Nice piece. Instructors everywhere are wondering: when can we expect to read the sequel - “We don’t need no stinkin’ trim?”
-YARS
Wonderful article. Since you put your hat into the political ring, “Make Aviation Great Again”…MAGA…endorsed by the General Aviation Party (GAP)…now officially a party made up of me and you…I guess two makes it a party…you have my vote!. Long live the grand Poobah of the GAP! Long live Ercoupes and other cute airplanes!
Hey … YARS … don’t forget me, too. I have my red hat ready. 
Can I be the Sergeant-at-Arms (aka, the Enforcer)?
Good article … you made me laugh, Paul. I, too, no longer fly when it’s dark or in those big white things. Funny how gettin’ older makes you wiser. And, I once almost ate the weenie in – of all airplanes – a C150 doing one of your low show off passes. As my life flashed before me, I actually thought … “Of all the airplanes to die in!” Fortunately, I got it climbing before I met the pine trees.
Seriously, though, if only two things happened, there’d be substantial growth in GA. Raising the MGTW of Light Sport would not only attract (and re-attract) many but it would alleviate the need for all that FAR23 testing and TSO’s which the rewrite didn’t fix. 3600 lbs would be awesome! Also, if they’d institute the “Primary-non Commercial” airworthiness category from the FAR Part 23 rewrite recommendation Appendix G-4, existing GA airplanes would see some relief, too. Is it OK if I don’t hold my breath waiting ?? But hey … if you appoint a GA pilot as Administrator, maybe it would happen before we all are wearing bibs or pushing up grass. I’d promise not to call him, “Mikey.” (inside joke for those with a long memory).
– LARRY
No, no, no. For the sequel: “We don’t need no stinkin’ flaps.”
I’ve only flown one once, but the Airbrick . . . er Brickcoupe . . . er ErrorCoupe has truly unbelievable glide characteristics.
If hat color will represent the General Aviation Party campaign, red is eliminated. Blue skies, blue oceans, turquoise waters, blue taxi lights, Navy Blue Angels, ultramarine blue of the Air Force - and don’t forget blue FAA headers (everybody like that one?) compile the obvious choice.
But even my old ears can still pick up the rumblings of vitriolic protest, so how about white? Here come the white hats to rescue GA because, indeed, the world could use a smile. Where do I register?
Dave
The problems with the idea of a so-called idiot-proof aircraft (that can’t spin and/or stall, or don’t need rudder pedals), like the Ercoupe, Long-Eze, and many others, is that it is just a dream, no more no less.
The Cessna 337 was supposed to be the safest twin there ever was, but the accident records tell another tale (Swedish Coastguard had several, all lost, some just disappeared over the North Sea), John Denver lost his life when he managed to deep stall his beloved Long-Eze.
Here is an interesting article by Richard Harris about the safe plane:
https://close1d2.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BewareTheSafeAirplane.pdf?3a1a6d
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My Ercoupe had flush riveting, all metal, and a controlable Beech Roby prop and upgraded 85Hp Continental. I could get off the ground in under 1000 feet and cruise at over 125mph. I loved it and wish I still had it. Sold N111J when I had a medical problem that turned out to be a false alarm. There are faster planes, but none I ever had could hunt thermals like “Homesick Angel”. With the cockpit open I would fly rill I smelled what smelled like “hot water on a broken rubber hose”, a smell familiar to those of us that drove cars before 1960, and then I would begin circling in a thermal to gain altitude.
The Ercoupe did not need rudder pedals, did not stall in the real sense, it was not an idiot proof airplane… But your argument really falls apart when you begin quoting accident statistics on a DIFFERENT airplane, an airplane that weighs 3 times as much, has retractable landing gear, two engines, seats six, and adjustable props. There is NO comparison to an Ercoupe which apparently you never even flew.
I “stalled” an Ercoupe 200 feet from the ground with full passenger load and full fuel tanks. It recovered and I flew on. The only thing that you could not do without the rudder pedals was a 4 point roll. You could however do a barrel roll if you had enough altitude.
ahhhh but you do need, and indeed have rudders, just not the pedals…