Its been kinda slow around the aviation forum so I thought I would find something to discuss. A friend and I are looking into buyng a J3 Cub. We both have boys going on 9 and thought it would be a wonderful experience for them to learn to fly, particularly in the J3! I have been too busy to really get serious about shopping but I have been combing through the ads on Barnstormers,TAP,Taildragger.com and J3.com. Are there any other sites that are a good source for J3s? Anyone know of a cream puff for sale tucked away on a remote grass strip that has been well cared for? Advice, pointers, things to look for, testimonials of your personal experiences and pictures are welcome!

Don't know if it is for sale or no but we had a retired airline capt 'land' one in a tree yesterday, about 80 feet off the ground. He and the psgr were both waiting on the fired dept to come fetch them down, both checked on site and release with the usual 'scrapes, cuts and bruises'.
Story:
Vintage Plane Stuck In Treetops After Fayette County Crash

POSTED: 12:21 pm EDT June 10, 2008
UPDATED: 12:43 pm EDT June 10, 2008


FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- A vintage airplane was stuck Tuesday in a group of trees after crashing just after takeoff from a private airstrip in Fayette County.

Both the pilot and passenger walked away from the crash, but the small plane remained perched in the treetops.

The 1941 Piper J-3 Cub hit the trees after taking off from a private airstrip off Highway 92 in Fayetteville just before 9 a.m.

The plane is registered to William McLendon, but there's no word on who was aboard when it crashed.

The Piper J-3 is a small, simple, light aircraft that was built between 1937 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. With two seats, it was intended for flight training but became one of the most popular and best-known light aircraft of all time.

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The J3 is one tough little aiplane and you still see a lot of them in Alaska.
Good luck on finding one for the kids to learn to fly in.

not exactly J-3's but many people with J-3 backgrounds and a few real experts.

www.supercub.org

You know you're gettin' old when the airplanes you cut your teeth on are referred to as "vintage."

LOVED mine!!

Even worked out a fool proof method of getting a machine gun to fire syncro through the prop. Made a bracket to hold my issue F.N. FAL almost upside down on the floor between my feet so that the mag stuck up at 45 deg, and the ejection port pointed through a hole in the floor. Put rifle on SEMI auto (never full auto) Simple micro switch attached to prop and solenoid that pulled trigger. every time prop went round it tried to pull trigger. Prop cyles faster than rifles cyclic rate but thats fine. F.N would fire at about 500 rpm and a 30 rnd magazine wa about right for one pass on poachers.

Do Not use a machine gun!!! I started off using the station Bren gun - Mag straight up and bottom ejection which I thought was perfect. Got the timing right when plane was on the ground, but in a dive the bolt closed faster that it did on the ground and I hit my prop. Prop had a nick in it until the day I smeared the cub down the runway after an engine failure on take off.

Amaizing little plane- just wish I could have sniveled a super cub though!

Zim pilots and PH's are even crazier than Alaskans. We usually either mount our weapons out on the wing struts with oversized magazines or, in the case of Bob Curtis and his Helio Courier, above the cockpit - and the prop - where he could reload it thru a small door above his seat.

The J-3 is a fantastic plane to learn in and still inexpensive to fly. I taught both of my kids to fly in the one that my son eventually bought. We then flew the J-3 and my Supercub from Alaska to Florida and back - low and slow. It was a unique flying and geography lesson that none of us will ever forget.

quote:

LOVED mine!!

Even worked out a fool proof method of getting a machine gun to fire syncro through the prop. Made a bracket to hold my issue F.N. FAL almost upside down on the floor between my feet so that the mag stuck up at 45 deg, and the ejection port pointed through a hole in the floor. Put rifle on SEMI auto (never full auto) Simple micro switch attached to prop and solenoid that pulled trigger. every time prop went round it tried to pull trigger. Prop cyles faster than rifles cyclic rate but thats fine. F.N would fire at about 500 rpm and a 30 rnd magazine wa about right for one pass on poachers.

Do Not use a machine gun!!! I started off using the station Bren gun - Mag straight up and bottom ejection which I thought was perfect. Got the timing right when plane was on the ground, but in a dive the bolt closed faster that it did on the ground and I hit my prop. Prop had a nick in it until the day I smeared the cub down the runway after an engine failure on take off.

Amaizing little plane- just wish I could have sniveled a super cub though!

First thing that comes to mind is "you might be a Zimbabwian redneck..."

We gotta see pictures of this!

Don't get him started. he could write a book on his own exploits and he is one of many.

Phil, did your son Taj take his J3 to Africa?

Allen, Taj traded his J-3 for a Pa-12 as he wants to work it here in Alaska. Last year he decided to fly for an air service, rather than hunt, so didn't take his plane over. I'm sure he missed it but he flew anti-poaching patrols in the Citabria Scout at Lower Zambesi park. I was able to go along with him on a couple of flights and with the door and windows open and low and slow it was a great way to see Zambia.

The PA 12! There is another great taildragger!
Hope he gets a lot of work out of it.

I think a candidate for a "funniest home video award" would be a video of various people trying to get into the front seat of a J3.

It was a lot easier for me 30 years ago. As I remember the technique was to step on the tire, sit down on the edge of the fuselage, swing your feet in, grab the riser and pull yourself into the seat - right?

