Creating the Super Cub of your dreams could get easier soon, especially if your dreams include extra horsepower. CubCrafters, the Yakima, Washington, company that manufactures and restores light sport and certified backcountry aircraft, is making available its supplemental type certificate that boosts the Piper PA–18’s performance significantly.
Power off, 20 degrees of barn-door-effective split flaps, and a forward slip produce a gentle plunge and sudden rushing sound that takes a moment to realize is the airflow hitting the blue-and-yellow fabric fuselage at an angle.
Kit manufacturer Bearhawk Aircraft founder Mark Goldberg recently sold the company he created to produce a rugged, all-metal line of single-engine, backcountry, quick-build aircraft to Bearhawk builder Virgil Irwin, a missionary pilot who plans to expand the operation with a builder-assist program based in Fairview, Oklahoma.
Years ago, I was manning the phones for a kit aircraft company in the western United States. I answered one of the first calls of the day and a voice asked in accented but perfectly understandable English if we had a weighted flop tube for a fuel tank in stock and could ship it soon. We did, and I asked where we might be shipping it.
I’d been tracking the Staggerwing on FlightAware, yet when the cream-colored Beech Model D17S appeared overhead at Winter Haven Regional Airport, its shift from a green blip on an iPhone screen to magnificent, full-throated presence felt surprising.
When I was originally tasked with managing the restoration of the AOPA Sweepstakes Cessna 170B, I knew a couple things—one being that I wanted the engine upgrade to happen at the Barnstormer’s Workshop at the Peach State Aerodrome in Georgia. The second was that I wanted Gardner Lowe Aviation Services at Atlanta Regional Airport/Falcon Field, also in Georgia, to handle the panel upgrade.
It starts with a low rumble that jostles the AOPA Extra 300L like an earthquake. The stick vibrates. Rudder pedals chatter. Then a wing drops sharply, and the nose falls.
Yakima, Washington-based CubCrafters, one of the leading manufacturers of backcountry aircraft, recently announced it has acquired Summit Aircraft Skis.
The first kitbuilt Bearhawk Aircraft Model 5 flew on November 7, the Austin, Texas, company announced. The Model 5 is a six-place, high-wing, tailwheel design that the company says is comparable to a Cessna 180 and 185 and is meant to be a heavy hauler and backcountry performer.
Once again tasked with flying an aircraft to do things outside of my comfort zone, I got a quick checkout in the AOPA Sweepstakes Cessna 170B and then flew it to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022 the next day.
No airplane is impervious to the performance penalties that come with hot weather and high altitude—but the Kitfox Series 7 STi shrugs them off like it just doesn’t care.
As a taildragging enthusiast I’m typically in the know with the latest developments of the backcountry world. But I was dumbfounded when fellow Carbon Cub pilot Greg Simmons asked, “Have you seen the Patriot yet?” during the opening day of the Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo.
Big tires, spot landings, and off-airport adventures are all the rage in aviation. It might not be for everyone, but for three women, short takeoff and landing (STOL) has become a way of life.
Lifelong friends James Frank and Adam Sarsfield celebrated their sixteenth birthdays by soloing an assortment of aircraft, four airplanes each—including a warbird and touchy taildragger not known for being kind to pilots.
What started as a cross-country flight in an Extra NG has led to the opportunity of a lifetime for Middle Georgia State University student Angela Rogers.
Short takeoff and landing events captured the hearts and minds of aviation enthusiasts around the world in 2021. Make sure to put some of 2022’s STOL events on your calendar.
Mark Goldberg winced as pebbles from the unimproved runway in central Mexico flicked paint away from the Texan’s newly constructed Van’s Aircraft RV–8 low-wing homebuilt. He had just landed in Puebla and was eager to greet the family that housed and cared for him when he was a student at the University of the Americas in the 1970s.
It’s not very often that you hear of a family owning the same airplane since Harry Truman was president, but the Jones family has managed to do just that. Now, they’re on a mission to preserve and document their family’s legacy in aviation.
Even though it was so long ago, it feels like yesterday that Bob Mohr picked me up at the Piper dealership in 1946. I was spectacular, and my fabric was shiny and new. I was ready to fly, but I was also nervous. Who was my new owner? What was he going to do with me? Was he a good pilot?
The kitbuilt Bearhawk Aircraft 4-Place short-takeoff-and-landing taildragger just became more versatile. The rugged backcountry aircraft engineered around a steel tubular fuselage and aluminum wings to haul heavy, bulky loads adds more utility—and more fun—with options for floats and skis.
Fly8MA.com’s Jon Kotwicki is lowering the financial barrier to a tailwheel signoff with a pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth formula to broaden private pilots’ aviation abilities without denting their budget. Kotwicki, a CFI and backcountry aficionado who is passionate about delivering flight training above and beyond the minimums, feels that the knowledge gained from tailwheel training can increase pilots’ skills and safety.
When the military launched a program to test technology for extracting personnel trapped in isolated or vulnerable positions, it called in air support from general aviation.
The all-composite and carbon fiber constructed Extra NG unlimited aerobatic aircraft that designer Walter Extra unveiled in 2019 has received FAA certification. Orders are already “fast accumulating” for the nimble and robust $450,000 performance specialist, the company said February 2.
Northwest Arkansas’ rugged terrain drew seasoned aviators and enthusiastic spectators to its inaugural ArkanSTOL Ozark Backwoods Challenge in September. And while most competitors have been flying for years or even decades, it’s a newcomer—17-year-old Jaden Newman—who proved she’s the one to watch, having placed second after earning her pilot certificate earlier this year.