Greetings from Tucson, Arizona!

I'm planning a 1400 nm trip to bring home a Corben Baby Ace from Georgia. If you're familiar with this little gem, you'll know that it is single-seat, open cockpit, no electrical system, and minimum space for carrying anything.

So what should I plan on carrying? As a minimum, I would think that I need oil, tiedowns, clothes, food & drink, and some level of survival gear. There is no ELT, so I'll plan on carrying a SPOT. Navigation will be on an iPad on my leg, running Foreflight through a Sentry or Sentry Mini. I'll carry backup power banks for the iPad and iPhone.

I haven't seen the airplane yet, so I don't know how much room there is. I have seen some aircraft modified with small external strut-mounted travel pods. I want to keep it all as simple as possible, but I'm trying to figure out the minimum equipment list to keep it safe.

Thanks in anticipation!

It is small and light. The one I helped put the 40 hours on flew like a faster maneuvering J-3 Cub, from the front seat. The short wing, like Pacer, makes power pitch approach more comfortable. There is room for you and your toothbrush; in your pocket not a travel kit. When you pull the prop until you hear a slurping sound, it will start. Fuel air mixture in the carb depends on throttle position. When cold, just cracked to closed. When hot, a bit more throttle to allow more air in for leaner mixture.

I agree with contact, toothbrush in your pocket is about your limit. There is zero cockpit room. Iphone on your knee, no room for an ipad. Not to try and rain on your parade, but probably much more practical to pull the wings and put it on a trailer. There is just no room for the absolute basics for a cross country of that nature. Cool little plane, I almost bought one once, but they are a fair weather fly around the patch plane.

I brought leased from Missouri Pawnees from Missouri to New Mexico and back several times. No problem with extra gas cans and tools in the hopper, but no room for much in the cockpit. At slow cruise, slower than your pickup, and lots of air through the cockpit, you tend to want to stop at every airport. Long haul across the desert, you might want to stop on the road as well. I never was a motorcycle man, but I expect similar.

Make it an unscheduled adventure over several days and pay for hanger in bad weather and you will be OK.

My dad built a Baby Ace in the 60's. In the 70's I flew it from Kansas City to Oshkosh. That was the only cross country I did with it till I sold it and delivered it from KC to Knoxville TN. Expect about 85 mph cruise and if built to plans it will have no friese ailerons. You will definitely notice that. Flys like a cub till you pull the power off then glides like a brick. The longerons on most are 21" wide in the cockpit area. All of them were kind of individualized when built as far as type of brakes and legroom in the cockpit. Plan on almost no room to carry anything then you won't be so disappointed. They don't float so landing technique is kind of like flying a Pitts, you use a high circling approach and aim it to where you want to touchdown. They slip real good too. With 1400 miles you will get plenty of stops. Most were built with a 12 gal J3 tank. Delightful airplanes for what they're meant for.

Thanks to all for the most useful info!

I'll be mounting a pair of little cargo pods https://www.uflyit.com/cargo_pods.htm to the struts to allow for a bit more cargo.

My real concerns are the potential turbulence, winds, and high density altitudes in the sparsely populated area between West Texas and Tucson. I'll be running Foreflight on an iPad, connected to a Sentry or Sentry Mini, so along with a handheld radio, I should have a fair amount of situational awareness. I'll dress extra warm and wear a vest filled with useful bits and pieces, and keep the legs to 120 nm or less. I'm in no hurry, so it will take as long as it takes.

Given my limited taildragger experience, I'd be wise to trailer her home from Georgia. But I haven't been the wisest at the best of times!

Can you spend a few days just flying it around before you leave to get somewhat comfortable?? These little planes really suffer from being out of rig. Limited taildragger experience, new to you plane, attaching cargo pods with untested results. This is a tiny airplane that you are planning on attaching a couple 172 wheel pants to way out on the wing struts. Can the current owner fly it with the pods and determine what they will do to the flight characteristics? Thing is you will just want to get it home, you have limited range - huge cross wind kicks up where you need to land? Sounds like a fun adventure, but I would REALLY rethink this.

The cargo pods are slick but will pull some air. Fill them and they will be heavy. Flying a heavy hog across the country is not fun. Fly without the pods first then with empty pods and compare. Finally loaded pods and compare. Now think 1400 miles.

The airports have mostly one long and wide runway. Angling across will mitigate crosswind/running out of rudder. You will still have to side slip and get down where you wish. Practice using power pitch to put it on the numbers every time. That airplane does it well.

