More Ercoupe pics

Here's the place for you to post videos and photos of your favorite airplane or most interesting flight. Commercial posts should go instead into the Want Ads forum.

Moderator: drseti

User avatar
Scooper
Posts: 397
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:29 pm
Location: Santa Rosa, CA

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by Scooper »

FastEddieB wrote:
drseti wrote:Damn, Stan, you were a good looking kid!
Agreed. WHAT HAPPENED???
Fifty six years, Eddie. :wink:
Stan Cooper (K4DRD)
Private Pilot ASEL LSRI
Image
Experimental AMD CH601XLi-B Zodiac LSA N601KE (KSTS)
User avatar
Scooper
Posts: 397
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:29 pm
Location: Santa Rosa, CA

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by Scooper »

Getting past the thread drift and back to Ercoupe pictures, in 1979 at the annual "Wings Over Wine Country" Memorial Day airshow, Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington of Black Sheep Squadron fame was sitting at a card table signing autographed copies of his autobiography "Baa Baa Black Sheep." There wasn't anybody around, so I struck up a conversation with him that lasted fifteen or twenty minutes. What an interesting character.

Anyway, I bought an autographed copy and noticed a photo on the inside cover of Pappy standing on the wing of an Ercoupe. From his receding hairline it was obviously taken after the war, and I couldn't help but wonder what it must have been like to transition from a Vought F4U Corsair to an 85 hp Ercoupe.
Greg Boyington.jpg
Greg Boyington.jpg (115.23 KiB) Viewed 4912 times
Greg Boyington with Ercoupe.jpg
Greg Boyington with Ercoupe.jpg (218.24 KiB) Viewed 4912 times
Stan Cooper (K4DRD)
Private Pilot ASEL LSRI
Image
Experimental AMD CH601XLi-B Zodiac LSA N601KE (KSTS)
Wm.Ince
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:27 pm
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by Wm.Ince »

FastEddieB wrote:
drseti wrote:Damn, Stan, you were a good looking kid!
Agreed. WHAT HAPPENED???
Now that was funny! :D
Bill Ince
LSRI
Retired Heavy Equipment Operator
User avatar
drseti
Posts: 7227
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:42 pm
Location: Lock Haven PA
Contact:

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by drseti »

To further continue the thread drift:

Boyington was one of my heroes. Not just because of his service record, but also for the frank and open way he discussed his recovery from alcoholism.

I remember at Oskosh perhaps 35 years ago, where Boyington was set up at a card table selling copies of his memoir, Baa Baa Black Sheep. Sitting at a card table next to him was Mike Kawato, the Japanese pilot who allegedly shot him down, selling copies of his memoir, Bye Bye Black Sheep. The two former adversaries had apparently become best of friends.
The opinions posted are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof H Paul Shuch
PhD CFII DPE LSRM-A/GL/WS/PPC iRMT
AvSport LLC, KLHV
[email protected]
AvSport.org
facebook.com/SportFlying
SportPilotExaminer.US
Wm.Ince
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:27 pm
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by Wm.Ince »

drseti wrote:. . . . . Boyington was one of my heroes. Not just because of his service record, but also for the frank and open way he discussed his recovery from alcoholism.

I remember at Oskosh perhaps 35 years ago, where Boyington was set up at a card table selling copies of his memoir, Baa Baa Black Sheep. Sitting at a card table next to him was Mike Kawato, the Japanese pilot who allegedly shot him down, selling copies of his memoir, Bye Bye Black Sheep. The two former adversaries had apparently become best of friends.
Great story.
Bill Ince
LSRI
Retired Heavy Equipment Operator
Sling 2 Pilot
Posts: 317
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:53 pm

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by Sling 2 Pilot »

Scooper wrote:Getting past the thread drift and back to Ercoupe pictures, in 1979 at the annual "Wings Over Wine Country" Memorial Day airshow, Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington of Black Sheep Squadron fame was sitting at a card table signing autographed copies of his autobiography "Baa Baa Black Sheep." There wasn't anybody around, so I struck up a conversation with him that lasted fifteen or twenty minutes. What an interesting character.

Anyway, I bought an autographed copy and noticed a photo on the inside cover of Pappy standing on the wing of an Ercoupe. From his receding hairline it was obviously taken after the war, and I couldn't help but wonder what it must have been like to transition from a Vought F4U Corsair to an 85 hp Ercoupe.

Greg Boyington.jpg

Greg Boyington with Ercoupe.jpg
I’d like to know the context of the Ercoupe picture. Was it a PR photo? He’s getting in, but won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, as it’s still tied down. :roll:
3Dreaming
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:13 pm
Location: noble, IL USA

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by 3Dreaming »

Sling 2 Pilot wrote: I’d like to know the context of the Ercoupe picture. Was it a PR photo? He’s getting in, but won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, as it’s still tied down. :roll:
Maybe he is just climbing out, and the ground crew has already secured the airplane.
User avatar
Scooper
Posts: 397
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2007 12:29 pm
Location: Santa Rosa, CA

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by Scooper »

Sling 2 Pilot wrote:I’d like to know the context of the Ercoupe picture. Was it a PR photo? He’s getting in, but won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon, as it’s still tied down. :roll:
The closest thing I've found that may explain it is the opening of the first chapter in Baa Baa Black Sheep where Boyington explains that two years before the 1958 publication of the book he got back into flying after an absence of thirteen years (that doesn't sound right; 15 years before 1958 would have been 1943 when he was in the middle of his time flying Corsairs in the Pacific). He passed his 2nd class physical and through the help of a friend who ran a ground school and tutored him for a week he passed the written for an instrument rating. Another friend owned a flight school and let him fly a few hours "for practically nothing." He then passed a "blind-flying check." He then says a local aircraft distributor "even paid him a few dollars" while he was building recent flying hours for his ratings. Two months from the day he discovered he could pass the 2nd class physical exam, he was set to go with commercial, multi-engine, and instrument ratings on his airman certificate.

The book doesn't say where this happened, but Boyington was a native of Coeur d'Alene, ID, and the Coeur d'Alene airport is named after him. Another well known Idaho aviation pioneer, William S. Hill, Jr., owned an Ercoupe dealership in Pocatello. It's probably a stretch, but the "local aircraft distributor" Boyington mentions may have been Hill although Pocatello is over 500 miles from Coeur d'Alene.

Boyington also mentions he and his wife lived 5 minutes from the Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank and got a flying gig with an air freight company there flying the company's executives around.

We'll probably never know the real story behind the picture of Pappy on the tied down Ercoupe.
Last edited by Scooper on Sun May 03, 2020 12:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Stan Cooper (K4DRD)
Private Pilot ASEL LSRI
Image
Experimental AMD CH601XLi-B Zodiac LSA N601KE (KSTS)
User avatar
drseti
Posts: 7227
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:42 pm
Location: Lock Haven PA
Contact:

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by drseti »

Scooper wrote:We'll probably never know the real story behind the picture of Pappy on the tied down Ercoupe.
Probably not, Stan, but your hypothesis sounds as reasonable as any.
The opinions posted are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof H Paul Shuch
PhD CFII DPE LSRM-A/GL/WS/PPC iRMT
AvSport LLC, KLHV
[email protected]
AvSport.org
facebook.com/SportFlying
SportPilotExaminer.US
User avatar
hirschr
Posts: 186
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2011 1:21 pm
Location: Chattanooga, TN

Re: More Ercoupe pics

Post by hirschr »

Love all the vintage pics! Who knew Pappy was an Ercoupe guy, that's awesome!
Post Reply