Budget buy: Poor man’s T–34

First, I like to say the name fast. Try it. Second, I read in a 1975 article that this is a “fun” airplane. I’ve never flown in one, but with tandem seating and jet fighter-like control sticks, plus a sliding canopy that can be opened in flight, it does seem like it would be fun. Not fast, mind you, but the Varga Kachina will have you thinking you are tearing up the skies—especially when climbing at 1,400 feet per minute. It’s inexpensive at less than $50,000.

There were roughly 180 built from 1948 to the early 1980s, and 126 are still registered. Most have 150-horsepower Lycoming O-320 engines, but a baker’s dozen have 180 horsepower. Some people like to compare the Varga Kachina to Beechcraft’s piston military trainer, the tandem-seat T–34, but it probably should be called a baby T–34. It went out of production like many airplanes in the early 1980s because of product liability costs. Many are restored and still out there, including a tailwheel model that was tested but never produced.

THE REAL WORLD

Terry Blazer of Blazer Aviation Transport in Green Lake, Wisconsin, southwest of Oshkosh, owns four airplanes, and three of them are Varga Kachinas. While Blazer Aviation sounds like a very official business, Blazer said basically it is just a bunch of old guys who love to work on airplanes. He bought a Varga Kachina in California in 2006 and his friends at Oshkosh had such fun flying it that he went back to Carlsbad, California, and bought two more from a sightseeing and mock air-combat company. His retired U.S. Navy pilot friends tell him it is as close as they can come to naval jet fighters, although the speed is a lot lower at 120 miles per hour.

“I fly them to airshows and they draw quite a crowd. We have a lot of fun with them,” said the 69-year-old retired pilot. He estimates the operating cost, including most common expenditures and a hangar, at $60 an hour. He keeps the aircraft at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh.

The Lycoming O-320 engine burns about 8.5 gallons per hour and gives the aircraft spectacular climb performance. If you slow to 80 miles per hour you can open the canopy in flight. It comes over the airport fence at 60 to 65 miles an hour. “It’s the greatest little airplane I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned 20-some airplanes,” said Blazer.

Alton K. Marsh is a freelance aviator writer.