Airplane ownership has taken over my life!

[vegatex]

Gang,

I'm still here and still working (slowly) on my Cosworth. Since buying an Ercoupe that I believed was in excellent condition in August, most of my time and disposable money has been sucked into a series of repairs.

I flew the plane back from Washington state and had no problems, so I though I had found a near-perfect airplane.

It started with a small engine oil leak and a pitot-static system leak, both of which I was able to address and repair for about $20.00. Then, the right magneto started mis-firing. I thought it was simply an ignition harness, so I replaced the harness set (about $260, plus shipping!). The problem continued, and while I was troubleshooting (with Mike Spigelmier's help), I found a new problem-- the something was making the main power circuit breaker pop every time I switched the alternator field switch on. Back in 1979 a Ford alternator was installed to replace the generator-- no paperwork was filed with the FAA and it was just done as a logbook entry (a big no-no for a major modification). The airplane had a history of avionics problems after that, and now we know why-- the voltage regulator sensing terminal was never wired into the main circuit, so the voltage regulator was basically allowing unregulated voltage to power the busses! The previous owner had replaced the old regulator with an new Zeftronics unit, but he never found the wiring problem and just plugged it in! My mechanic and I re-wired the system and replaced the alternator and voltage regulator with a new, legal, Plane Power lightweight alternator and regulator combination. After that we went back to the magneto problem and rebuilt it-- still bad. Installed a new coil, and thought that was the fix, but it was still misfiring after about two hours of flying. On my way to see Sherman Wright in Midland, I diverted to Abilene and the mechanic there had a tester that found it was firing on multiple cylinders-- evidence of a cracked distributor block and carbon arc tracking in the mag. So I think I have that one figured out, finally.

Now the FAA is coming out with an airworthiness directive that requires repairs for aircraft with holes drilled in the main spar cap to mount bucket seats. I don't have bucket seats, but at one time a previous owner installed them and a subsequent owner removed them. Now I'm getting ready to replace the entire center wing and fuselage section with a unit that has an unmodified main spar cap!

Despite all that, I really love the airplane and have been enjoying flying with my daughter and anyone else who wants to join me. Hopefully, most of these problems will be behind me by the spring.

Needless to say, I haven't had the time or money to continue building the Cosworth as a rally car for the Chihuahua race. I've traded one adventure for another, it seems. I'm going to finish the car as restore it to daily driver status. I started buffing out the paint and will put it back together with the original interior. I will need to replace carpet and weatherstripping, but will have a nice Cosworth when I'm done.

So anyone want to buy an Autopower roll bar?

Later,
Dave