1938 Piper J3C Sport Cub

[Jrboulder]

I've flown a J-3 on floats a few times up in Idaho. What a wonderful airplane! I would love to own a J-3 floatplane some day.

[romad]

Buying an airplane is easy, maintaining one is not.

[intakexhaust]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Burns about 4 gallons of fuel per hour. Believe this engine you can even put car gas in, so that makes it even less expensive to fly.

These are real "low and slow" fun airplanes to fly. Open the door and fly with it up and you really get a good feeling for everything going on around you.

Joe A

Beautiful craft. Just the other day, a fellow came in with replacement fuel tank for one he's restoring. Looked approx. a 7 gal. oval tank. He needed a special wrench for the fuel sender that is the same as used in a Ford model A. Anyhow, I was amazed to see the fuel sender with cork just like an old car.

[romad]

Its a great airplane..... a lot of fun local, then one day you want to go for point a to point b and you say hey I own an airplane, then you remember oh its a cub........ dang.

[Jrboulder]

Originally Posted by romad

Its a great airplane..... a lot of fun local, then one day you want to go for point a to point b and you say hey I own an airplane, then you remember oh its a cub........ dang.

Don't be hatin' on the cub!

You can take your fancy A to B planes with their mixture controls and electrical systems and just go to point B because we are having enough fun flying around point A.

[romad]

Believe me I'm not a hater I would love that airplane.
Just that, after so many flight hours you realizes the real value of an airplane, its a time machine. Once you have had access to an decent airplane that can haul you and a few at a decent pace you'll never fully love going any other way. Cut a three or more hour trip down to half or less and your world view changes or at least now you view a weekend.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by romad

Buying an airplane is easy, maintaining one is not.

Sure they are! These airplanes were made in the 1930's and 1940's and are pure tractor tech. Dirt simple, they run about 7.5 compression and were designed to run on 80 octane fuel, not high test.

[Jrboulder]

Quote de romad

Buying an airplane is easy, maintaining one is not.

Sure they are! These airplanes were made in the 1930's and 1940's and are pure tractor tech. Dirt simple, they run about 7.5 compression and were designed to run on 80 octane fuel, not high test.

They are still standard catagory aircraft. If you need an engine overhaul, new covering, or corrosion repair it will still cost you a pretty penny.

[HardDrive]

My grand parents out for some chilly Michigan winter flying

[Jandrews]

The "point A to point B" discussion is a good one. I was going to ask, what is the range on a plane like that Piper? Is it really only for flying around the air space near your local airport?

What kind of planes would you need to be looking at if, say, you were interested in getting something that you could fly 500-600 miles, and land in another airport. Then, stay there for a week, and fly home?

JA

[Jrboulder]

Originally Posted by Jandrews

What kind of planes would you need to be looking at if, say, you were interested in getting something that you could fly 500-600 miles, and land in another airport. Then, stay there for a week, and fly home?

JA

It depends what you're hauling. Anything from a Cessna 172 to a 210 would work or even a light twin. If it's 2 people and 15lbs of bags think 172. If its 4 people and a lot of stuff think 206 or 210.

Jackson

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Jrboulder

They are still standard catagory aircraft. If you need an engine overhaul, new covering, or corrosion repair it will still cost you a pretty penny.

Sorry but hate to break it to you but my last annual cost me $100 plus an air filter. My last overhaul was well under $1000.

Older airplanes like this do not have to be expensive, if you can do the work. Have had my A&P for 30 years now and I do 99% of the work on the bird. Most expensive part on the overhaul was getting the various things checked out like the cylinders and crankcase, otherwise it was a case of putting the parts together and making it all fit. Have another O-300 sitting in a friends hangar getting ready to overhaul it this winter.

[Joeaksa]

BTW, this is what I am talking about, not a Piper Cub but four place taildragger. Tim has one much like it as well.

[HardDrive]

Beautiful machine Joe.

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

BTW, this is what I am talking about, not a Piper Cub but four place taildragger. Tim has one much like it as well.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Jandrews

The "point A to point B" discussion is a good one. I was going to ask, what is the range on a plane like that Piper? Is it really only for flying around the air space near your local airport?

What kind of planes would you need to be looking at if, say, you were interested in getting something that you could fly 500-600 miles, and land in another airport. Then, stay there for a week, and fly home?

