Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

[TexasNick]

Hi all,
I currently own a J3 Cub (65hp) and have a Sport Pilot license. The Cub is a fun airplane to fly, but now it's time to get something a little more practical. I would like to do more XC (visit parents 5hrs away, go for hamburger runs, etc ) and retain good STOL capabilities.

What model of Taylorcraft would you all recommend for me with the following criteria:

• Sport pilot eligible
• Largest cargo space
• Fastest cruise
• Best overall bang for buck ($20k range)
• Best STOL capabilities

I'm 31 years old and don't mind manually starting the aircraft (do it with my Cub anyways). Since I have hearing issues, I can't communicate well on the radio, so don't need a radio other than hand-held. I don't own a GPS...fly compass and watch, but it's time to get some flight apps for my iPad.

What is the market price for the suggested model? My budget is around 20k (assuming I can sell my recently restored Cub for 30k).

P.S> I'm also looking at a Luscombe.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Luscombe will be faster, as far as I am concerned that is the ONLY advantage over a Taylorcraft (and it isn't THAT much of an advantage)
A post war BC-12D will be the easiest to get parts for and has the best support. There isn't that much difference between the different side by side Taylorcrafts when you are comparing them to other planes (overall ANY Taylorcraft is better bang for the buck than any of the other planes of the era). You should have no problem getting a nice one for $20K and what you should look for is one with a nice low empty weight (since you aren't looking for one with an electrical system) and a well kept FLOWN plane. Get it looked at by someone who isn't connected with the plane who KNOWS TUBE AND RAG PLANES! A Cesspool 150 mechanic won't know what he is looking at, but your Cub mechanic should. The first Cubs were TAYLOR Cubs, so if you restored your Cub you will feel right at home looking in the holes of a Taylorcraft.
Hit the group with any questions as you look. Other than it is hard for us to put down a buddies plane (unless all involved are "in the Tribe" we are a pretty good, open group. You will get honest answers here. We want you as a future member.
Hank

[jim cooper]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

BOTH are nice aircraft, fun and easy to fly. The Luscombe I would look for is the F model. 90 HP, single strut. Good looking aircraft and fun to fly! Tough to find a nice one as this model has remained very popular. In a T Craft, I would buy at least an 85hp with a starter and one that is in NICE condition, NOT a fixer upper. I find small aircraft owners usually come in two models 1. The ones that like to rebuild and work on them, and, 2. Ones that would rather fly them. Both are a great bunch. I fly a rebuilt 65 hp BC12D Taylorcraft as it is light sport. Its a very nice aircraft, in very nice shape and flys very much like a Luscombe, Cub, Aeronca, etc. etc. If I had it to do over I would buy at LEAST an 85hp T-Craft. (Gets up and goes AND can be converted to a Dons Sword 0200 at a later date.) The T-Craft "floats" more than the Luscombe on landing but you get used to that. Both are very forgiving and easy to fly as they were, when new, Trainers! Hank has many good thoughts and I'm sure you will get more. GOOD LUCK and BE SURE someone qualified checks it out carefully for you! (Prebuy) You should be able to buy a NICE edition of either an F Model or a BC12D for 25,000.( In this economy) Maybe a little less but its always the same.....you get what you pay for!

[M Towsley]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

A Luscombe is faster and is all metal, (at least many are). I have flown both and like the sticks in the Luscombe, but dislike the seats unless you have good ones. It is like sitting on the floor in a Luscombe. Don't listen to the people who say they are squirrely handling on the ground, if set-up right they are just like a T-Craft.

The T-Craft won't jump off the ground like a Cub, it would help with an 85hp but you have higher fuel burn with not much more speed in cruise, (someone with an 85 can substantiate this better-I am basing my opinion on an 85hp L-2). If you have a starter it adds weight with battery and starter, etc. You are trading off a wing, (Cub), that provides higher lift for one that is a little faster, sorry that is about as technical as I will get. You can read the latest discussion on Cub and Taylorcraft wing performance here: http://vb.taylorcraft.org/showthread...il-performance

I prefer the Taylorcraft, but would also enjoy a plane not completely fabric covered, though you do have to worry about corrosion in metal aircraft.

I have flown the Taylorcraft cross-country and it is more enjoyable than in a Cub due to the slight gain in speed with the same fuel burn. It is amazing how much 50 pounds is in clothes, etc., when you stow it behind the seat. I took my wife to Alliance, Ohio in July for the reunion and we still didn't get anywhere close to 50 pounds. (Amazing)! If you go alone you can place items in the seat next to you.

Visibility out of the T-Craft is a little less as you have to duck under the wingroot to look out the sides. You don't have to do that in a Luscombe. The Cub has fantastic visibility compared to either. Try to find a local T-Craft to sit in to see what I am talking about, it will be different from what you are used to.

And to touch on a little more what Hank said, pretty much all of the post war T-Crafts have the same baggage space and weight ability. Some may have been modified but I haven't seen one. His advice is good. You can find one in your dollar range in great condition. I paid close to that and found a very nice airplane. Just have someone look it over that knows these type of airplanes. Good luck!!!

