ZS-VCE - A PERSONAL HISTORY

In 1949 an Ercoupe, the 415-E model, with the serial number 4975 was born. I'm not exactly sure how she got into South Africa, but she started her life as ZS-BSJ as early as 1950. As with all Ercoupes of the time, she had no rudder pedals and was fitted with the Continental C-85 85 hp) engine.

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EARLY RECORDS SHOW some incidents between 1950 and 1965 that included hard landings, forced landings and propeller damage. Unfortunately, the logbooks that I have in my possession only start in 1966. She spent most of her days in the Port Elizabeth (Uitenhage) area at that time and later moved to Progress. She did travel up and down the coastline a lot, with trips ranging from PE to Saldana Bay and up to Pietermaritzburg, Margate and Virginia.

Somewhere between May 1978 and July 1981 she stopped flying, at least according to the logbooks but somehow ended up in Cape Town, where she was dismantled and moved by railway to Dundee. Here she was reassembled and placed back into service on 1 July 1981.

On 3 March 1984 she became part of the Erasmus family for the first time when my dad, Lex Erasmus, obtained a special flight permit from the then Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to ferry her from Lanseria to Bapsfontein. He vividly recalls that ATC reminded him that the aircraft needed that special certificate before take-off to which he promptly provided the required detail.

Between March 1984 and December 1985, the aircraft was completely rebuilt. The fabric covered wings had a complete recovering. All metal areas were stripped and repainted. All control surfaces were rebalanced. The major changes were: 

• The engine; this was replaced by a Lycoming O-235-C1 (115 hp),

• The fitment of the aftermarket rudder pedal kit,

• A new propeller

• A new interior.

This is when she was re-registered as ZS-VCE. The V was designated back then for Veteran or LS1 as some may now know it.