JA

It all depends on fast you want to get there and how deep your pockets are. I have flown my wife, daughters and camping from Northern Ohio to Lakeland Florida in my 4 seat 1955 125mph Piper Pacer taildragger... it took 10 hours which included a couple stops for fuel, potty breaks and lunch. To me, it was a fun adventure and beat driving 20 some hours in a car. My wife flew with her first husband all the way down there one year in a customer's newly restored 60hp Cub (where it won an award at Sun/Fun).

Sure newer pressurized 1 million dollar plus turbocharged Piper will get you there quicker, but not everyone can afford a faster airplane. For the price of a nicely restored 80 mph Cub, one could instead buy an average 172 or Cherokee 140, but they don't cruise much faster than 100 knots. To get into something closer to 200 knot cruise speed, one will have to spend a whole lot more serious coin. No matter what one can afford, there will always be someone who can afford a faster and fancier airplane.

Many grass roots aviation enthusiasts enjoy flying a wide variety of airplane types for the sheer joy of it. Then there are folks who simply view aviation as a means to travel x-country quickly. I personally have no desire to visit the west coast and am perfectly satisfied with being able to fly to Tennessee in 4 hours for a weekend vacation vs spending 8 hours driving in a car. The majority of my flying involves attending grassroots fly-in events within a 100 mile or so radius, I sometimes take my under 75 mph cruise Minimax just for fun and have a ball. Taking my 125 mph Pacer to the same Fy-in does not increase my fun factor, nor would a 150 mph cruise $100k+ airplane. A once or twice a year longer 500-800 mile x-country trip in a faster airplane just does not make sense to me even if I could afford to buy a $100k+ airplane.... Different strokes for different folks I guess.

All that said, Cubs are never bought for traveling, they are bought for flying low and slow on warm summer evenings for the pure joy and nostalgia of it.

[Evans, Marv]

A friend in the late '60s flew from Connecticut to LA in a Piper Cub with his 18 year old buddy. The 18 year old had been given the plane by his father in a basket and was told he could have it if he could put it together and fly it. His father had several planed, mostly sea planes as part of his company. The were called a goose or something like that and two engines high on the wings. Anyway, the kid got the plane together and had been accepted into an aircraft mechanic & air frame school in the LA area and wanted to bring the plane there. The two of them flew across country using road maps and the southern route when they got into the southwest. As I remember they would look for motels along the way with fields behind them, land behind it & stay there overnight. They also stayed in some small airports & in one abandoned Air Force base. The plane had a wire that stuck up out of the gas tank they watched for when the tank was getting low. They flew along beside big rigs along the highways in the southwest deserts. Said the truck drivers were pretty surprised. I don't know how embellished the story was, but they did it. My friend also rode trains across the country several times - once he brought his girl friend. I got to go flying off & along the coast of S.D. a couple of times in the plane.

[Flieger]

One middle aged couple at the Camarillo Airshow talked about how they flew their Cub to Oshkosh (that is basically from LA).

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Flieger

One middle aged couple at the Camarillo Airshow talked about how they flew their Cub to Oshkosh (that is basically from LA).

Every two years I fly mine from Phoenix to just South of Dayton Ohio for a fly-in at the factory where the plane was built. Tim even flew down in his Piper one time to get together.

These are fun old planes to enjoy and takes me about two days to make the trip. I fly a jet for a living but this old gal is fun to fly at 500 or 1000 feet above the ground and see the real countryside and people.

Thanks HD!

[intakexhaust]

The J-3 reminds me so much of a 356. Think about it for a moment.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I think the hours one spends at the controls of an airplane (much like the hours one spends driving a Porsche) are not counted against the total number of hours you're given by God for life on this earth. That said, there's nothing wrong with slow airplanes that give you more "hours in seat"!

I'm starting to look at / seriously consider airplanes now and while I'd love a Cub or Aeronca Champ or Decathalon (something like that) for messing around locally, from a practical standpoint I want something that will enable me to get 500-600 miles in 3-4 hours. Old school fabric stuff won't cut it. I need a 4-place too.

That plane is simply beautiful though, if not practical for my needs. Like a 550 Spyder, it'd be worth having even if it didn't have a real purpose.