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[Hodakaguy]

We'll be finally bought a cub.  It's a 1938 Cub "Sport" with a mighty Cont A50-3 Engine.  It was restored by Clyde Smith Jr (The restoration is one of the best I have seen, Clyde does Great work!)  Our goal is to keep it as original/correct as possible, in the same spirit that Clyde restored it.

Can't wait to start flying to some airshows this summer and enjoying this beautiful cub.  Anyways I'm pretty exited to pick it up this week, figured I would post up a couple pics (I see there are a few pics of this plane in the gallery all ready). 

I hope to be a regular here on this site.....it's great! 




A50-3 Up Exhaust Dry Sump Engine




Taken a couple weeks ago during the purchase inspection/annual.




Interior. 

Here is a link to a Video Clip of the A50 Engine Start up.  With dual exhaust and no mufflers this little engine has a sound of its own.  Pure Music....The camera makes the prop look really wild when its running.  You can click on HD to watch it in High Def. 

Link here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-QF-V1wjXc






UPDATE:  Trip Report...The ride home

The purchase of the cub came with an extra Cont A-50 engine (wet sump, the one on the plane is a dry sump) so we needed to pick up the engine as well.  My uncle Mike came with us so he could drive the engine back to WA state while we flew home in the cub.  Having the van on the trip would come in real handy later on.  We arrived in Sonoma CA on May 8th to pick up the plane.  After doing all the necessary paperwork, talking to the owner Ron and the mechanic Eric Presten (Eric has produced several aviation books, we purchased his latest one and its great!, Highly Recommended! CLICK HERE: http://www.napanet.net/~arbeau/usaah/vf.htm).   ect we were fueled up and ready to head to our next stop, Willows CA. 



Here we just rolled the cub out of Ron's hanger.  No the plane isn't electric, the extension cord is charging a hidden gel cell battery under the rear seat.  There is a hidden intercom system under the front seat that is powered by the rechargeable gel cell.  Turns out the battery was bad from sitting and lasted almost to the end of the taxi way.  Oh well, cubs are great with no radios! 




Here we just loaded up the spare engine into the van. 




Sitting on the grass at Sonoma CA.  Had to take this shot with the cool BD-5 weather vane in the background.




Group Shot.  Starting from the left.  Myself (Tom), my father Dan, Mechanic Eric, and Owner Ron




We left Sonoma and Eric followed us out for a ways.  He wanted to get some pictures of the Cub in the air for his next book.  Can't wait to see the pics. 




Here I'm flying from the back, we are heading twords I-5 where we will turn north.  Felt good to get back over ground where you could land pending a engine out. 




You can just see Colusa airport in the distance.  Our new destination and our temporary home for a day and a half. 

Once we hit the valley and turned north we ran into strong headwinds.  The forecast was for calm winds up the valley but they got this one wrong.  Our GPS was showing a ground speed of 27mph - 35mph with an indicated airspeed of 65mph.  Not what we really wanted for our first landing in the cub.  Mike was giving me updates on the ground up ahead and it didn't look good, strong wind.  Looking at our time and our fuel it was obvious we wouln't make Willows like we had planned.  We decided to land at Colusa CA instead and wait out the wind.  My father brought the cub in for a great landing and we tied the plane up for the day.  My Uncle picked us up in the van and we headed into town for some lunch. 

I did a mag check again while we were taxing to the tie down area and it had a slight miss on the left mag.  Also we had a couple minor oil leaks to take care of.  (The plane has been doing a lot of sitting for the last couple years).  Once back at the airport I found a few loose hose clamps, and a couple loose wires from the mag switches.  We met a real nice fellow pilot by the name of Ray that loaned us some of his tools and we had the oil leaks taken care of pretty quick.  We didn't have a plug wrench though so it was back to town again in the van to get some more tools.  The van came in real handy here as we made more than a few trips into town and back. 

A quick call to Eric to talk over the rough mag problem and we were back working on the plane.  I swapped all the plugs top to bottom on each cyl.  We started it up and it still had a mag drop and miss but this time it was on the other mag.  At least we now knew that it was a plug and not a mag.  There is no where to buy plugs here so we drove down to the end of the runway where a Duster outfit is operating off the field.  I talked to the owner and asked him if he had a serviceable plug I could use to bounce around cyl to cyl on the A50 to find the bad plug.  Turns out he had Brand New plugs and said here have one.  I asked him what he would charge me for a set of 8 new plugs since I didn't know how old the others were and he just handed me 7 more!  I tried to give him something for them but he said nope, just have them.  Then he proceeded to give me a bottle of thread lubricant as well!  I really wish I had gotten his name....anyways another big thanks to him!

