http://takeoffsareoptional.com Flying is the second greatest thrill known to man.* Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:06:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There are a gazillion videos on the popular Youtube.com website, including many videos involving Ercoupes. The Ercoupe Owners Forum on Yahoo Groups had this one posted and I thought I would share the link. It is a nice production - watch it in full-screen HiDef if you can. I certainly hope ... http://takeoffsareoptional.com/great-ercoupe-flying-video-on-youtube/ Finally, at long last (redundancy intentional), a lunch mission planned for six different dates was successful. The previous five attempts were all scrubbed because of family, life effects and plain old Mother Nature not playing nicely with her winds and precipitation. Bob is based in New York State along the Hudson ... http://takeoffsareoptional.com/jinx-is-broken-at-butter-valley-golf-port-in-bally-pa/ Last week there was one perfect evening for a bit of local flying. Some airplanes just love landing on grass runways. On this beautiful September evening three planes and their pilots were having fun (practicing & learning) and were frolicking in the pattern, a Citabria, a C-172 and an Ercoupe. This ... http://takeoffsareoptional.com/some-airplanes-love-landing-on-grass-runways/ Ercoupe 67H had her 63rd birthday celebration today. According to the original log book, she rolled out of the factory in Riverdale, MD and had a one hour test flight on August 16, 1946. I let 67H out of the cage (hangar), gave her a cup of AeroShell 15/50 along ... http://takeoffsareoptional.com/happy-birthday-to-ercoupe-67h/ I just read this quip on the Ercoupe Tech message board (Yahoo news group/mailing list?) and thought I would share... "Airplanes are not investments, they are toys. They should be purchased with toy money or left alone. There are much simpler, cheaper toys, but none (to me) are as fulfilling." Yup - ... http://takeoffsareoptional.com/airplanes-are-toys/