The time has finally arrived for Operation Special Cub! I have had this airplane for a few years now, but unfortunately a busy life has prevented me from giving it the attention it deserves. It has actually had a pretty interesting journey from when I purchased it in Alaska, to its current resting place in my garage in West Texas.

I originally never intended to document this project in a forum. However, after some reflection I changed my mind for a few key reasons. First, I am a huge fan of this site and what Zane has done. His tireless efforts and those of all contributors have pulled me through some pretty dreary days while imprisoned in an office cubicle a thousand miles from anything with wings. I have spent hundreds of hours lurking these pages! I therefore concluded that not contributing to the effort, in at least this small way, would be pretty selfish of me. Secondly, I am a big believer in accountability. I figure that it couldn't hurt to have some friendly prodding as I head down the path. Next, I am very aware of the brain power and wealth of knowledge that exists on this site. I hope you will all help me when I run into problems. Finally, this project will serve as a primer for my much larger project Cessna 185 that is currently in mothballs and awaiting its turn. Hopefully, by the time I am finished with the cub, I will still have an ounce of energy and a penny in my bank account to dedicate to it.

Couple of quick disclaimers. First, I am not an A&P and I won't pretend to be one. I do however have a pretty impressive tool collection and I do know the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver. Hopefully that's enough. Second, I am just another middle aged dude with a minivan and a mortgage. Unfortunately, that means I have a day job that gets in the way of playing with airplanes sometimes. Hopefully progress will be consistent! Finally and most importantly, I am not a photographer. 90% of my previous photos of the plane are angled and blurry. For the benefit of the group I will try to get better!

So there you have it. I hope you enjoy Operation Special Cub!

I lucked into the plane. It's previous owner had flown it for years all around Alaska. While working on my other airplane project he became a great friend and mentor of mine. He was nearing completion on an experimental cub so I went to work trying to get him to sell this one to me. I had him on the ropes for weeks before he finally caved and sold it to me for a very good price.



It is a 1953 PA-18-105 Special. It's been converted to an O-290 and has flaps.







Unfortunately, I bought it two days before I had to leave the country for a year. So, off came the wings so I could squeeze it in my trailer.








We pickled the engine and tucked it away for what I hoped would only be one year. That was three years ago.

Fast forward a few years and I had a friend that wanted to use my trailer to come get an airplane that was in the lower 48. Have I got a deal for you! My plans to travel back to Alaska to work on the cub weren't panning out so I struck a deal with my friend to drop the cub off on his way down.



Making the drug deal in the parking lot of the Dairy Queen.








While a Super Cub sitting in your driveway in Alaska is fairly normal, it concerned the neighbors in Texas. It's now in the garage!



Welcome to Texas Special Cub!

This is going to be a small restoration! I have a bad habit of buying airplanes, dismantling them and then never flying them. My goal is to just clean this thing up and get it back in the air by Summer. That said, I am going to do a little panel and electrical work. Nothing special just a basic VFR panel with a radio and a transponder. Anybody have any experience with Panel Planner software out there? I spoke with them at Oshkosh and it looked like a great product. I'm thinking about taking the plunge.



First order of business is the panel




Panel will be followed closely by an under-seat battery and some elbow grease on the interior.

Since you asked. My advice on a panel. Make it easy to work on three years from now!! I see lots of planes being built with nice one pice panel. While the boot cowl is off and everything put in place, wires neatly tied, all done with boot cowl off. Than a few years latter I am on my back trying to reach that wire or nut that is above the radio and can not get to it!!!!!

Mount all the electrical stuff on a smaller panel that is held in place with 4 screws/nutplates. Than when you gave to get to the back to switch out a wire or change a switch just drop small panel forward and it is right there for you. I mounted my 795 GPS in the middle on a drop out panel. Push it up till it almost hits the bars (you still see cowl above it in flight) This will give you more panel space. Now when you need to get to the back of the gauge just drop the GPS panel out and you can stick you arm all the way in to the back of all the gauges (Arm size is how you figure panel hole size!!!).

Don't put the carb heat knob next to the mixture knobs, it only took my about 5-6 times of killing my engine on downwind to learn that one. Get sirs compass and put it on the windscreen. Make sure all gauges have that little spring nut thing on them so you can just pull screw from the front. rattle can paint, I have seen projects wait for 4 weeks just for power coat. Do first cutout with some cheap plywood. Make sure all gauges radio fit without hitting the tubes.

Don't spread everything out to use up all the space with what you want in the panel today. If possible put in extra hole large and small, or leave blank space. This way when you get more better disease in a few years you can just stick it in the hole without redoing the entire dash.

Go look at a pacer, top of boot cowl has huge hole in it with cover so you can reach most of your stuff just something to think about. I put radio and push pull stuff on left side so when it is blowing hard I can keep right hand on stick and do everything else with left (Primer/ starter on right). Some don't like primer next to starter your call. Be careful with mounting the radio below the cross tube. It fits nice but it is easy to kick the knobs off as you get in with big boots.

