Winglet
Well-known member
Recently finished a swapable Ercoupe that I built from plans designed and posted by AviationHobbies in the Articles section. https://www.flitetest.com/articles/ft-style-swappable-ercoupe
When I read this article I knew immediately that I was going to build one. The Ercoupe has a special place in my life. It was one of the very first full scale airplanes I ever flew as a 12 year old. When I was about 14 I build a control line model of the Ercoupe that was powered by a mighty Fox 36. It was one mean and noisy bird! It was painted orange, so of course my RC version is a near replica build about 46 years later.
The designer did a nice job with the article and plans. The plans don't go into a whole lot of detail and the author assumes you have built a few Flight Test airplanes previously. This being said, the build was straight forward with a little design tweak here and there to make it mine. Mostly I just spent a little extra time on the canopy to make everything look a little more scale and I played with the turtle deck a little and added a belly to the section of the fuselage behind the wing.
I thought it was a whole lot of fun to build. I worked on it very casually after work for about a week. Much of that time was actually waiting for paint to dry.
The result of my efforts is a fine flying little airplane that doesn't look like anything else at the field.
No stinkin landing gear and VERY easy to hand launch. Mine climbs very briskly on a 1300mah 3 cell. Not exactly straight up but very nearly.
I'm using a G Force E400 2212-1250KV motor available from Value Hobby. The 8 x4.5 Gemfan propeller seems just right. Incidently, this is the same setup I use on my FT Scout and Simple Cub. She loops rolls and does everything a typical yank and band can normally do. Flys inverted really good. Looks cool making an inverted low pass either slow or fast. (mine has slightly less diehedral than called for on the plans.) It travels fast enough if you want it to and it slows down nice with no evil stall tendencies. It is really easy to fly. Did my test flying in gusty 17 mph winds without incident.
My Ercoupe is constructed with lite weight Ross Foamboard (my favorite if you can find it) Make sure you use Ross, Flite Test or Dollar Tree board if you build this. Make sure you don't buy Elmer's. It will be way to heavy.
Mine is painted it 3 lite coats of Valspar spray paint from Lowe's. I recommend you use very lite coats and allow each one to try for most of a day before continuing to the next. Your patients will be rewarded with a nice smooth finish. Get in a hurry and the paper will become soaked and wrinkle and it will take like 2 WEEKS to dry. The canopy as well as the trim stripes are vinyl and Monokote trim sheet material.
Thanks to AviationHobbies (whoever you are) for your great work in designing an interesting and fine flying and building airplane. You really thought this one out and it is obvious. And of course thanks especially for posting the plans.
I will try to monitor this thread for awhile to help answer any questions anyone might have.
Hope lots of builders give it a try as it really is a sweet little airplane. Would actually be a good pick for FT to kit.
When I read this article I knew immediately that I was going to build one. The Ercoupe has a special place in my life. It was one of the very first full scale airplanes I ever flew as a 12 year old. When I was about 14 I build a control line model of the Ercoupe that was powered by a mighty Fox 36. It was one mean and noisy bird! It was painted orange, so of course my RC version is a near replica build about 46 years later.
The designer did a nice job with the article and plans. The plans don't go into a whole lot of detail and the author assumes you have built a few Flight Test airplanes previously. This being said, the build was straight forward with a little design tweak here and there to make it mine. Mostly I just spent a little extra time on the canopy to make everything look a little more scale and I played with the turtle deck a little and added a belly to the section of the fuselage behind the wing.
I thought it was a whole lot of fun to build. I worked on it very casually after work for about a week. Much of that time was actually waiting for paint to dry.
The result of my efforts is a fine flying little airplane that doesn't look like anything else at the field.
No stinkin landing gear and VERY easy to hand launch. Mine climbs very briskly on a 1300mah 3 cell. Not exactly straight up but very nearly.
I'm using a G Force E400 2212-1250KV motor available from Value Hobby. The 8 x4.5 Gemfan propeller seems just right. Incidently, this is the same setup I use on my FT Scout and Simple Cub. She loops rolls and does everything a typical yank and band can normally do. Flys inverted really good. Looks cool making an inverted low pass either slow or fast. (mine has slightly less diehedral than called for on the plans.) It travels fast enough if you want it to and it slows down nice with no evil stall tendencies. It is really easy to fly. Did my test flying in gusty 17 mph winds without incident.
My Ercoupe is constructed with lite weight Ross Foamboard (my favorite if you can find it) Make sure you use Ross, Flite Test or Dollar Tree board if you build this. Make sure you don't buy Elmer's. It will be way to heavy.
Mine is painted it 3 lite coats of Valspar spray paint from Lowe's. I recommend you use very lite coats and allow each one to try for most of a day before continuing to the next. Your patients will be rewarded with a nice smooth finish. Get in a hurry and the paper will become soaked and wrinkle and it will take like 2 WEEKS to dry. The canopy as well as the trim stripes are vinyl and Monokote trim sheet material.
Thanks to AviationHobbies (whoever you are) for your great work in designing an interesting and fine flying and building airplane. You really thought this one out and it is obvious. And of course thanks especially for posting the plans.
I will try to monitor this thread for awhile to help answer any questions anyone might have.
Hope lots of builders give it a try as it really is a sweet little airplane. Would actually be a good pick for FT to kit.
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