At this time it was getting late so we left the plane tied down and headed back to the motel for the night. 




Here is a shot of Ray and I.  Ray was a great help to us at Colusa, making many trips to his hanger and back to bring us tools ect.  He used to own a bicycle shop in town and still does work on them at his hanger.  Ray had a beautiful Sonex in his hanger that he had built, the best looking Sonex that I've seen!  Ray will have his Sonex at the Arlington Air Show in WA this year, see you there Ray.   




Ray's Sonex that he built.  Absolutely Beautiful! 

[wjs46cub]

WOW!  Nice.  Jack

[JimC]

Nice looking plane.
JimC

[J5man]

Very, VERY nice.

Jack

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above - May 9th





Here Mike is pointing at the new cowling for the cub     We were tired and it was late the night before so we just left the cowling in the van and covered up the engine for the night with a space blanket.  Here Mike and I just arrived back at the airport to install the new plugs and do a runup and mag check.  My father couldn't get to sleep the night before so he stayed back at the hotel to get some rest.  We installed the new plugs and the mag check went great, nice and smooth and no miss  .  We fueled up the plane, re-installed the cowling and headed back to the motel to pick my father up.  The forecast was for calm winds in the valley but again they got it wrong.  By the time we had checked out of the motel the winds had picked back up again and the plane was grounded again.  They then changed the forecast again to show wind that day but said it would diminish throughout the day. Since we now had time to kill again we headed into a couple neighboring towns to find a new gel cell battery to install in the cub so we would have the intercom back again. 

After getting a new battery and having lunch we headed back to Colusa to install the batt and wait out the wind.  After waiting for 3/4 of the day the wind finally died down and we were on our way again!  Felt great to finally be back in the air again!!!




There are a lot of Rice fields around the Valley.  Not a great emergency landing option!  It was really neat from the air how the houses were all on little islands surrounded by water.  Anyways we are back in the air again and making good time!   





Good shot of the houses on the islands.  Things you only see from the air.  On a nice day like this its hard to imagine why everyone doesn't want to fly. 




Heading north.  Here we are heading to Redding CA.  We are going to stop there for the night and head over the Siskiyou Mountains early in the morning when the air is nice and cool.  Since we had the time we decided to make one stop on the way to Redding at Red Bluff CA. 




Red Bluff.  It was a ghost town here.  It was a Sunday though. 




Made it to Redding CA for the night.  Here is it's temporary home among the spam cans.  Weather is suppose to be great in the AM, should have a great trip over the mountains.  We wanted to hit the mountains early in the morning to let the A50 pull the plane to altitude a little quicker. The plan was for my father to fly the plane to Grants Pass OR solo, I would join him back in the plane then. 

MAY 10th.  We were at the airport at the crack of dawn.  The weather was perfect for the flight.  My father is very cold blooded so he bundled up and headed out for the mountains. 




All bundled up and ready to go. 




Airborn.  The A50 sounds like a radial when its in the air, a very unique sound.  Cruise is 1850 RPM....with the engine pop, pop, popping along.    My father had no problems getting elevation.  He climbed strait to the pass and was at 6500 feet by the time he got to the mountains.  A real "Rocketship" with one person on board.   




Lakes in the Siskiyou's. 




Beautiful scenery.  Keep on popping along you little A50!




Mt. Shasta in the background and a Cinder Cone in the front. 




Taken over the Siskiyou's.  6500 feet.  We bought this GPS right before the trip.  It's a Lowrans Airmap 600C.  For the price it can't be beat!  $299 and it comes with the Ram Mounts ect.  Full color, terain avoidance, airport databases ect.  It was nice to have in unfamiliar terain. 




Warm and cozy at 6500 feet.  Self shot taken by my father over the Siskiyou's. 




Edit.....Weed Airport from the air. 




Mt Shasta in the background.




Heading out again.  Here my father is on his way to Grants Pass OR. 


Hodakaguy

[Hodakaguy]

Continued from above.



Getting fuel and stretching the legs.  Here my father is explaining a few differences between the early and later cubs.  This is where I got back in the cub, felt good to be airborne again instead of riding in the van.  




Here I'm getting some stick time in.  




Heading to Cottage Grove, OR.  (Now Jim Wright Field).  




Getting fuel at Jim Wright Field.