[M Towsley]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Light Sport eligible Taylorcrafts:

Taylorcraft
•Taylorcraft A
•Taylorcraft BC
•Taylorcraft BCS
•Taylorcraft BC-65
•Taylorcraft BC12-65
•Taylorcraft BC12-D
•Taylorcraft BC12-D1
•Taylorcraft BC12D-4-85
•Taylorcraft BC12D-85
•Taylorcraft BCS12-65 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BCS12-D Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BCS12-D1 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BCS65 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BF
•Taylorcraft BF12-65
•Taylorcraft BF-60
•Taylorcraft BF-65
•Taylorcraft BFS
•Taylorcraft BFS12-65 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BFS-60 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BFS-65 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BL
•Taylorcraft BL12-65
•Taylorcraft BL-65
•Taylorcraft BLS
•Taylorcraft BLS12-65 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft BLS-65 Seaplane
•Taylorcraft DC-65 (L-2, L-2C)
•Taylorcraft DCO-65 (L-2A, L-2B) but not L-2M
•Taylorcraft DF-65 (L-2E)
•Taylorcraft DL-65
•Taylorcraft L-2F
•Taylorcraft L-2G
•Taylorcraft L-2H
•Taylorcraft L-2J
•Taylorcraft L-2K

[freightpilot27]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

The Luscombe I would look for is the F model. 90 HP, single strut.

BTW...
Luscombe 8E & F's are NOT light sport.

[TexasNick]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Thanks for the feedback, guys. About how much faster is the Luscombe over a Tcraft? Do I really need an 85hp? I'm about 165lbs. Luscombes are a bit more expensive than T-Crafts, correct?

As it turns out, the guy in the hangar next to me has a 1946 BC12D ....he just got it, but the fabric looks subpar. I'll see if I can fly it. Thanks!

[fearofpavement]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Are you going to be limited to light sport? ie, is it likely that in the future you would or could upgrade to a private pilot certificate or is light sport going to be it for whatever reason?

If you are going for a T-craft and want to fly it cross country having both wing tanks is a nice option. I believe that if there is only one, a second one can be added with just a logbook entry on a BC-12D. That would give you an additional hour of fuel.

Having flown a variety of T-crafts and regularly flying an O-200 equipped one at present, the higher hp will get you off the ground sooner but really won't result in a higher cruise speed. The O-200 cruises at 100 mph "ish" but one with a C-65 will do close to that.

In my opinion, a Cub will outperform a T-craft for short field ops but you pay for it in cruise.

It may not be possible for you financially, but if there was any way possible, it may be a good idea to acquire your "next aircraft" before selling your Cub because you may wish you hadn't burned that bridge.

The T-craft is a good aircraft and probably about the best bang for the buck out there. As others suggested, you should at least sit in one and better yet fly in one before purchasing one. They handle really great and have a lot of similarity to the Cub as they share the same heritage. Good luck in your search. And as others have stated, buy one that is already in nice condition if you want to fly it and not restore it. These planes are old and fully depreciated so as long as you don't bend it, you can probably get all your money back when and if you decide to part with it.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Nick, nice to see you on the forum here. I had posted in your thread about this over on the sportpilot.org forum. I had a Cub for a while. I used it for sport pilot training. I flew it about 140 hours mostly from the front doing instruction. I would have hated trying to do much traveling in it. I have a bout 1000 hours of Taylorcraft time and I think I would rather fly the Taylorcraft than the Cub. As for the luscombe and Taylorcraft speed diference I don't think you would see 5 mph if both had 65hp and metal props. I know dad and I flew back from a fly in with a 85HP Luscombe and they only had to back off about 25-50 RPM, and when they went back to normal cruise they stayed in sight for a long time. They were also burning a little more fuel. The 1941 deluxe is the fastest of the B model Taylorcrafts. Tom

[jim cooper]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

RE: Luscombe 8F Silveraire, 90 HP, Cruise 115 MPH, Range 499 Miles , 21 miles per gallon. It is NOT light sport. It IS a great little airplane, nice performer. JC

[Dano"T"]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

A 65HP Luscombe is not faster than a similarly equipped T-Craft (prop) and the Luscombe pales in comparison in takeoff performance over a T-Craft....and as someone mentioned an 8F is not light sport so the 90hp version is out for Nick. By the way....my 65 HP t-craft has almost identical takeoff performance of my J3...the 85HP BC12D really shines though...there's one in TAP for $17.5 with low time. I think you should try for an 85....I love mine. 105mph cruise with a McCauley 71-42 (climb prop) Good luck Nick.

[cvavon]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Nick as far as the speed difference between taylorcraft and luscombe it's not that much the luscombe is very long on takeoff 400to 600 ft more then a tcraft and that is in cooler temps my 1940 will do 100+ mph most of the time baring wind and that is with 26 in bush wheels the tcraft is a grate aircraft we do a lot of cross country in it it will hall all you can get in the baggage and some here are some photos of a trip this summer no wind in july that is with 74/43 prop

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Lots of good info here and your questions will be answered, but you probably shouldn't expect unbiased responses. ;-)
Hank

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Not asking for much are you?

I have outrun 8A's in our bc12d. Taylorcraft will fit what your looking for if you can find one with the proper mods. Problem is I doubt you will get one under 20k already outfitted.

[TexasNick]

Re: Thinking of selling my J3 Cub for a Taylorcraft....thoughts?

Hey thanks ya'll. I'm actually getting ready to make a 5hr drive to my folk's house for Thanksgiving. Sure wish I could make it a flight in a T-craft at 100mph or so! I would take the Cub but I am having some work done on it.

Question....is the 85hp version that much of a difference than a 65hp?