>>>
>>> The Ercoupe was an interesting airplane. It had a placard on
the >>> panel that said "This airplane is incapable of
spinning" The rudder >>> (what there was of it) was directly
linked to the yoke and any >>> tendency to spin was automatically
countered. No rudder pedals..just >>> a brake pedal and a yoke. If
I remember right, I think the elevator >>> was limited to 13
degrees as well which made it real hard to even >>> stall. It
would mush like hell but stay on the front side of it's >>> max Cl
line. Landing that thing was something else. A Lot of people >>>
don't know this but Tex Johnston out at Boeing practiced crosswind
>>> landings in an Ercoupe just to get the feel of landing in a
crab >>> since he couldn't drop a wing in the prototype -80
because of the >>> engine pods. It was a great little airplane to
fly and a lot of fun. >>> The one fault we found with it was a
high sink rate that could >>> develop on final if you let it get
too slow. But if you kept the >>> speed up a bit it was a joy to
fly. Never did get one to spin!! :-) >>>

 BtB> The ercoupe was an effecient airplane even by today's 
 BtB> standards. Remeber 
 BtB> it came out in 1938 and it's an astonishing bit of airplane. 
 BtB> Stil too girly for me, though! 

Fred Weik, the creator of the Ercoupe was a professor here at Texas A&M
College for a good while.  He lived Southeast of the old Historic Southside
in College Station, Texas, where our family Historic House is still located
and this is being written.  You could go down Hereford Street and sort of
lumber your way to his homesite, which included his own private airstrip! 
He actually flew the original Ercoupe on good weather days from his private
airstrip here in College Station to Easterwood Airport to work way back
then! 
 Adjacent to his old homesite was a small 8 hole golf course just there on
the Southeast side of Texas A&M as well!

He wound up participating in the design team for the B36 during WWII.

Traditionally, each Texas Aggie home football game is opened by a fly-over
of some kind by the military folks here.  A reminder, sort of, of the very
first airplane landing in the whole College Station - Bryan area.  That
happened a few years after the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk.  The key
engineer working on the later Wright Flyer(s) wanted to show the folks in
the military the future of aviation at Texas A&M.  So he made the first
flight here down the old railroad tracks from Dallas to the area to land it
-- in the football stadium -- at Texas A&M!

Of all things, he had trouble with the carb in it just over Bryan,Texas,
before he got to the stadium in College Station.  So he put it down on the
old Bryan Municipal Golf Course, still there on College Avenue going from
A&M into old downtown Bryan there just East of the railroad lines.  He
adjusted the carb, took off again.  Then made that first ever landing into
the football statium of Texas A&M to make his point!

From that came the tradition of the opening roar of whatever for each home
football game here.  And as part of that came the curious end of the
evolutionary tale of the Ercoupe and Fred as his creative life peaked from
the small to the large of aviation.  He was allowed to open the
Thanksgiving Day battle between Texas University and Texas A&M that
year after the B36 came to life in the sky above.  I watched Fred fly the
B36 about 500 feet high, I think less, grin, just over our Historic Home in
College Station that day!  It is right in the path over which every one of
these flights soars to announce the kickoff for the game.

I'll never forget that flight.  And regret I was too young to know the
importance of taking out my Kodak box camera and swerving with it pointed
upward to take a picture of that incredible bird.


--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike {at} 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01