 At this point we knew we weren't going to make it home on this trip.  I had to be back to work and the weather was going to deteriorate later that night.  The plan was to try and make it to Hood River OR.  I called and talked to Terry (the owner of the WAAAM museum at Hood River) and he said he would let us keep the plane in the museum until we could come back to pick it up.  With a temporary home for the cub all lined up we all hopped in the van and headed into Cottage Grove for some lunch.  

By the time we returned to the airport the wind had really picked up and was blowing good.  Eric in CA had told us that he had a half share in a hanger at Cottage Grove so we decided to leave the plane there instead of pushing on to Hood River.  This is when we met Betty Wright and Ron Englund.  Betty's husband (Jim Wright) was the one who built the Howard Hughes H1 Racer Replica and Ron did a lot of the work on the H1 as well.  They were both very nice and we talked to them for quite some time.  Betty really knows her antique aircraft.  Eric's hanger ended up being full so Ron moved some projects around and let us keep the cub in one of their hangers.  Everyone we met on this trip was super friendly and willing to help in any way possible, the aviation community is a tight knit family!  I would have loved to meet Jim Wright, the H1 was a true work of art and in my opinion the prettiest plane ever made.  It was a privilege to meet Betty and Ron.  RIP Jim.  

With the cub safe and secure in its new temporary home we hopped back in the van and finished the trip home to kennewick WA.  We will be heading back soon to finish up the trip, I'll take some more pictures of the rest of the trip and post them here when we get back.  




Jim Wright in the Hughes H1 Racer.........BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!




Sign at the new Jim Wright Field.  




While we were talking to Ron at Jim Wright Field he said there was a luscombe that is kept in their hanger.  A little while later the luscombe showed up.  As soon as it taxied up we all recognized it, it was my Uncle Mike's old luscombe!  It's a small world.  Here mike is posing with his old 8F.  




Our "New" J3 sharing its temporary home with Mike's old Luscombe.  What are the odds.....


Well we will be back in the air again soon.  I'll post up more pics when we get back.

Here's a link to a short vid taken in the air between Grants Pass OR and Cottage Grove OR.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOVP5iArO4

Hodakaguy




 UPDATE 6-8-09 (Finally Home!)


Well after several weeks of trying to make our schedules and the weather match up we were finally able to drive back down to Cottage Grove OR yesterday and finish the flight home with the cub.  We have been watching the weather real close for several weeks and every time we had a opportunity to get the cub the weather would be bad, mainly the wind through the Columbia River Gorge.  We were looking at several different weather sources, both aviation and internet ect.  The weather channel was forecasting winds of 5-10mph pretty much all the way home, NOAA was forecasting about the same except for Hood River OR in the gorge, there NOAA was saying 20-25 with gust to 36mph.  There was also considerable overcast but it was suppose to break up the farther we traveled north and Cottage Grove was just out of IFR.  We decided to believe the weather channel (wishful thinking) and after calling 1-800-WX-Brief we were on our way.

It was pretty windy at 4am when we were driving through the gorge, the huge flag on the dam was strait out....not a great sign but at least it was going to be a tail wind.  





Finally back at Cottage Grove.  Just pushing the plane out of the hanger where our J3's gracious hosts Betty Wright and Ron Englund let the plane stay in their hanger for the last few weeks.  It was really nice knowing the cub was out of the weather until we could get back to get it.  Thanks again Betty and Ron....If your ever in the Tri-Cities and need something let us know!  




While waiting to go get the plane from Cottage Grove we joined the Cub Club and ordered all the back issues.  My father and I have been reading them all (there are some great articles in there!).  My father (Dan) read a article about checking your tail wheel bolts to make sure they're not coming loose, a commonly overlooked problem.  During the Pre-flight for the final trip home we lifted up the tail of the plane and my father grabbed hold of the tail wheel......  Loose!!  The bolts were all about half way loose and the tail spring was really sloppy.  With the weight of the plane on the tail wheel it was harder to feel/see the problem but you could still tell it was loose if you grabbed it and yanked around on it.  Ron quickly loaned me some tools and the tail wheel was once again tight like it should be.  

If you haven't checked your tail wheel bolts lately I would highly recommend it.  




Ron and I, just before leaving Cottage Grove.  Thanks again Ron, also that is one cool bike!  




Back in the air and heading North!  This shot was taken a short time after leaving Cottage Grove.  Fairly low ceiling, no rain and a 10mph tail wind.  Sweeeeeet!




