Glen is absolutely right, in my opinion. He didn't mention the
Ercoupe owners who hire an A & P IA to do a "bargain" annual
inspection, though. I believe that a certain percentage of the
crashes are due to "paper annuals," just written from the cab of a
pickup truck who looked at the plane from 20 feet away. We've seen a
crash lately due to aileron flutter. Why wasn't the excessive aileron
linkage play caught during the last annual? Maybe because the
mechanic never touched the airplane.
Just my opinion,
Syd
On Jul 18, 2009, at 6:28 AM, Glen Davis wrote:
As a dealer/broker of Ercoupes, I have an educated guess why some
Ercoupe engines burp. Ercoupes are great planes to fly and own, we
all know that. Fortunately for us, they are still affordable to
buy, at least by comparison to most other aircraft. Thus, they are
particularly attractive to those of us with limited budgets. As
many of us are counting pennies, we tend to try to do more
maintenance ourselves, rather than hiring a trained, licensed A+P
mechanic at $50 plus an hour to fix our Ercoupes. I believe this
may be the reason for some of the engine failures. While a couple
of us may have the skill level of a trained A+P, few do.
Nevertheless, we tinker with our airplanes (and engines) more then
we should, or are even legally allowed to do. This is clearly
evident by some of the queries on this users group like "I was
changing my crankshaft this afternoon and I could not get it back in
correctly...any suggestions". I exaggerate here for emphasis, but I
trust you get my point. The good news is my observation over the
past five years is that this "do it all yourself" attitude is
changing. I see the level of well maintained Ercoupes clearly on
the rise. Those held together with bubblegum and bailing twine are
showing up less and less, thank goodness! Frankly, I feel that an
aircraft mechanic charging $50 or so an hour is a bargain. At the
car dealers in my area (NYC), the dealers charge $85 to $95 for
mechanical work on automobiles. In comparison, the A+P/IA charging
$50ish is a bargain. I think we all owe our A+P/IA's not only our
dollars, but our appreciation for what they do.
Glen
Glen Davis
917 297 1111
www.ishootpictures.com
