This is an aircraft from the era when flight training regularly included spinning, and it was designed so that it did not terrify new students! That said, however, the Cub has a rather high stall/spin fatality rate, probably because fairly experienced Cub pilots tend to play around at low altitudes, where recovery from stalls and spins is unlikely. Stalls in the Cub are said to be benign, and spins are said to happen fairly slowly. But of course, people don’t buy Cubs for their fast performance, but more often to fly low on a summer evening and look at the view, or something similar. It cruises at around 70 miles per hour with the 65 hp and 75 hp engines, while those planes sporting the 85 hp engine can manage 80 miles per hour. The actual flying is not all that different, but the takeoff and landing most definitely are. So if you decide to buy a Cub, do make sure you get some training in tailwheel aircraft. It is certainly not difficult, but it is of course a taildragger, and the majority of today’s pilots tend not to have much tailwheel time, if any. The J3 Cub was designed primarily as a trainer, so it was intended to be easy to fly. Cubs sell because they have a certain romance, ie they sell for what they are and have been, not what they can do. Looked at realistically, a Cub is rarely a bargain and is probably not even a good deal when looked at purely in financial terms. So there is quite a lot of variation when it comes to prices. According to one source, prices for used Cubs start at under $20,000 and can rise well above $50,000. Cheaper ones are available if you look around carefully, but they may well need a lot of work doing to them. But prices shot up in the 1980s and 1990s, and today a well-restored Cub is likely to set you back around $440,000 or more indeed, I have seen them advertised for $65,000 or thereabouts. In the 1940s, a new Cub sold for $1595, which is equivalent to about $20,000 in today’s money.īy the 1970s, Cubs were something of a bargain, selling for around $2500. Wing loading: 6.84 lb/sq ft (33.4 kg/m 2)ĭespite being such an old aircraft, second-hand Piper J3 Cubs are not as cheap as you might expect.Maximum speed: 76 kn (87 mph, 140 km/h).Powerplant: 1 × Continental A-65-8 air-cooled horizontally opposed four cylinder, 65 hp (48 kW) at 2,350 rpm.Its popularity continued, and it gradually attained almost cult status. It was extremely popular right from its inception. And like most aircraft of that period, it was a ‘taildragger’, ie it had a tailwheel rather than a nosewheel. It was a two-seater and designed primarily as a trainer and general aviation aircraft. Unusually for Piper, which generally produced low wing airplanes, it was a high wing aircraft. The Piper J3 Cub was Piper’s most produced aircraft, with 20,000 built between 19.
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