A chat with Ron Dixon

It is quite fortunate (for me) that probably the foremost active authority on the MiniCoupe, Ron Dixon, lives only an hour or so away up in Maryland.  Ron sells the MiniCoupe plans and was kind enough to offer me an hour or so to crawl around his MiniCoupe – after nearly forty years, his is now getting a bit long in the tooth, but remains an active flier, sharing flight time with Ron’s other bird, a good-looking Luscombe 8A now sporting a new wind-generator. 

After an hour or so of get-acquainted chit-chat, Ron invited me across the runway of the quiet Maryland airport to the isolated hanger where his MiniCoupe relaxes, along with assorted spare aircraft parts, propellers, tools and even a Teenie Two fuselage.  I weigh around 250lbs and my first concern was whether I’d even fit in the Coupe, but Ron without more ado assured me; “you’ll fit…” Sure enough, as soon as we got to the simple hanger, Ron slid the canopy back and instructed, “Jump in…” 

I was a tad uncertain crawling over the right wing and gingerly forcing my geriatric knees to contort a bit more than they liked, but Ron who is no small man himself knows his cockpit well after nearly forty years flying her and just as he had promised, I did indeed fit.  We’re not exactly the same dimensions, and he quickly described a few things I might consider for my own construction to tailor mine to me, but the worry over the cockpit was anticlimactic – and I was able to egress without the aid of a derrick; a really hopeful sign.  Ron may sell the plans although I doubt he makes any money at it – mostly I think he just likes the MiniCoupe and his enthusiasm can be infectious.

Some years ago Ron’s MiniCoupe was rebuilt, after a brake failure and the little bird’s unanticipated trip into the trees.  During the rebuild, he flush riveted much of the aircraft, especially the Clark-Y wings which he extended slightly incorporating the fiberglass wing-tips which he sells for any new MiniCoupe builders who would like them – the designer of the wing-tips is reputed to be none other than Dick VanGrunsven, better known as the patriarch of Van’s Air Force.  As it turned out the first MiniCoupes were originally designed in the upper North West, and the original MiniCoupe prototypes were built near the VanGrunsven farm. As a result of a few aero-improvements, some propeller tweaking and the C85 Ron’s bird now sports, he has a cruise speed closer to 125mph than the steady 95-105mph the smaller VW engined MiniCoupes generally achieve.

Anyway, what an opportunity to crawl all over Ron’s MiniCoupe with tape-measure and camera in hand – Ron was patient enough to answer a steady string of (almost certainly inane) questions which I'm sure he's probably answered time and again for newbies… I'm psyched – even though his MinCoupe is nearly 40 years old it'll hold all of my geriatric flab – and I didn't realize how many travels that little bird has been on -- it sure answered any doubts I may have had as to whether a MiniCoupe was feasible for occasional XC; he cruises at a good clip with his C85 and has been over much of the U.S. – Oshkosh several times, maybe again this year.

Probably the most reassuring issue of the afternoon, other than meeting Ron himself, was that in crawling around the MiniCoupe it was clear to me that this was a plain, simple bird designed to be built by only a modestly-skilled, backyard hobbyist – seemingly the only real decree is; don’t cut corners during construction and don’t add too many gadgets and techno-gizmos that only complicate the trouble-free structure -- and needlessly weigh down what is a honest, enormously-robust little flyer.