4 Place Super Cub With Kirk Ellis Presented by Airframes

alright guys we're here today we did an open house in Palmer Alaska of our new facility and out of that came a few questions one in particular was asking for a little bit more information about a four-place cub and I have with me today Kirk Ellis Kirk Ellis is the I would say the granddaddy of them all when it comes to foreign place cups he's built for four place Cubs historically he's got another one in his hangar right now he built the experimental one that's behind us as well and Kirk how many super Cubs have you rebuilt probably in your career this yeah I know it's over 30 I mean as far as like really build them I've done a lot more repair than that but so at least 30 cups easy so we could assume that you know something about these yeah I know yeah I know all the parts okay and and Kirk probably easily knows the for place better than anybody else out there at this point so we've got Kirk here to help answer some of the questions you had a lot of you wanted to know how to compare what the for place cup can do versus the mall or versus a PA 14 we thought we'd use this opportunity to show you one of air flame airframes alaska's cubs this is an experimental floor place that we own that we did a lot of work on tried out a lot of ideas on and so Kirk maybe we start by you just tell us why this floor place is experimental versus standard and watch us walk around and point out a few things and we'll start there okay yeah what we did is we started out the first thing is this cargo door that's on the side here but anyway we wanted to get this easier access you know into the back and see sighs yeah that's that's the first thing the next thing that's daya is the large flaps and peaceful flaps below the one so we did an experimental setting you longer yeah these are experimental longer and then Deanna rods are deeper and then they go out a little bit further these way they're not too much longer but just to live a little bit longer than a standard coupling a bit longer than a standard so we wanted to try that out that was one of the things we wanted to hit on and try though okay a little bit longer and then if we go around to the go around the other side sure yep and then the motor we ended up with the motor it's not like super super hot rodded but we boosted it up just enough you know what I mean that's about 190 horse and so I would have longevity run to it and then we put the whirlwind prop on and we've been testing that out and it's adjustable and so it's kind of cool and we ended up with the doors we changed change the door a little bit for a little bit easier access so that you can slide your foot in front of the seat here and so if somebody can just you can just walk right up and get in and then the ease of getting in the back seat is really nice also for people to be able to slide in which makes it so much better so so far versus a standard car but a certified cub let's say you've got the wing slightly longer some changes to the ailerons and flaps you have souped-up engine and prop mm-hmm you got some tweaks on the airframe to support a different doorframe right and the controls are different so around let's let's look at that okay we ended up doing here was we put dual sticks in it and so then we moved the flat panel to the center and then we put tow brakes in it for dual controls on both sides and then move the throttle here the trim is is above trim and that makes it a little bit here so you can have the center stick and the dual the deal and so those the yokes and the controls are actually a little bit faster in it we shortened some of the linkages and things like that to made it to where it would control a little bit better and Kirk in a certified for place where would all this stuff yeah the stick and a certified one is in the center right here and it has one single stick in it and so this the certified model doesn't have dual controls we do have an STC on the STC to put yokes and assess the yoke so okay can do have you ever built one like that yeah yeah okay yeah I built one like that and then I have one over here that had mauled yolks in it okay and that's got it okay and then the flap would be where where's the flap handle in the certified one yeah and the certified one is right here like a cub on the left-hand side on the left-hand side okay with a certified one actually the only difference is you're just over just a little bit little stick okay so everything is identical to the cuff got it so you don't have to transition got it from a company just get in this one then how about tremors trim at ya and the trim is right here right there too okay so that's about much more similar to Oh everything is similar to a standard super and then I'm guessing your mixture on trottle or over there too right yeah okay we got throttle the mixture right here got it okay all right so anything else Kirk on this that's you know there's just a little bit the fuselage is a little beefed up here near in different spots but okay than that that's that's about it what we did on this one okay and so so the the landing system here is a standard P 18 landing system standard yeah yeah there's a special convene of course for the size of the fuselage like yeah your light with fuselage rights extend it out a little bit and and the SDC also calls for a square square tipped squarings wingtips yeah you bring out the the wingtips of square mall finish and extend the aileron oh okay okay so how many hours do you think you have flying a four-place cub I got it right at 3,000 right at 3,000 yeah okay all right so you've seen everything it can do yeah yeah I I basically fly the microplace cub they've replaced my Super Cub so okay so this is your Super Cub right it's my Super Cub and I have a little experimental Super Cub just as a toy but as far as working I found the four place will do it'll do everything the standard cub will and that's the beauty of it is you can strip it down drain the gas out of it and you got a real Super Cub and it actually approaches better it flies flatter okay coming into land and you see out of them so much better than any canister that's something Paul Claus mentioned in his talk with us is that he liked to being able to see over the cowling better they come in really flat and even with heavy load in them the tail does not seem to mush out and I believe it's because of the white fuselage creates a little bit of lift okay and it doesn't the tail doesn't sing when you have a heavy load coming and land with it so you end up landing for those who don't know Kirk's foreplay super cub is the Hulk known as the Hulk it's if you were to YouTube it or you know search it on google you'd find it as the Hulk yeah and that's going to you've built that thing a couple of times probably right yeah yeah you put a lot of that hours yeah I've changed my I've done a lot of modifications to it and change things and different wing modification see which one's work and which ones don't trying to get the ultimate model but the for place just seems to work it just and Kirk tell them what your business is so they can understand why it works for you so yeah I are tax eg ID outfitter is what I do and so I fly in you know haulin it all the way from miners to fishermen to to hikers to hunters and stuff like that and so we end up specially on the sheep hunting we landed a lot of short trips you know what I mean and so and I thought about short strips we're talking you know 300-foot yeah that I work it out of constantly and and so it works in and out of those and does just fine okay all right so now this particular question we