Mickey Lukats' Dad
My dad was the owner of the first Ercoupe, because he commented his ercoupe said the serial #1 was on it. He was in the civil air patrol out of Ebensburg, PA. My father passed away in 1996 at the age of 91 yrs, but often talked of his adventures in flying with only 8 hrs of flying time required to get his license. His name was Dr. Elmer Lukats, and he and his cousin , Dr. Desi Mankovich, owned an air strip called Brabreez (not sure of the spelling), but I think was located outside of Ebensburg, PA.
He crashed the plane during the war years, doing "touch and go's" with the civil air patrol, but did not remember where. He just walked away from it, tearing the propeller from the plane. The only remnant we have is the wooden propreller tipped with brass ends, with a wood sliver out of the prop from the crash. We display it above the mantle in our summer home in upper peninsula Michigan. I often asked my father what ever happened to the plane, he just laughed and commented, pots and pans were probably made out of it.
We just returned from there this weekend and saw an Ercoupe sitting on the tarmac at the Hessel, Michigan airport. I took photos of the plane there to show my wife that it was similar to my father's plane. This Ercoupe was painted, but my dad's was all alumininum except for the wooden prop.
I received this story by email from Mickey in October 2002.
