🚀 go-pugleaf

I have an Alon Aircoupe, a later model with rudder pedals, but I'll
chip in some comments anyway.

A pedal-less and flap-less Ercoupe flies and handles just fine, but
you won't be gaining experience with the rudder or flaps for other
airplanes.  I think they're great aircraft for the money.  I've put on
more hours in 7-8 months of ownership than I did in a few years
previous to owning.  Other aircraft of like engine are also cheap to
fly, but I'm pretty sure my Aircoupe beats many certificated
two-seaters for speed (100 kts honest cruise at less than full
throttle) (52 inch cruise prop and 90hp Continental).

For me, ownership meant several things, including simply liking the
aircraft I owned.  In addition to being a good buy, I have an airplane
that is distinctive and often gets comments wherever I land.  I like
that as part of the total flying experience.  Visibility is very good
except of course straight below.  You can fly around all day with the
canopy open, what I often do on a hot day is open the canopy in the
pattern and get a nice breeze.  Get a good hat
(http://www.tilley.com/shop2.asp?path=root\Tilley_Hats) and you'll be
fine. With the Tilleys you can snap the brim up on the sides so your
headset fits.

Be sure to get a competent preflight, as corrosion in these old planes
may be a problem.  The new AD requires inspection of the wing center
section every three years by 1 of 3 methods: borescope, cutting more
inspectio holes, or wing removal (not as bad as you might think).  The
best suggestion I've heard so far is to remove the wing the first
time.  You'll have to do that anyway to fix things should you find
corrosion.  Then cut the holes and inspect that way in the future,
since it's not a good idea to be removing the wings a lot apparently.
Nobody is going the borescope route that I've heard of.

I looked at 10-15 Coupes before I bought; there is a lot of mediocre
stuff out there since they are so old.

Here are some pertinent web sites.  The last two are email lists.

http://www.flash.net/~dmprosvc/dave/purchase.htm
http://www.ercoupe.org/
http://www.ercoupers.com/
http://www.ercoupe.net/
http://www.escribe.com/aviation/coupers/index.html
http://www.escribe.com/aviation/coupers-tech/index.html