By John W. Conrad
When Bob and Jean Porter of Batavia, Illinois, attended their first EAA air show at Oshkosh, they didn’t have an airplane, but they had a dream. Bob learned to fly in a Cessna 152 and then a 172, and he dreamed of owning his own airplane. Jean dreamed of the travel with her husband and best friend. That was 31 years ago, and counting. Little did they know the “AirVenture” that was in store for them.
The couple purchased their dream aircraft in 1999. Or perhaps it could be better said that they purchased the parts of their dream aircraft. The basket-case 1946 Ercoupe included two fuselages and four wings. The fuselage they would eventually rebuild into N93949 had suffered from a case of PIO — pilot-induced oscillation — on landing. The front landing gear strut had been folded back, damaging the engine mount and firewall, the wings were in need of repair and re-cover, and basically the aircraft needed rebuilding from the ramp up.
The Ercoupe is a diminutive two-place aircraft with a bubble canopy, side-by-side seating, a 75-hp Continental engine, and a twin tail reminiscent of a Lockheed Electra. The airplane was an LSA (light-sport aircraft) a half-century before the FAA invented the category. The airplane was designed to be simple to fly and impossible to spin. To that end the ailerons were interconnected to the rudders, and there were no rudder pedals. Look down at the floor and you see only one pedal, the brake. To taxi the aircraft you steer it around like a car, with the control wheel.
The Porters were able to rebuild their Ercoupe under the supervision of their son, an A&P mechanic for a major airline. Many parts were bought from the AirVenture Fly Market at between “one-fourth and one-tenth” of regular prices. The wings were covered with Poly Fiber, and Bob’s advice is, “Just follow the book. The book gives you every step you need to finish the job, and it works. Listen to LeRoy. When LeRoy (a cantankerous cartoon character in the Poly Fiber manual) says ‘don’t do it,’ then don’t do it.”
Once the Porters got their Ercoupe home, the aircraft was again disassembled and the wings re-covered, with Poly Fiber.
Over the years, the Porters’ Ercoupe has taken them on a lot of adventures. At their first attendance of the National Ercoupe Fly-in in Minden, Nebraska, Bob demonstrated the remarkable crosswind landing ability of the airplane by landing on the north/south runway while the winds were 25 knots straight out of the east. When asked if he would do it again, after a bit of thoughtful pondering he answered, “Well, yeah. I wouldn’t go looking for it, but I’d do it. Ya gotta land.”
One of their most memorable trips was from their home base in Batavia on to Fort Rice and then Fort Dilts, North Dakota, following the track of Bob’s great-grandfather who was a Union soldier sent in a relief column to assist a wagon train attacked and pinned down by Sitting Bull. You won’t get that low-and-slow, up-close-and-personal kind of flying experience in a pressurized turboprop at FL 240.
This year’s adventure for the Porters and their Ercoupe included Bob holding up their tent through the Friday night deluge after two tent poles broke. With typical pith he quipped, “You just can’t rely on a 19-year-old tent.”
Young Eagles
To hear Bob Porter tell it, there is no aircraft better suited to giving Young Eagles flights than his 1946 Ercoupe. Since he began participating in the program, Bob has given more than 250 Young Eagles rides.
“The Ercoupe is the perfect aircraft for giving these kids their first flight,” he said. “It is small, and the controls are right there in front of them. They aren’t just a passenger in the back seat, and I try my best to get them to take the controls. They almost always do.”
Bob has a lot of support in his effort to give Young Eagles rides. He is a member of EAA Chapter 579 of Aurora, Illinois, that has been, for the last several years, the national leader in the number of Young Eagles rides given.
“It is an honor to be part of this program,” he said. “It gives young people a goal whether it is just to learn how to fly for fun, or whether it is to go on to a professional career. It is an honor.”