At our first fuel stop, Aurora OR.  We fueled up here before heading into the Columbia River Gorge.  There was a small squall passing by and the wind picked up so we waited here for about 30 minutes while it passed.  Time to get back in the air again....Next stop will be The Dallas OR.  My father took this pic while we were stopped at Aurora, I thought it looked cool taken from that angle.  




We left Aurora and continued North, here we turned east and we are just entering the Columbia River Gorge.  Still a little overcast but no rain.  As soon as we entered the Gorge we started picking up some speed.  At times the GPS was showing 94mph! We were expecting a rough ride as the Gorge can get really bumpy when its windy but it was silky smooth.  Just sit back and enjoy the fast trip through the Gorge.  




Lots of water pouring over the Bonneville Dam, and lots of Electricity being generated.  




Heading East through the Gorge, It's a beautiful view!!




When we got to The Dallas the wind was really blowing, In the 25-30mph range. We needed fuel so we would have to land.  The landing went without incident and we re-fueled the cub.  After re-fueling the plane I walked with the plane all the way back out to the runway, hanging on to the struts to help steady the plane.  The wind was behind us and the brakes are not working good right now, (they are bad even for cub brakes, they need to be serviced) so we were worried about the wind wanting to ground loop the plane on the taxi way.  Once to the runway we straitened it out, I hopped back in and we were off again.  It practically leapt off the ground!  




Wind!  We are making great time though.  A quick check of the weather while in route shows that it's only 3mph at home right now.  Great news!  




I thought this was a cool shot that my father took.  




Just about out of the Gorge.




Once we got to Arlington OR we angled North again and started heading for the Tri-Cities.  There were numerous scattered rain showers in the area and we weaved around them on our way North.  Just got into some small sprinkles, missed the heavy rains.  




Home Sweet Home....Richland WA.  Yahooooo!!!  Our friends Brent, Richard and his Sister were at the airport to watch us come in.  




Finally in the hanger!  My Father and I pose for a picture with the plane.  




My friend Brent trying the cub on for size.  Brent was going to go with us to Cottage Grove and help drive the car back/ride in the plane but it turned out his daughters graduation fell on the same day.  We'll get you up in the cub soon Brent!  


It was a great trip from CA to WA.  Many thanks go out to the people who helped us along the way and it was great meeting everyone at all the airports that we flew into.  The aviation community is really a close knit family!  

Now we have some small maint items to take care of, brakes ect.  Give it a good cleaning and wax job and we will be off to the Arlington WA Air show next month.  Hope to see you there!  


Here's another link to a short vid clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPhyJrhYAUU

And another vid flying through the Gorge:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74w9RgnZR_g

Hodakaguy

[David Johnson]

Well done

[farm-tim]

Good Grief that is like having a public dream.
  Thanks, Tim

[BillM]

Keep the photo's coming....Love it!

Beautiful cub!

Bill

[J5man]

Beautiful Cub and beautiful pictures of an epic(would be for me at least) flight. Those rice fields would have given me more "auto rough" than the mountains ?

I must be getting old, I'd rather look at pictures than do some things myself.

Jack

PS. But give me a call next time if you need someone to go along for the ride. (if there is ever a "need" for 180# of dead weight in the front seat behind 50hp)

[deedus]

Thanks for sharing your story.  It's easy to see why we all love these cubs.

[Hodakaguy]

Thanks for the comments, I really like doing trip reports like this. Its a great way to share the trip with family and friends and document the trip for later on at the same time.  It's been a blast bringing the cub home so far, can't wait to get back down there and finish bringing it home. 

Yeah I'm not to exited about flying over water or mountains either.  We tried to stay high enough and skirt the edges of the rice fields so we always had a emergency landing option in site.  The stretch over the mountains though didn't leave a lot of options.  We followed the roads since they were your only life line and even then they weren't much up in the mountains. 

The rest of the trip home should be great, we will be flying up to Portland OR, then turning east and heading through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.  We plan on making a stop at the WAAAM Museum at Hood River OR.  If you ever make it up to Hood River this museum is definitely worth a stop, lots of really rare aircraft.  Here's a link to the museum.  http://www.waaamuseum.org/

Once through the Columbia Gorge the terrain opens up and it becomes desert, from there on out its pretty relaxing flying. 

I'll keep updating the thread. 





Here's a picture of the Columbia River Gorge.  It's a very scenic flight. 


Tom C.

[Hodakaguy]

Here's a short clip of the cub in the air.  YooHooooo......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOVP5iArO4


Tom C.

[farm-tim]

Video Porn is Gooood.

[I_FLY_LOW]

Niiiice!
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