For sometime now I have been meaning to write this story about how I became an owner of my very own Forney Ercoupe (Cupcake) N7539C. *The story starts a little over 4 years ago when my flying buddy, Jim was in the market for his third Ercoupe. *You see Jim owned a 1947 Ercoupe back in 1949 and put hundreds of hours on the plane during his younger *years. *Then came a family and there went the Ercoupe. *Fifty years later Jim got back into flying and purchased his second coupe, a 1966 Alon A1 Aircoupe 5456F, (Foxy) with rudder peddles. *
I met Jim at South Jersey Regional (VAY), shortly after his purchase of Foxy. *He was at the airport cleaning his new plane and I was on my way to my weekly Piper rental. *Being a long time fan of the Ercoupes, I had asked Jim if I could take look inside his Alon Aircoupe, since I had never seen an Alon before in person. *Jim allowed me to take a look while he stepped away for a bit. *Jim returned, and I told him what a neat plane he had and wished him the best of luck. *That is when Jim made me an offer I could not refuse. *He said he was looking for a fellow pilot to fly with and was wondering if I was interested in flying with him and the Aircoupe every once in a while. *I of course didn’t give it a second thought, got checked out in the plane and we started flying together every week. * *
After a couple on months of flying the Alon, Jim still longed for a rudderless Ercoupe like his first one. Well one day we found a 1958 Forney Ercoupe for sale on EBAY. *It appeared to be a cream puff and only had 1000 hours on the engine and frame. *The final item that made this a sure deal was when we found out that the serial number for the Forney was 5456, matched the registration number of Jim’s Alon 5456F. *Well Jim won the bid and was now the owner of two coupes. *We picked up the Forney and flew it to our home base of South Jersey Regional. *So for a while Jim had the best of both worlds a ruddered Alon Aircoupe and a rudderless Forney Ercoupe. *We flew both planes and took many people for there first ride in an Ercoupe.
After about six months Jim was in the market for a bigger plane and he purchased a well maintained and updated Cherokee Six 300. *Now with three planes, his better half required that he relieve himself of one of the two coupes. *I was surprised when he decided to get rid of the Forney, but it seemed like the logical choice to him. *You see, Jim felt that the switch back and forth between ruddered and non-ruddered flight might be an issue when he flew the Six so he decide to sell the Forney. *At first I had no real desire to own an Ercoupe. I like many pilots wanted something faster and bigger. *However, the more that Jim spoke of selling the Forney, the more I began to regret the fact that Cupcake was leaving our flying family.
After much thought and calculations I came to the realization that owning my own Ercoupe wasn’t such a bad idea. *At 5 gallons an hour and gas getting close to 3 dollars a gallon, I cold fly without breaking the bank. *So I informed Jim that I was actually thinking about owning my own plane and he gave me my second offer I could not refuse when he sold me the Forney.
So the Forney stayed in the family and I have my own Ercoupe to tool around in. *Best of all are the looks, waves and big thumbs up I get from folks at every airport I land at. *
Next the engine rebuild.......
2008 Smart Passion
1976 Rover Mini
2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec (SOLD)
2009 smart Passion (Gone)
2011 smart Passion
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