AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2019 - 62

"You get to
work alongside
t he welders
and technicians
on the assembly line. And the fact
that they're looking over your
shoulder and observing what
you're doing provides a high
degree of comfort in the finished
product. I didn't expect to enjoy
the process nearly as much as
I did."

-David Gochenaur

Sure, CubCrafters has sold many
XCubs-about 60 of which have been
delivered to buyers to date. The surprising
part is that, after finishing its stringent,
multi-million-dollar FAA Part 23 certification effort in 2016, CubCrafters has seen
its Experimental-category business grow
far faster.
The company, based in Yakima,
Washington, expects to deliver about 100
new airplanes this year-and more than
half of them will be Experimental and
Light Sport models. And the lion's share of
those are FX-3 models made by individual
builders in Yakima under the company's
62 | AOPA PILOT November 2019

pioneering builder-assistance program
(see "Professional Help," p. 64).
Each owner/builder comes to Yakima
for a full week of fabricating aircraft parts
ranging from wing ribs to carbon-fiber
side walls. Then they go home for about
90 days while those parts are put together
and the aircraft is covered with fabric and
painted by CubCrafters employees.
Finally, owners return for two days of
final assembly, which involves hanging
the engine, propeller, and avionics; an
FAA inspection; and-if all goes according to plan-obtaining an Experimental/
amateur-built airworthiness certificate.

Hideous. Blasphemy. An
abomination.
The reaction to the nosewheel version of the XCub
among traditional backcountry
pilots this year was swift, loud,
and somewhat predictable.
And the fact that CubCrafters-the purest keeper of the
Super Cub flame for decades-
was the one that sprung it felt
to some like a stinging double
cross. Et tu, Brute?
We didn't see that one
coming.
But from a purely business standpoint, CubCrafters'
logic in launching the NXCub
(nosewheel XCub) is compelling. Only 15 percent of today's
pilots have tailwheel endorsements. The FAA-certified XCub
is marketed to government
agencies that specialize in law
enforcement, wildlife management, and border patrol-and
the people who fly them in
those capacities are game
wardens and law enforcement
officers first. They're looking
for tools that will help them do
their jobs in remote and hazardous places, and they don't
get judged on perfect wheel
landing technique.
Add the fact that the NXCub
can take off and land just as
short (or shorter) than the
tailwheel version, and the
economic truth that nosewheel
airplanes are less expensive to
insure, and it's easy to understand why the NXCub came to
be. Really, the most surprising
aspect may be that it didn't
happen a long time ago.
And for those of us who will
always regard a nosewheel Cub
as sacrilege, rest assured that
the change needn't be permanent. This nose job is reversible.
The XCub was designed from
the beginning with landing
gear that could easily convert
between tricycle and tailwheel.
So, whatever your personal predilection, the "damage" needn't
be permanent. The training
wheel also comes off.
-DH
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2019

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