Wings & Windows OO-PUS
Agust 2006
by Robert Rombouts, Belgium
On the11 of October 2001, I bought the Ercoupe 415 D serial number 4577 of 1947, 75 HP, matriculation OO-PUS. This was my second Ercoupe I owned. The first one was a 415 CD serial number 4834 of 1947, 90 HP that I bought the 20 August 1971 and sold December 1, 1978 (that was stupid), with matriculation OO-AIA.
The yearly control or CN for the OO-PUS, is the end of April. The previous year the controller oblige me to renew the fabric on the two wings, he was right because there was many cracks in the fabric. In addition, the left back window had a crack; the other windows were not so good either. That was the working program.
I started to unscrew the wings and windows on 5 March 2005. It was not easy to find a good and available mechanic to replace the fabric on the wings. I stripped the old fabric and cleaned the aluminum wings in four days. I decide to replace all the windows and found that the paint around the windows was terrible. Finally, on 6 April I brought the wings to a workshop at Antwerp airport (EBAW). Two weeks later, nothing was done and I started to be nervous. I looked for a other workshop and found one in Antwerp, they confirmed me I would have my wings back in two weeks. On the 28 May, I decided to move the rest of the plane with an open van to the mechanical workshop where my CN or yearly control would take place.
Time was not really a problem because I retired in September 2004, but I must fly and not looking at a wonderful plane in a hangar. Carefully I stripped the paint from the top of the canopy; I found 3 and 4 layers of paint. Continuing to strip more and more, I did the whole plane. End of stripping the paint 31 May. From the 9th till 12 June, I went with my wife to the Annual Ercoupe Reunion in Minden, a wonderful feeling. For the first time I saw 26 marvelous Ercoupes shining in the sun. We had two days of nice weather, the other days were awful. Admiring the mirror looking Aluminum of a few Coupes made me think: why not mine. (Was jealous) Back at home, I contacted the Nuvite agent of London for advice. I received samples from Nick Chilvers and started to polish by hand, afterwards with a drill, some woolen pads and a lot of labor. It is not an easy job but I learned that you need good tools if you intend to do a good job. I bought finaly, but too late, a Circular Compounder/Buffer (18 August) and started to polish again the elevator and rudders. This was a very big job; I lost my patience because I did a bad stripping of the paint and had to much scratches in the aluminum. Next time I will use plastic pallets instead of metal once.
Then I decide the plane had to be paint but not the elevator and rudders as a reminder of my stripping work. Nice idea, but now I have to clean after each flight when it rains. Here it rains a lot. Now we are 22 August, a professional car painter will collect the plane; he will paint the remaining parts that I did not polish.
After 6 months working on the outside and inside, I have a dismantled naked plane, with pure Aluminum. The 100 hours inspection had still to be done before the yearly inspection.
The mechanics started to do the job and the painter intends to collect the plane the same day. Now everyone is starting at the same time, which is impossible.1st September 2005 – The fuselage and wings arrived at the painter. He was not so quick to do the job, he finished October 18. The plane was loaded on a lorry back to Kortrijk airport (EBKT). Then the plane must be rebuild completely, with new Cleveland Brakes, new Windows, new Trim cable, perfect wings and a new layout of the instruments.
13th December, the OO-PUS is ready for inspection and passed with felicitations of the controller. In the meantime, I lost my flying license because I had a Cataract operation on my right eye. In Belgium your license is cancel for three months after the operation. I didn’t know that. Result I had to wait to receive my license and pass a Skill test with a examiner. This could be done all together with the test fly of the Coupe.
22 February first Fly, RPM not working normal, no Airspeed indicating and a important drift to the right. Everything was corrected and the 24 February I was the happiest man of the word. The Ercoupe was flying again with Robert and his JAR-FCL PPL in his pocket.
This was my story, I intended to renew the fabric of the Wings and replace all the Windows and have now a beautiful Ercoupe 415 D, the last one in Belgium, whom I am very proud. I give the name “Sweety II“to my lovely kind second Ercoupe. Now we are end August 2006, after 6 months that my bird is back in the air, I fly with the Coupe already 60 hours. July was too nice and August until now not an Ercoupe weather.
Regards, Robert