Maybe that is why J-3's were deigned to be flown from the rear seat, with the younger? instructor in the front. Of course in those days the instructors were usually the old guys.
There is a knack for getting in cubs and I guess since I've been doing it for forty years I don't think about it anymore - but for some reason, even though it's larger, getting into my son's Pa-12 seems harder. You don't really get in a Cub anyway - you put one on.

I don't think anything could ever take the place of my super cub but in todays world of $4.00 a gallon gas and double that in the bush it would be really nice to have a J3 for the light work like checking on camps etc.
A 85 or 100 HP J3 or PA11 will burn half the fuel.

All I know is I wish I had one. Lotta memories in that little yellow bird.

I got my private in a 90 Cub on floats, got my land rating on skiis, northern Minnesota, 1964.

That area was a lot of tourist country, lake homes to some big buck people. Me and my buddy would fly around the area with the door open and look for sunbathers. When be spotted one, we would sneak around the back side and, power off, would fly over the victim and say hello. We got some dandy shots back then.

I've shouted messages down from planes, but you gota watch you don't loose yer teeth.

Just thought I'd chime in here, although I am not a pilot, don't own a J-3, and don't have any leads for you...

I did however spend most of my youth building and flying scale model airplanes.
The first few were completely scratchbuilt, from plans that I point-to-point graphed and scaled out of books in local libraries and university libraries.

The last plane I built, also the first quarter-scale plane I built, was a Piper J-3

It was totally wonderful to build and to fly.

I would highly recommend exposing your boys to scale model building, also I'd go so far as to recommend you start with large scale models.
In many ways they're easier to build than smaller scale jobs, and they fly much nicer than smaller scale models. That's been explained to me as that they are closer to scale with our air molecules than the smaller planes are.

I hope my note here is taken well, I don't mean to imply you or your boys aren't prepared to own/fly a J-3, just want to note the great rewards I got from scale model building and flying, and point out the availability of large scale models of just what you're looking for.

Might be fun for you and your family.



--Tinker

Fun is it? Well I would ad to start with a very simple and cheap model until you learn to fly,(again) either control wire or radio.

I've seen some beautiful models busted to bits in the first few seconds.

Re J-3's, wouldn't they go backwards in any sort of head wind?

Fun indeed!

I do agree that it's prudent to develop your R/C model airplane flying skills on low cost, cheap construction, super durable 'trainer' models.

Something to note though is that the bigger the model, the better they handle in the air.
There are some pretty large, low cost trainer models available that would be perfect for getting the kids into real-world exercise of their understanding of flight dynamics.

Here's an image I've shamelessly picked from a google search for quarter scale Piper J-3
This gives perspective to the size of model we're talking about here.

quote:

Just thought I'd chime in here, although I am not a pilot, don't own a J-3, and don't have any leads for you...

I did however spend most of my youth building and flying scale model airplanes.
The first few were completely scratchbuilt, from plans that I point-to-point graphed and scaled out of books in local libraries and university libraries.

The last plane I built, also the first quarter-scale plane I built, was a Piper J-3

It was totally wonderful to build and to fly.

I would highly recommend exposing your boys to scale model building, also I'd go so far as to recommend you start with large scale models.
In many ways they're easier to build than smaller scale jobs, and they fly much nicer than smaller scale models. That's been explained to me as that they are closer to scale with our air molecules than the smaller planes are.

I hope my note here is taken well, I don't mean to imply you or your boys aren't prepared to own/fly a J-3, just want to note the great rewards I got from scale model building and flying, and point out the availability of large scale models of just what you're looking for.

Might be fun for you and your family.

Very good suggestion! I have several friends in the area that are avid RC'ers! I plan to get my oldest started in RC this fall.

I'm glad to hear your enthusiasm around this.

There are lots of large scale trainers produced which have largely pre-fabricated foam core construction, are inexpensive, and are very durable, able to withstand the inevitable spills and such from the hands of new R/C pilots.

Most of the big-name Cub kits are mostly complete packages containing most of what you'll need to complete construction.
The job of building one is not necessarily very complicated, but attention to detail and process is very important in order to get a plane that flies right and holds together well.

This is a photo of one man's 1/4 scale Cub that's seen 25 years of flight, 'undressed' for a session of rehab and refinishing.
As you can see, the airframe is quite a piece of work. (this image also shamelessly found via a google image search)




--Tinker

What movie did I just see a part of that had a J3 with some type chemicals aboard? Another plane was chasing it. The J3 had a dead pilot but was said to be on automatic pilot. It was comical as the other plane tried to flip the J3's wing over to change it's course, but the autopilot always straightened it out.
Butch

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
What movie did I just see a part of that had a J3 with some type chemicals aboard? Another plane was chasing it. The J3 had a dead pilot but was said to be on automatic pilot. It was comical as the other plane tried to flip the J3's wing over to change it's course, but the autopilot always straightened it out.
Butch

Butch, You maybe thinking about an episode of "The Unit", from this last season.

I had a great 10th birthday, got an hours stick time, cost, $6.00. What ablast.

Keith

1956 - learned to fly in one in Yuma, Arizona.
Memories....