Thanks! WJ & AX for getting us back to airplanes!
That Ercoupe (and it's passengers) looked like it was having fun!
Mike.

The pilot is Lance one of our local airport employees. He is a nice young man who works part time at the airport and going to school, he just got his A&P lic and wants to do corporate flying. He loves to take passengers in the Ercoupe and cut the paper. My daughter is a student pilot with about 50 hours and loves to fly in about anything also. So Lance didn't have to twist her arm. It was a beautiful late afternoon and she loved the flight.

Originally Posted by AlfaXray1

My daughter had a little fun in the local Ercoupe last week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gymdo...1&feature=plcp

Now THAT looked like a lot of fun. Call me stupid here Guys if you want but, the very smallest plane I ever sat in was a T-33. The smallest plane I ever flown in was a 100 pass. regional jet. I love small planes and always wished I could ride in one. When I was in the USAF straying away from the runway at any speed was a no-no (coming close/buzzing the tower if you will). And then throwing stuff out of a plane (unless a parachute was attached) was a no-no. I know, I know..it was only toilet paper. Isn't any of this, like flying under a bridge...a no-no??? I remember a pilot did a barrel roll along the runway at Griffiss AFB (F-106). I didn't witness it but the old man caught wind and tore him a new one. I guess small private planes has much more leniency on rules...no? I know I'm talking apples and oranges here but, I always thought all the same rules applied to all motorized aircraft no matter what size.

Mike.

The regulation states you may not throw anything from a plane that could cause harm or injury to anyone on the ground. (paraphrasing). We actually throw out the toilet paper roll at over 1000' it unravels and forms a long trail of nothing. It is alo over the center of the airport with no traffic in the pattern. So for all intents and purposes it is safe and legal. (and a lot of fun.) Some times they have these paper cuts as contests at fly-in's.

If it were a catch the "Brick" as it fell competition that would be bad, dangerous and IL-LEGAL. (Heck that could kill someone on the ground or in the plane trying to out-dive a Brick).

In the Air Force you could play catch the 500 pound bomb as it falls.........

Originally Posted by AlfaXray1

The regulation states you may not throw anything from a plane that could cause harm or injury to anyone on the ground. (paraphrasing). We actually throw out the toilet paper roll at over 1000' it unravels and forms a long trail of nothing. It is alo over the center of the airport with no traffic in the pattern. So for all intents and purposes it is safe and legal. (and a lot of fun.) Some times they have these paper cuts as contests at fly-in's.

If it were a catch the "Brick" as it fell competition that would be bad, dangerous and IL-LEGAL. (Heck that could kill someone on the ground or in the plane trying to out-dive a Brick).

In the Air Force you could play catch the 500 pound bomb as it falls.........

Maybe you should consider reading this article and re-consider what you do for "FUN"

Westwood pilot charged after toilet paper drop over high school football field

Now of course, one could argue he was doing something else stupid like perhaps flying too low ... However ... He was busted for dropping TP from a Plane ... and in my view ... probably broke several FAA rules in doing such and should consider himself lucky ...

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/4955392/


Oh... and for the record:

§ 91.15 Dropping objects.

No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.

It may be open to interpretation ... but you better make sure it agrees with "The FED's" understanding of the rule ....

Hey D Dawg, Thanks for weighing in, but I believe the article you attached states it pretty well. First of all when people are using the football field that is not part of your stunt, he was asking for it .First there is also a Regulation against flying low over an open air assembly of persons that was mistake number one,That was outside of my guideline for safe and smart. We were at an uncontrolled airport late afternoon ,NO other traffic anywhere near, everyone on the ground knew what was happening, so we were will with in the FAR's. I also like doing by the book but have some fun too. (safe fun).

It did and it does ... but the point I really was attempting to make is ... your attitude on the law ... what you deem safe and what FAA deems within the Law ... is what matters.

I think it's wise to assume that unless it has been brought to the attention of the FAA, prior to you dropping so much has a gum wrapper out of your plane at altitude ... then you best consider the consequences.

Is a fine or worse, worth it?

To encourage the act of dropping anything out of a plane, even if you feel the RULE is semi-vague and leaves some ambiguity to the rule ... you should not promote the idea of dropping stuff from a plane, unless its an emergency, or at an airshow, or a special planned event.

I would be willing to bet the farm on who's side of this rule, the FAA will agree with.

What you and I consider to be fun is irrelevant ... and dropping rolls of toilet Paper maybe harmless, if done in the middle of nowhere ... but, unless you have a ground crew cleaning up the mess afterwards, is at minimum, be considered Littering and carries its own enforceable fine.

Just sayin' .... not trying to pick a fight.

Peace and soft landings ...

I appreciate you giving your input D-Dawg, but I think in this case we took the "Reasonable Precautions" mention in the FAR's. so I would be willing to say that we were "Legal" also. Toilet paper will disentigrate after the first dew of the morning so littering is probably too strong of a word for what is left on the ground after the drop.

No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.

Attorney's have tried to take all the fun out of life, but we just need a little responsibility and to keep those attorney's away from airports and closer to the ambulances.

Okay, here's a slightly different problem to ponder. I downloaded an aircraft file, and Ercoupe 415C from a site called "Classic Wings"
It has it's own installation setup.

OKay my FSX is in this place C:\FSX so my download should go to C:\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes

It downloads and says it is installed but does not show up in FSX

So I tried C:\FSX\SimObjects

It says it installed, yet it doesn't show up in FSX

I tried an installation program I have called Add It P

It also says it installed in FSX, but it doesn't show up.

Anyone have any ideas how to solve this problem?

Never mind, I figured it out!
Download it into a new folder called "Ercoupe 415C" then open the new folder and drag and drop the Ercoupes in FSX \SimObjects\Airplanes

Neat airplane, every control works like in the real one and even the windows slide down for "open cockpit ' flying by using the cursor arrow to put them down or up! Cool!

Ed

Glad you have it figured out, I would like to download that plane also. Once I get FSX working again. Maybe this week.....hopefully.

Originally Posted by AlfaXray1

Glad you have it figured out, I would like to download that plane also. Once I get FSX working again. Maybe this week.....hopefully.

Hi Roger,
Here's the website


www.classicwings.net/

This is the best Ercoupe download I have ever seen.
There are also a lot of other neat classic airplanes on this website. All downloads are free

Ed

Thanks for the link, I had a couple of their craft on the old computer but forgot where i got them. So I went flying!
Mike.

Still messing with the combat sims, little more involved getting them to work right...
Got 23 staples out Mon,starting to try and move alittle

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