The secondary roads are straight with wide sholders and little traffic. Use them as necessary. Local snowstorm will pass fairly quickly. Into the high plains, section roads become available every mile and while not all paved, are good. Airport breaks are now only an hour apart.

Just a suggestion: leave pods and any cockpit wiring or device that could get in the way of flying, take money for lots of hotel stays, know which FBOs have courtesy cars and overnight hanger, drink lots of coffee, and pit stop often.

Not to be cavalier but my own experience with wing pods has been a non event. I even fly with one of those smaller ones that you mentioned on one wing, and with a much larger one on the opposite side, not only fly but land off airport etc., and for the life of me cannot detect any out of rig condition at all. I was going to mention "podding it". You can semi permanently install the attack brackets (low drag and light weight, gotta make your own) and quickly pop them on and off (mine have two pip pins) as needed. What I like about podding is that the junk in them is readily accessible, so they are super convenient in use. Any extra weight, is just that, no matter how it's hauled.

A while back I learned the trick about tightly rolling clothing instead of folding, and as I had just gotten the single small uflyit pod I did a test. I wrote it down somewhere, but as I recall the little pod held: 10 t-shirts, 10 pairs of socks, and two pairs of pants! Much more then one would think. The bigger ones in this pic hold so much it's ridiculous, but for the light bulky stuff, super handy and a time saver. No more carefully organizing the baggage area, using stuff sacks etc., the pod IS the stuff sack. if there is a performance hit drag wise, it's so low I can't tell, the only testing we did, using two of the large pods, showed if anything, shorter takeoffs and shorter landings, leading us to believe that somehow they were acting like little aux wings, go figure. Two of those smaller pods will vastly increase your options, just don't pack them full of anvils.

My opinion comes from Baby Ace cross country experience. You can travel with enough clothes in the turtledeck if the airplane is remotely built to plans. All that accessory bullshit is overthinking it. Wing pods, iPad etc. leads me to believe you have never flown a tiny cockpit homebuilt.
A cross country in a Baby Ace is traveling like a coyote, you seize your meals and other needs as you go. A small battery powered aviation GPS, cell phone and a few credit cards is all I would go with. You will be going slow enough that you can watch prominent landmarks go by on your neatly folded sectional. The Navy taught me how to get a lot of clothes in a really small area. That has worked for me the last 40 years when flying homebuilts beyond local. Small crescent wrench, baby vice grips and a multi bit screwdriver is more important than too many clothes. Of course consider the wx, temps for clothing selection.

Great info! Lots to think about. Thanks to everyone.

My biggest concern remains gusty crosswind landings, with limited taildragger experience. Regarding electronics, it's simple - Sentry or Sentry Mini on the panel, iPad on my knee. The Baby Ace does have the baggage area behind the headrest, so perhaps the cargo pods are unnecessary.

That's where the credit card will come in handy. Wait in a motel for decent weather, fly early, land early. Fly again for a few hours until sunset, no need to fly all day when the winds up. Cheat as much as possible, including using any taxi ways or cross ways on the main strip, negating much of any cross wind.

How did the flight go??

To revive this two-year old thread! Now it’s time to ferry the Baby Ace from Phoenix to Auburn, CA, near Sacramento.

Given that it is a single-seat open-cockpit airplane with no electrical system, 75 kt cruise, service ceiling of 8,000’, and no-wind range of 125 nm, what’s the best route to take? Obviously, I need to keep the elevation down and avoid controlled airspace.

I have read many of the tips and tricks, i.e. take off at sunrise and be on the ground before the winds kick up. One of us will be driving and the other flying, and switching off. So we can keep all the weighty equipment in the car.

Any suggestions and experience most welcome!

Sorry… missed this post!

The flight went great from Georgia to Sweetwater, TX. While getting ready to take off from Sweetwater, I noticed nails sticking out of one of the wing leading edges. To make a long story short, I ended up pulling the wings and tail off, sticking it in a U-Haul, and driving the rest of the way to Tucson.

The wings were uncovered, re-glued and inspected, and recovered. This has taken 18 MONTHS! But it’s almost finished, so time to look into ferrying it to my new location near Sacramento.

The southern route and then up should be no problem. She is light and will go up well in up air. Fly slow in updrafts and fast through downdrafts. Keep wind direction in mind to use upslope lift near normal slopes. Updraft air is tricky near mesas.