had asked in this last video and as you know we're making more and more of these core plays fuselages every year now sure ever since we had one of our you know to give you a backdrop we spent a year building all the jig so that we could build these from the actual drawings for this SDC the question came okay compare it to a mall compare it to a PA 14 how would you start you know breaking that apart with the 14 I had a 14 for quite a while okay and you put two people in the front of the 14 you're crushed shoulder in the 14 and 14 just to be clear cross shoulder meaning you're just like right hike yeah you're you're together in it so the cabin is a lot tighter together and the 14 fly is good it's a good airplane but with a load in it it won't come with the full place as far as your approach coming into land the four place is so much more stable and you know what I mean even with a really heavy load fifty mile an hour is not a problem even on a hot summer day with the foreplay to come realistic everybody certified certified model and so that's what I found with it it's more comfortable it's easier to get in and out of than the fourteen and and so so that's your answer on the metal answer on the fourteen and far as the mall goes I've had two malls and the mall is a good plane it's faster and that's one thing the deal but it burns more gas and but the mall you got to learn how to fly it and when you start working it in are short strips it's a heavy airplane is hard to stop and and so it doesn't have the aileron control that these do in the wind and so when you're flying these really slow speeds you still have full control of the airplane and a lot of times you don't know them all and I know there's really good mall pilots out there that can drive them and but for the normal person coming in on a safe with just a 500 foot strip a fairly long strip with the mall fully and then coming in with this one fully loaded is huge difference okay you're just basically just flying the poor place in and landed and where you're having to work with them all a little bit and you were talking about how the you you basically feel like the for place is your biggest point has always been to me the for place is still a Super Cub yeah and that's the the part it's still drain the gas out of it and strip it all down and you have a cup you know what I mean it will fly just like a cousin you know get off the ground and you know I've had it mine in competition I think five times and yeah a lot of the light Cubs beat me off the ground but it's only about a few feet right you know and so you're still right in there what's the what's the dry weight of this aircraft now this one right here is it twelve I think it's twelve sixty so almost like what a and you didn't do it if anything you might have added some weight to this right this one has the flaps that are a little bit heavy on the back of it and we it's OE and that's the thing with them is if you can keep them light you know I mean this one still has the you know the back yeah yeah so I mean there's a little and lighter paint on it you know it's pretty shiny and everything like that but there's not a lot of paint on it got it he kept it alight you good yeah that's not enough and so they so that's the whole key to it so the other thing so so you use your useful load so you dry so you got seven hundred something pounds of you know yeah I've useful load you know it is it is that's less of course than a mall I don't even know what is on a PA 14 what was a PA 14 s morality 14 is running pretty close to it as Corden if you have 180 pound gross weight kid on it or what but it's going to be in the 700 pound something like that okay and as an outfitter one of your things you said to me is that one of the biggest challenges on a regular cub is that you're always running out of volume yeah before you hit gross weight right you're just trying to stuff things in as much as you can yeah so is part of the four-place story here that you just you've got more volume you got more volume and then you never have to put anything in the baggage compartment when you're like you're hauling hunters or you're falling if you're gone for eating in a really short strip you take out the front seat and you put the backpack in the front I've seen you do that okay in the front and then you put the passenger behind it and so everything is right over the wing got it so the airplane does it flies way better with the weight in the front and if you have two people and two backpacks in it you can still put two people in the back and put the backpack here and then put the backpack right against the back of the seat right behind them and CG's pull forward so that helps a lot of guys that are always running out of trim coming in you're always tail low and too much is out on you can't see where you're going and you're still flying flat with this airplane got it and I guess that's the big thing with the guys who really work the short strips and everything is being able to see and that's the shining part of this thing is when they're coming in it really slow speed you can see fair enough okay Kirk any closing comments or thoughts that you would want to share yeah and by the way I should say Kirk takes on customers all the time if you want a great person to build for place cubs and you do it mostly in the offseason right Curtis you're working the summer and fall and then in the winter he takes projects on and works them we're here in virtue at Alaska at Birchwood Airport and Kirk is a great guy I mean I can't say enough positive things about him in terms of his workmanship and his uh knowledge here if someone's looking to build a for place but I'm sorry Kirk any last things that you should you'd want to add here that you've hit on not really they're just I mean for me and of course they're my product and so I'm gonna brag on them I mean in the other way you go and but I still have struggled with all the other airplanes over the years and I've built with twelve I had a 14 I've had two malls I've had 180 185 - Oh fixes and you know use quite a variety of airplanes from j-3 you know trying to find that ultimate bush plane and for me this was it this did the job and this was the ultimate bush plane for me because it'll do all the short field stuff plus you got the room I mean the refrigerator in it I mean you can put you know instead of you know like 57 inch moose horns in it and the bad wind and don't have to time on the outside and and the list just goes on I mean you can get a lot of paper towels in it you know we're about master toilet paper then toilet paper yeah we got to be topping like yeah you'll never hit grossing yeah and that's the beauty of it is just having the room okay and it still do the job perfect yeah Kurt thank we're okay thank you Eric we appreciate it I hope that answers the questions that came out of that that meeting last week I know there's a few others that we'll be answering shortly as well but thank you for your time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Airframes Alaska

Views: 82,281

Rating: 4.9246988 out of 5

Keywords: 4 Place, 4 Place Super Cub, Supercub, super cub, alaska cub, alaska super cub, 4 place super cub alaska, kirk ellis, airframes kirk ellis, airframes alaska 4 place, airframes alaska 4 place cub, ak, supercubbin, 4 place, 3 place, piper cub, alaska piper cub, bush pilot, bush flying, alaska aviation, 4 place manufacturer, super cub builder, super cub build, flying alaska, alaska plane, alaska bush, alaska bush flying, alaska bush pilot

Id: yvUB8UhtKvE

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Sat May 30 2020