet long so you are looking at a 400 foot structure. Wow.
I also found out at Perryton, TX that landing a coupe in a crosswind
isn't too bad but a crosswind takeoff can get spectacular. Took me a
day to figure it out but that is a future story.
Robert Bartunek
Naples, FL
