FAA Checkride Redux

Hey, you had the right idea anyway! Use _someone else_ as the test pilot! :) My dad tried the same stunt when he was a kid and launched himself out over a picket fence from the roof. He still had a couple of scars on the back of his legs from the experience, and the way he told it it did not sound pleasant! Peter pan made it look too easy... (-:

Regards,

Norm
 
Congratulations on passing the checkride. If you can, keep going on the ratings. I earned my Instrument rating last year, and I am currently pursuing my Commercial Rating.

Flying IFR is cool!
 
Thanks Freefall! Just need to budget for the next step. Between HI and flying my wife is (justifiably) a little irritated at my spending right now, so I need to take a breather for the holidays. I'm hoping next year I can start the IFR program.

Regards,

Norm
 
ercoupe.jpeg


I bought and flew one of these back in the early 60's. Had an old Lear radio with maybe a half dozen crystals. Used a hand held transistor radio for nav.
 
Bill Martino said:
ercoupe.jpeg


I bought and flew one of these back in the early 60's. Had an old Lear radio with maybe a half dozen crystals. Used a hand held transistor radio for nav.
Click to expand...

Cool! That's an Ercoupe isn't it Uncle Bill? I heard somewhere that they were sold as almost impossible to stall. True? What HP were you talking about there?

Thanks for sharing.

Norm
 
Ercoupe. Had no rudder pedals. You could stall okay but had a tough time spinning. 85 HP as I recall. Had a bench seat with room for one suitcase behind the seat. If you were flying solo you could sit sideways and rest your legs across the length of the seat -- advantage to no rudders. It was a fun little plane to fly unless you were into aerobatics. There it was next to useless.
 
Bill Martino said:
Ercoupe. Had no rudder pedals. You could stall okay but had a tough time spinning. 85 HP as I recall. Had a bench seat with room for one suitcase behind the seat. If you were flying solo you could sit sideways and rest your legs across the length of the seat -- advantage to no rudders. It was a fun little plane to fly unless you were into aerobatics. There it was next to useless.
Click to expand...

Of course. Should have known that. It must have been the spin resistance I read about. Slow down enough and lift the nose high enough and anything will stall. But how to control your yaw without rudder pedals? They must have had the rudders matched or slaved to the aileron controls somehow for coordinated turns, but then you're faced with unwanted aileron movement when you just want to straigten the nose out, say on landing?

Wish I could afford my own plane, or get in on a fractional ownership, but really need to fly more than 60 to 70 hours a year to make it pay. Less than that and renting is probably a better deal. Right now I'm just flying 1.2 hours or so most weeks, just to keep my hand in.

Thanks again for the neat photo!

Regards,

Norm
 
Norm?

Be vewy vewy caweful of fractional ownership deals.

(I'm sure you would be cautious, but honesttogawd, it brings out the very worst in human behavior.)
 
Kis:

Really? I would think most of the problems would be around simple scheduling; I have been approached by a couple of guys, but the plane was a mess, and I want something reliable. If that means renting for now then so be it. Many thanks for the heads up though!

Regards.

Norm
 
Svashtar said:
...Wish I could afford my own plane...
Click to expand...
I see small planes for sale all the time for little more than it costs to buy a car. My wife thought about getting one to fly back and forth to our place up north, but I talked her out of it. In the first place we are both too old to take on a project like that and secondly she scares the crap out of me when she drives. I couldn't stand flying with her.

Ever since I was assigned the job of running around the plane with a roll of duct tape and patching up the bullet holes every time we landed, I haven't really enjoyed flying.
 
Yes, there was a calibrated aileron-rudder control. Most inconvenience I found regardding no rudder pedals was trying to make crosswind landings.
 
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