Run 12 volt power to back seat (usb or cig lighter) I have 3 cig lighters up front on sidewalls and have used them all at one time (GPS, sat phone, I phone). Consider a eyebrow above dash with cheap led adjustable led lighting (IA dependent) Make sure all headset jacks have the plastic shoulder washers. Keep stuff away from defrost scat tube they can be 200 degrees!!

If you have to lay on your back to do anything consider changing how you have it. If you put in a tilted dash and want digital AI they need to be set to the dash so check on that I know some have a set degree of tilt they like to add. Adding nut plates to do the smaller panels takes a little time but it will save you hours of frustration latter.

Did I mention not to build a solid panel without access panels

Just things to keep you up thinking at night, no right or wrong (except that small panel thing).
DENNY

Denny,
Thanks for taking the time to type up such a comprehensive email. I should have left the thing at Birchwood and had you refurbish it! I really like the idea of fold down panel to access all of the wires etc. Any chance you would share a a picture of your panel? I am actually trying to incorporate a 796 in the center as well. Do you have the under-seat battery? Is Atlee the only STC for that?

I sent you my phone number text me and I will send pics. Yes I have underseat battery, Depending on who you talk to it may not need STC mine was field approval by Dans Aircraft before I got the plane. What muffler do you have? If Sutton it could go on firewall. Do you have any type of heat in that thing?
DENNY

Thanks Denny. I don't have a sutton so the firewall option is out. It has a normal cabin heat box but I've never tested it! I am sure it's drafty like all cubs! I'll shoot you a text for the pics!

Standard heat will make that battery pretty hot! You can make a platform to raise the battery and run scat tube under it. That would be simple/cheap/easy. Need to hook up defroster scat anyway. lots of ways to skin the cat.
DENNY

Congratulations on getting the Cub! Since I've only owned one J-3, I can't provide any PA-18 specific tech advice, but there are plenty of folks here who know the PA-18 inside and out.

The one bit of relevant wisdom I may be able to articulate is that you have to "build" and set up the airplane for how and where YOU will be operating it. If the airplane is staying in Texas then a whole lot of cold weather equipment or mods will not be worthwhile, even if all the cool guys up north have it on their Cub. If you are going to use it for loafing around and pleasure flying low and slow VFR, then all the big glass panel whiz-bang avionics may be wasted time or money, even if Mac McClellan or whoever says that it's the latest greatest thing. If you are actually going to take it back up to AK and/or use it in the IFR system, then of course it's worth it to set the airplane up that way.

My only point is that a very large number of people set their airplane up with every electronic toy they can stuff into the airplane, and rarely have an actual use for it. So in keeping with the collective wisdom so often repeated by so many experienced people.... define the mission for the airplane and set it up accordingly.

Have a BLAST restoring the Cub, but try to have another airplane available to fly while it's being done.

Thanks EZFlap, I appreciate the words. This restoration will probably be a bit of a letdown compared to others. I plan on just cleaning the old girl up and getting it back in the air ASAP! Hopefully it doesn't get out of hand like these things tend to do!

I'll repeat what Demny said. I've spent the better part of a week laying under a bushmaster panel wishing it had a tilt out panel or at least an access panel. One thing for sure, I learned a lot of things I'd do differently! Like using circuit breaker switches rather then Ave a row of switches with a row of CBs right below. What a waste of space! And a tilt out panel! Haha.

Hendo wrote:
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The PA-18-105 Special (aka Tango Cub) is noteworthy for being (as far as I know) the only Cub to come from the factory with toe brakes-- a military requirement as it was mfr'd as a CAP / pre-military trainer.
Interestingly, from this photo it looks like yours has been converted to heel brakes.

A1Skinner, thanks for the heads-up on circuit breaker switches. I will incorporate those for sure. Hotrod180, Good Eye! you are correct about the brakes. It was converted years ago. I am told I will learn to love heel brakes but that remains to be seen! I grew up on toe brakes and heel brakes feel awkward to me. It also had the parachute seats removed and flaps installed. Lot of history in some of these old planes!

Seem to remember my old size 12-13 extra wide boot heels always met in the middle. Not sure how I would co-ordinate heel and toe with the battery box in the middle.

Amen Wannabe. That's why the battery box is gone like yesterday. It will be under the seat by the time this mess is complete!

First Panel Hack. If you are working on a panel and haven't bought Panel Planner you should! It's awesome. Recommendations are welcome and appreciated.

Looks pretty nice to me! Nit sure how stuck you are on Garmin, but I really like the PAR200. Comm, intercom, and audio panel all in one. Buetooth connection, pretty sweet units. Looks like you don't need the extra panel space though, so maybe not worth the $$.
One thing I wouldn't go with out though is an aux audio input plug on the intercom. You can plug your gps in for warnings or plug music in. I really enjoy listening to music when I'm out burning dinosaur fossils...

Compass in panel is useless. put the cig plug under the panel right or left side. +1 on jack for music. Cabin heat nut very hard to reach. Push GPS up above dash. No room for upgrades. Missing EGT/CHT. Just a few minor changes
DENNY

Your cub project looks very similar to mine, I'm hoping to do my panel this winter. I was also looking at the Panel Planner program but went with the economy route. Although I did draw up my planned panel in a CAD program I have. Now need to convince a friend to cut it out with his cnc mill.

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