Hello from California

K

kcabpilot

Active member
Joined
Jul 25, 2018
Messages
31
I took my first flying lesson in July 1969 in a J3 Cub and traditionally through the years I was always a Cub guy and despised Champs up until sometime in the late 90’s after flying nothing but nose dragging Cessna's, Cherokee’s, Grumman’s, Mooney’s and even a Tri-Pacer I looked for a place that rented taildraggers and of course all I could find were Citabrias. So I started flying a 7KCAB and later a 160 horse ACA Explorer. I ended up buying a Luscombe project (that I’m still working on) and then came across a deal on this poor forgotten 1958 Champion 7FC (that had been converted to an EC way back in the early 60’s) it was sitting outside at a desert strip near Palm Springs and looked pretty tattered but it was really just cosmetics, underneath it was a sound ship. The wings had been rebuilt about four years earlier with new Millman spars and the engine had about 800 SMOH.

So my brother and I drove 500 miles down there in the Camper on Friday night, put air in the tires, changed the oil, did a compression check, basically did a full annual inspection over two days, cleaned the haze off the windows, a couple of test flights and I flew it home Monday morning. That was nine years ago. I paid $8500 for it. Since then I’ve put about 500 hours on it and have done a few fairly long trips including one out to my bro’s house in Utah that was over 17 hours round trip. I spruced it up a bit with a radio, intercom, transponder, a Garmin 296 in the panel and shoulder harnesses.

I’ll post a follow up with pictures as I’m on my iPad now so don’t have anything at hand. Here’s a video of landing after my first test flight and another one a few days later doing touch and goes at home.

First test flight

No bounce gear

Paul
 
Last edited:
kcabpilot said:
I took my first flying lesson in July 1969 in a J3 Cub and traditionally through the years I was always a Cub guy and despised Champs up until sometime in the late 90’s after flying nothing but nose dragging Cessna's, Cherokee’s, Grumman’s, Mooney’s and even a Tri-Pacer I looked for a place that rented taildraggers and of course all I could find were Citabrias. So I started flying a 7KCAB and later a 160 horse ACA Explorer. I ended up buying a Luscombe project (that I’m still working on) and then came across a deal on this poor forgotten 1958 Champion 7FC (that had been converted to an EC way back in the early 60’s) it was sitting outside at a desert strip near Palm Springs and looked pretty tattered but it was really just cosmetics, underneath it was a sound ship. The wings had been rebuilt about four years earlier with new Millman spars and the engine had about 800 SMOH.

So my brother and I drove 500 miles down there in the Camper on Friday night, put air in the tires, changed the oil, did a compression check, basically did a full annual inspection over two days, cleaned the haze off the windows, a couple of test flights and I flew it home Monday morning. That was nine years ago. I paid $8500 for it. Since then I’ve put about 500 hours on it and have done a few fairly long trips including one out to my bro’s house in Utah that was over 17 hours round trip. I spruced it up a bit with a radio, intercom, transponder, a Garmin 296 in the panel and shoulder harnesses.

I’ll post a follow up with pictures as I’m on my iPad now so don’t have anything at hand. Here’s a video of landing after my first test flight and another one a few days later doing touch and goes at home.

First test flight

No bounce gear

Paul
Click to expand...


Paul, that's a great story about finding your Champ.....maybe best deal ever on a used plane since the cost to do the spars alone would be two or three times what you paid for the plane! And the engine was less than mid-time, that was a good deal!
Thanks for posting the photos, welcome to ChampCitabriaDecathlonForums.com, and keep flying that airplane!

Bart
 
Yea it was a true "barn find" minus the barn. He didn't even have it advertised, I just found it through word of mouth. It had gotten to a point cosmetically that the owner had to either let it go or invest some money in it, right at the tipping point where rescue was still feasible. I didn't even haggle with him, I offered $8500 and he said "It's yours". I'm probably going to sell it within the next year as I'm looking for a 150 hp Supercub. It's a great little Champ but not quite enough for the mountains out here in the West and I want to make another Alaska trip.
 
That is a 90 hp Champ? It has to be worth $25K. Way to go!

If you are serious about the Super Cub, make it a 160 hp version that is otherwise stock and around 1100# empty. There are a lot of really heavy dogs out there. If I were going to do another Cub it would be a PA-11 with 90 hp.
 
I've looked at a couple of 105 Specials's but they are kind of oddballs with toe brakes and no flaps, built as military trainers.
 
No reason other than I've wanted a Supercub since I was 14 years old. There are a couple of nice GCBC's on Barnstormers right now and one of them is close by plus they are about a third less than a Cub but the money is not a big deal because I'm not going to keep it forever and selling them is no problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top