Hello Everyone,

Well, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a kit I've been dreaming about for many, many years. When I was at Joe Nall 2012, I stopped by the Balsa USA trailer and proceeded to plop my credit card down for a new 1/3 scale Ercoupe kit. They had already sold the one they brought with them from Wisconsin, so I had to have it shipped. Three huge boxes arrived last Friday 5/25/12 about 2:30 in the afternoon. By 2:33 I had opened all of the boxes and started looking everything over. Thankfully Chris Wegner had sent me a copy of the build manual so I know what I was looking at. Thanks Chris!
The first box I opened was the landing gear parts. I was expecting to find five cast aluminum parts, but there were only three. I was missing both upper main gear legs. I had the swing arm parts, but not the mains. Oops… I called BUSA and told them about the problem. They were very helpful and offered to send them right away.
Normally, the landing gear is not really needed until the middle/end of the build. Except in this kit… They are needed to be used to mark the mounting locations on the main center section spar on step 5 of the build manual. I was bummed out because I had received a “hall pass” from the girl to spend all Memorial Day Weekend in the Man Cave / Workshop.
Needless to say, I moved forward anyway..

I started with building the wing tube receiver boxes. Then I moved on the main center section spar. I went as far as I could go without the gear legs.
I changed plan sheets and began building the horizontal stabilizer and elevator. As you can see, my assistant fell asleep on the job again.

After those were done I started on the vertical fins and rudders. That’s where I ran into another problem. The skins for the rudders were there, but I spent 30 minutes looking for the skins for the fins. Finally I figured out that the fin skins in my kit were not already cut. They were supposed to be. The wood matching the right size was there but no fin skins. Not a big deal though, I just used the plans and cut them out myself. Once they were built and hinged I moved on the fuse.

I laid out the main crutch, added the cross members and cross bracing. I built the window tracks and installed the formers. I used the actual window to make sure they would slide up and down smoothly by keeping the correct distance. I made sure all of the formers were 90 degrees to the table and added the stringers. I sheeted he turtle deck with the special .025 plywood. I have not sheeted the forward section yet, because I’m planning a few things on and behind the instrument panel. I will make a special brace to hold that section square and straight when I start to add the bottom formers.

The new upper legs should be here today, so I can continue working on the center section, then the wing panels.

More to follow soon.

Any further progress on this build? I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on this kit & am doing research about it. Thanks...Gene

Hey Gene,

Yes I have almost completed the Ercoupe.. I stopped posting because no one seems to care about scale building anymore. I'm still trying to convenience the R\C Community that you "BUILD" a kit, you "ASSEMBLE" an ARF. Most modelers these days don't know, understand or acknowledge the difference.

Let me know if I can help with anything.

I know what it's like to be running a thread I'm very interested in with the sound of crickets the only response! As it happens I'm very interested in your build and I'd like to see the project as it is now.

I had a simular conversation with a guy a while back probably only 5 to 10% of us still left. Building most are putting arfs together

If it helps, I'm following the build as well. I would love to see the end of your build here in this thread.

Ken

I too would like to see you finish

Alright Guys,

I'll post some more pictures over the weekend.. If I can manage the time to get my stuff together. I have a few I can post now.


And the Full Scale I'm modeling...




Oh Yeah, I forgot.. I connected the control yolks to a servo to turn with the ailerons.



Mike

I have always loved the looks of the Ercoupe. I would love to build one of these eventually. When I can get around to it I'll be buying this kit and putting it on my list of planes to build!!!

Ken

I am surprised to find out the parts were missing. I know BUSA is a top notch company. I guess everyone makes mistakes. I made a mistake one time but, it's been so long ago I forget what it was. At any rate, they made it good. BTW, I REALLY like that plane, maybe someday I can do one.

I have a kind of interesting story about this type of airplane. I had never really cared much for it after seeing a few pictures, and a small model or two in my earlier days.. But then one day I was out at a local lake in a cheap plastic kayak floating around, and here comes an Ercoupe making big floaty turns and passes, I really got a lot of new views of the full scale and I finally realized how nice of design it is... I have always looked at it different since then.

Also I know how you feel on the build threads, sometimes you wonder if it really got posted or not.. I always look at the number of views its getting, to know if anyone is at least reading it. Comments can be few and far between.

I went to a local fly-in yesterday and there were two Ercoupes there. One was simply amazing, all polished up.

I member at our club has the Balsa USA Ercoupe, really nice flyer. You'll really enjoy it.

SunDevilPilot

I also watch a lot of threads on scale building and don't comment on them a lot I think we are all guilty of doing this this is a great build keep up the good work

I have an Airstream camper. I would hate to start polishing that Ercoupe!

I'd hate to polish Joes camper

The guy that invented clear coat was a saint.

Here is a picture of my dad's Ercoupe from back in the 1980's. It is set down at a friends farm outside of Jacksonville, IL. I hope it shows up.

Here is my BUSA Ercoupe that I bought a few years ago.
Love flying it and is ussually the only ERCOUPE at the shows I go to, and I am talking Midwest Warbirds in Wisconsin and at Indiana Warbird Campaign.
JR/Spektrum Radio, D&B 61 cc Twin (Highly recommended)

Lowvoltage, I am from Jacksonville, IL, who would your dad be? I flew in one from a coworker of my dad many years ago, Ben Seymor I believe was his name!

Hey, I just now found this thread. I'll be watching and have a Jack Stafford 60 size kit I want to build but want to duplicate the cowl and any other plastic parts before I do in case I bang something up. I'd love to see yours in person, I'm in Monroe NC. Where do you fly CAM by chance? You also need to put floats on it! Please update us on your progress.

Thanks,
Jim

You can get parts for your Stafford model here http://leisurercmodels.com/jack-staf...dels-kits.html

Roger, my Dad, Darrell Woolums lived in Jacksonville from 1969 until about 1990, when he retired. During the time he lived there he built a Corben Baby Ace, Rand Kr-1 & Rand Kr-2. Then, he got the Ercoupe and the whole family was happy.