Carden told me he decided to "bring these people out of the closet. And so I got together with about a dozen guys and got a mailing list from Skyport Ercoupe service and starting sending out little news letters." They had their first major Ercoupe convention in 1976 with 200 'coupes and about 500 people in Oklahoma.

This year, the conventioneers were guests in the dorms and meeting rooms at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. There were seminars on the big Ercoupe bugaboo, corrosion of the wings, best flying practices, and a session or two on the more exotic aircraft of today. There were tours, including one to the nearby Kennedy Space Center as well as to area museums, and there was a banquet.

Harvey Readey of Orlando did the local organizing. Harv's a retired Lockheed Martin engineer. He bought his Ercoupe in 1988, upgraded the avionics, put in a Garmin Navcom and transponder. In '92, he says, he discovered corrosion in the wings and had to replace the spars. Now, he's a corrosion fanatic.

Picture: Harvey Readey's Ercoupe flight deck.

Harv told me, "I keep my plane hangared in a little T hangar we purchased when we bought the plane and we have it treated every two years..and we fly it a lot. Put all those things together and that'll keep it going." He said, "I've owned several aircraft and I find the Ercoupe just a delight to fly..I fly it open cockpit most of the time here in Florida." They all talk like that.

The newest 'coupe to attend was a Mooney M10, owned by Charles West of Waycross, GA. It taxied up in the rain on the second day, having dodged thundercells all the way across Florida.

Qualifying as the last of the Ercoupe line, West says the airplane was built in 1970, second of a run of 155. It's Ercoupe back to the trailing edge of the wing and Mooney back through the tail. Cruises about 110 knots and uses about 4 and a half to 5 gallons an hour. Charles says he loves it and that the next thing he's going to do is add a set of wheel pants to get about 3 more knots. Sounds good to me.

So, of course, you're asking: 'How does an airplane with no rudder pedals land in a cross-wind?' And you'd be right to ask that..it's what the fuss has always been about. The experts who fly them say it's never been a problem. Gene Gagliardi of Vero Beach and Lynn Nelsen of Frostproof, Florida were in charge of parking the Ercoupes as they came in. What with the rain, they had a lot of free time to talk.
"In my opinion," Gene said, "rudder pedals are not needed in that airplane." Lynn Nelsen responded, "I agree. They reduce the room and there's no need for them. The reason is you only have three degrees of travel in (on the rudders themselves) and 20 degrees out and they're not very large. So you have one rudder basically doing the work in one direction and one in the other. It's one of the reasons they designed the airplane with the engine mounted down and to the right to reduce that P factor so you don't need as much rudder to keep it straight and level." OK, says I, but what about the crosswind landing? Gagliardi and Nelsen patiently explained that the airplane is landed crabbed into the wind, that the main gear..well behind the center of gravity and built to withstand heavy side loads, touch down crabbed and the airplane immediately turns to the direction of travel. "Sometimes," Gene grinned, "you're looking out the side window.." but it works. I think I'm going to have to see that one for myself.

That evening, about 60 conventioneers gathered at a great Italian restaurant just up the road from the Daytona Speedway. They had some Italian cooking served home style, drank a few beers, laughed a lot and talked about Ercoupes.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Thanks to expert Ercouper, Ed Burkhead, for some technical editing on this piece. I appreciate it, Ed.

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