Experimenter

November 2012

Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.

Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/90184

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Mike Finney's Cl ipped Wing Cub Mike Finney's Clipped Wing Cub Building a Cub to your style By Budd Davisson Piper Cub. For generations those two words have conjured up visions of warm summer sunsets, magic vistas seen through an open door, and a yellow, fabric- covered flying machine begrudgingly giving up flight as it whispered through tall grass or skimmed across a calm lake. Those same two words issue a challenge to anyone who is contemplating building a Cub of any kind: "What can you possibly do to a J-3 Cub that hasn't been done before 14 NO. 3/NOVEMBER 2012 that won't ruin the spirit of the airplane?" Putting a turbine in it is passé, has been done, and takes away the essence that is "Cub." Going to symmetrical wings and a fi re-breathing big engine gives performance, but again, the "Cub" is gone. How about a terrazzo and linoleum in- terior? Nope, goes against the simplicity upon which the Cub is based. So, what can you do to a Cub that will make it "yours" but still have it be very much a Cub? A parallel question is, "How can you take what is almost sacred in its perfection and make it even more perfect?"

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